Turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Kings 5:1-14.  I want to speak to you a message entitled "Developing the Negative".   I wonder if there's anyone in this room who's ever had a little bit of negative in their life? Anyone going through a little bit of negative right now?  Anyone anticipating a little bit of negative happening sometime in the near future?  If you're not, I'm not saying you're not living by faith but you're not being realistic.  How many remember the old polaroid cameras?  What I found was that developing film doesn't look as good unless it's been through some dark things,  there's a process.  Today we have the digital cameras that can do things pretty awesome and quick and it's better than anything we ever had but I'm going to use some analogies today about developing the negative in your life.  

I want us to start in 2 Kings 5:1-14, "Now Naman, commander of the army of the King of Syria was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria.  He was also a mighty man of valor but a lepor.  The Syrians had gone out on raids and had brought back captive a young girl from the land of Israel, she waited on Naman's wife.  Then she said to her mistress, "If only my master went with the prophet who was in Samaria for he would heal him of his leposy". 

Naman went in and told his master and the King of Syria told him, "Go now and I will send a letter to the King of Israel".  So he departed and took with him 10 talents of silver, 6000 shekels of gold and 10 changes of clothing and brought with him the letter to the King of Israel which said, "Be advised when this letter comes to you that I have sent Naman my servant to you that you may heal him of his leprosy". 

It happened when the King of israel read the letter that he tore his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and make alive what this man sends to me to heal him of his leprosy, therefore please consider and see how he seeks a quarrel with me".  So it was when Elisha the man of God heard that the King of Israel had torn his clothes that he sent to the King saying, "Why have you torn your clothes? Please let him come to me and he shall know theres a prophet in Israel". 

Then Naman went with his horses and chariot and stood at the door of Elisha's house and Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan 7 times and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean".  But Naman became furious and went away and said indeed I said to myself "He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and wave his hand over the place and heal the leprosy.  Are not the Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel?  Could I not wash in them and be clean?  So he turned and went away in a rage. 

The servants came near and said, "My father, If the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it?  How much more then when he says to you wash and be clean?  So he went down and dipped 7 times in the Jordan according to the saying of the man of God and his flesh was restored as the flesh of a little child and he was clean.

Father, we thank you today for your word and we thank you for what you're doing in our lives.  Holy Spirit, today we ask Lord that we would decrease and you would increase and that your word would have its effect in us today, in Jesus name. Amen.

All of us have negatives in life, every one of us and I want to share some good news with you, there is not one person in this room today who has had a perfect life.  I think that should encourage us because I think many times people come to church and look at other Christians and think, "They are so perfect, if I could just be like that person".  Then all of a sudden, I believe it's a great comfort to find out that they really are human.  The thing that helps each of us stand out in the Kingdom of God is that we are able to receive his help, the help of God.  Everyone receives negative in life, no one is exempt, not the rich, not the poor, the young or the old.  Everyone of us have difficult things that go on and everyone of us have access to Jesus to receive help in those negative times.

There's a little saying that I like, it says, "The road to success is not straight, there is a curve called failure, a loop called confusion, speed bumps called friends, red lights called enemies, caution lights called family, flats called jobs, but if you have a spirit called determination, an engine called perseverance, insurance called faith and a driver called Jesus, you will make it to a place called success". 

Naman had everything that the world could offer.  Not only was he great in victory as a general, the Bible says that he himself was a man of valor.  This wasn't a general who led the armies from behind the lines.  This was a guy who could pick up a sword and do just as well as a man on the front lines.  He was a man who had great things to be proud of in his life, he had proven himself as a warrior, as a leader and proved himself valuable to those who employed him and depended upon him but there was still something that God needed to do in his life,  he still had a problem.

I want you to understand, at the outset of this story, we all think that his problem was simply leprosy but there's more going on in this than just meets the eye as we read through it. 

God is always developing the negatives in life because the truth is this, not only do we have bad things that happen to us and difficult things that we're going to go through but even when we've walked with the Lord there are still areas of our life that God is still dealing with.  How many remember what God did in your life that first year you were saved?  Not only do we have negatives that are happening to us, we've got negatives that are going on inside of us.  The thing that is wonderful is that God will use the negatives that are going on to us that are going to help God change the negatives that are going on through us.  God wants to change us and my prayer is that as Christians we would always understand that maturity is a process, that there is a work going on inside of us everyday that we wake up, everytime that we say, "Lord, I want to be more like you", God is going to help us to be made in his image.  Just like developing film, developing maturity is a process.

Colossians 3:9-1- says, "Since you have put off the old man with his deeds and have put on the new man who is renewed according to the image of Him who created Him".  How many understand that everyday you and I are becoming more and more like the image of Jesus?  The truth is we're called Christians, that means Christ like.  That means when people look at you and me they should see Jesus in us.  One of the greatest testimonies we will ever have is when we have a man who has been in the church for so long and he can stand up and say, "I've gone through some of the most difficult times in my life and this church treated me like Jesus would treat me".  How many believe that's the way the body of Christ should be?  I want to tell you that makes me proud as your pastor.  It makes me proud to know that we don't just come in to worship and lift our hands, get something and get going, it's really when you can find a group of people that not only love each other but love God and want to be more like Him everyday.  How many here want to become more like Jesus everyday?

In order for film to become a picture, the negative has to be developed.  Before we can receive all that God has for our lives, our negatives have to be developed.  Before we can have everything that we want and I'm not just talking about things, before God can use us to the fullest he has to develop the negatives.  How many know every church is also growing in maturity?  As we've been strengthening the things that remain in this last year and we're getting ready for next year's vision, how many know that not only is God developing us to be more like Him, he's working out the negatives that are in this church and in our own lives so that we can be more like Jesus to this community.

Listen, our negatives need to become a positive, our sins needs to be forgiven, our hurts need to be healed, our pain needs to become a form of gain that we've learned from and grown through.  Many times we want things done now, today, and America and the world is really good at that.  We've got digital cameras, we can take a picture now and if someone wanted to go on the computer it can be on the website in 5 minutes.  The truth is this, that old Polaroid picture that I have of me when I was a baby was done fairly quickly back then but over time it's begun to fade.  It's still a good picture, you can look at it and see that its me but the colors that used to be so bright, the things that used to be so clear and so good have faded.  It certainly doesn't have the quality of a well developed picture.  There are pictures that I have now from back when I was a kid that people took with regular cameras and brought them to a photo shop, pictures taken of our family that are still quality and good that we can hang on our wall.

The same can be said for the Christian who tries to have their Christian life developed real quick without allowing God to really work inside of them.  There's a reason why we see some people who have served the Lord for many years but they're not fully developed yet, because they wanted it all done quick or they weren't willing to go through the process.  But there are some people that you know who gave their life to the Lord and as they began to follow Jesus, God began to do some things in them but they stepped into the process and said, "Lord, whatever it takes I want to be like you, however long it takes, whatever I've got to go through, whatever you want to do in me, I am still going to declare that you are God, whatever I have to experience to know you in your fullness and in your comepleteness, I will trust you and will allow you to do your work in my life".  That's the reason why you look at some people in the body of Christ and say, "What a powerful man or woman of God, they went through the process". 

Ruth Graham, the wife of Billy Graham, has on her tombstone a highway sign that she saw one time when they were going through construction in Charlotte.  She said, "Billy, whenever I pass away I want you to put this on my tombstone and it simply says this, "End of construction, thank you for your patience".  What a wonderful sense of reality she had.  How many know you and I are still a work in progress?  I don't care how old you are, I don't care how young you are, what we all need to settle in our mind is that God is still working on everyone of us.  The truth is we all need to be patient with each other, just be patient.

When film is developed the old fashioned way, it's developed by some harsh things, harsh chemicals.  Some of them if you mix them together will catch fire.  Some of them if they're not done in the right order will destroy the film but they're always done in the dark.  I remember when we were in High School in the 80's, they still had those dark rooms.  Kids use to walk around campus taking hundreds of pictures for the yearbook and I remember one time I came walking in to the room where they were developing the film.  As soon as I opened that door I got yelled at real loud.  Now they should have put a sign on the door that said "Dark room".  Thank fully I didn't flip the light switch and the good news is God is merciful and the pictures were saved.  There was something going on in that dark place where they were developing and there were some wonderful images that were captured that we can go back and look at and are marvelous.  I want you to remember that God is not only concerned about what you're going through but he is more concerned about what is going through you.  There are some harsh things in life that we have had to face, life brings on some hard things just because we live in a fallen world.  Aren't you thankful that God will use those harsh things to develop something in us? 

I want you to listen to me, If you are going through something really difficult right now then first of all you need to know this, God loves you so very much and he'll wrap his arm around you and will keep you through it.  He loves you too much, many times, to take you out of it.  It is in those harsh things, in those dark times, that even though God may not have brought them to you, he is still going to allow them to do something in you. 

So many times we come and say, "God, if I could just get out of this, I'd be this or if I could just get out of that then I could be like this".  God is saying, "No, I'm going to keep you in there so I can take you through there so that when you come out of there, you will be everything that you wanted to be in me".

1^st Peter 1:6-7, I've read this verse before and as I was praying through this, I said, "God, I've read this verse several times and he said, "Use it again".  1^st Peter 1:6-7 says,  "In this you greatly rejoice though now for a little while if need be you have been grieved by various trials that the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ".  There are things that we have to go through and the truth is that none of us want to go through trials and suffering but in order to grow, in order for God to have victory in our lives and for His power to be seen in us, there are things that we must go through to keep us grounded.  Listen, in order to be grounded in life we need to embrace both the positive and the negative things that happen to us. 

I found that if you grab on to a negative wire and all you have is negative then not much happens.  If all you go through is negative nothing happens, you just get hurt, you hate life, nothings going on, it's a bummer.  If you grab the positive and all you have is positive going on then you're just flying high all the time.  Then I found that if you grab both the positive and the negative you become grounded and the electricity is now going through you.  In life we have to embrace both the positive and the negative.

Everything that happens in nature, everything that we see actually has a real spiritual purpose and the truth is if you get grounded you die to yourself.  The Bible says that "it's no longer I that live but it is Christ who lives in me".  I'm going to grab the positives in life, I'm going to grab the negatives in life and I'm going to be grounded on the solid rock of Christ.  If I do that I'm going to die and that's the whole point. 

Galatians 2:20 says, "I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me".  Listen, it is through the positives and the negatives that we get to know Christ in all his fullness, through the good times and through the bad times and that way as a believer God does his work in us and his power flows through us and we become more like him because we begin to symbolize all that he came for.  Listen, it is out of the negatives of life that God will deal with our spiritual negatives and I want to speak this to everyone in this room, Paul said that he never arrived.  He said, "I can't tell you that I've grasped everything, I haven't gotten my hands on all of it".  How many know that if the apostle Paul didn't have it all then there's not one person in this room that's got it altogether.  The truth is we strive to be more like Jesus. 

Naman needed God to deal with some of the negatives in his life.  Verse 1 says, "Now Naman, commander of the army of the King of Syria was great and an honorable man in the eyes of his master because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria, he was also a mighty man of valor but a lepor.  Verses 10 and 12, "And Elisha sent a messenger to him saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan 7 times and your flesh shall be restored to you and you shall be clean but Naman became furious and went away and said, "Indeed I said to myself he will surely come out to me and call on the name of the Lord His God and wave his hand over the place and heal the leprosy".  The Bible says that Naman was a great and honorable man in the eyes of his master, the King of Syria.  God still had some work to do in him. 

This was a powerful man who had access to everyone at the top, a man who was used to people coming and going whenever he said it.  In all of his hurt, in all that he was going through, through all the pain of his leprosy and leprosy is like the "AIDS"of our day.  Leposy is cured today because we have common antibiotics that pretty much make it non-existent in the world but back then leprosy would eat at your skin and slowly body parts would just begin to fall off and the sores had a foul stench.  As a matter of fact, in Israel you used to have to call out before you came near people and say, "I'm unclean".  Even in all his uncleanness, even in all of his victory, Naman was still a prideful man,  a man that people admired and that people answered to.  Many times the negative things that God will deal with in our life, just like Naman, is our pride.  The truth is many times we're insulted and angry the way that God would choose to do His work in and through our lives when he's really trying to do a great thing.  Sometimes even great men have temper tantrums.  Naman was about to receive one of the greatest healings but what he didn't understand was that God was not only going to heal his disease, he was going to cleanse and develop his spiritual man.  What Naman was about to learn was a lesson in obedience and submission.  How many know that everyone of us in this room needs to know how to be more obedient to the Lord and to be more submissive to his voice? 

Naman had to go and dip 7 times.  He had to go wash, the Bible says, in the Jordan. That means he had to go in, wash and get out, get back in and wash again.  He wasn't going to kind of jump up and down 7 times in the water. He had to get into the Jordan, wash himself, get out of the Jordan, dry himself, get back into the Jordan and wash himself.  How many understand this is a man who gets things done, this is a warrior, a man of command,  he didn't have to do things 7 times.  Seven is the number of God's perfect work, of completion and he had to go in 7 times because he had to get himself into cooperation with God. 

I wonder just for a minute, how many people have had to be dipped through some of their negative things a few times because they didn't listen to God the first time.  Naman didn't understand what God was doing and he was angry, he didn't want to go in.  As a matter of fact he was pretty upset that the servant came out to him instead of the man of God.  Elisha wasn't playing with this.  Naman thought, "I'm going to come out here, I've come with gold and silver and surely the man of God is going to come out and talk to me himself".  Elisha had nothing to do with that, he sent out his servant and said, "Give this important man his instruction", and Naman was furious.  He thought he would come out himself and wave his hand over him and he would be made well. 

How many know sometimes we're expecting God to do all that kind of stuff when we're wanting to get healed?  It's even promoted more and more by what we see on television.  God isn't so interested in our theatrics, he's a miracle working God.  He spoke the world into existence, he didn't stand up and begin to shout things.  When God did it, it was done.  It's a marvelous thing. 

Naman didn't stop until he had fully obeyed.  I wonder what would have happened if Naman in his pride and frustration had just decided on dipping 6 times and said to himself, "I feel stupid, I feel silly.  Look at all those people that are looking at me jumping in this river, getting out and drying off all because some goofy man who wouldn't even come out and talk to me told me I had to get in". 

Listen, how many of us have tried to get out of what God was doing in us sooner than he was done working on us?  Can I just encourage you?  God really isn't interested in anything more than our obedience.  He knows how long to keep us in something until the work is completely done inside of us.  There have been some things that I've had to go through in my life where I thought they would be over just like that and the truth is they went on for years.  There were times when I told God, "I'm tired of this, I don't want it, I'm done".  God would come back and say, "Are you done having a temper tantrum"?  Obedience.  "God I'll do anything for you, I'll go anywhere, I don't care how much I make, I don't care what I have to do, I don't care if it's Africa, I'll go".  Listen, "Obedience is better than sacrifice, I have you right where I want you, when I am done I will take you out".  Be obedient. 

It was in those dark times, it was in those hard times, it was in those harsh times, that God would begin to develop something.  I want to encourage you if you're going through it now, the keeping power of God is able to bring life, strength and hope not only to your mind but to every part of your being. You don't need to curl up in a ball and go back to sleep in depression.  You don't need to close the door and hide from everyone else because you're embarrassed.  You don't need to walk with your head down.  You just need to say when people have questions, "All I'm doing is what God told me to do,  I'm being obedient".   It might look silly and they might not understand but If you will be obedient to God your healing will come, not only on the physical things that you need God to do but there will be stuff that God will do on the inside that will rock your world and you'll be more like Jesus than you ever thought you could be.  How many believe we need to be faithful to the Lord today?  Amen. 

Many times God's answers come from places that you wouldn't even normally look to.  Sometimes we discount the little things that God puts in our life as no big deal.  In verse 2 it talks about a girl that the Syrians had taken captive and began to be a servant to Naman's wife.  This lady probably became like part of the family but she was still a servant girl taken captive, a prisoner.  She began to speak to Naman's wife, "If only your husband could know what my God could do?"  Have you ever noticed that a lot of times the people that we would normally ignore, many times are the people that God would use to speak into our lives?  In times that we are so desperate that we will finally listen.  Naman was directed to his miracle through a servant girl who was out of her element and she herself was just being faithful to God.  She may not have valued the position that God had strategically placed her in but the truth is her life had impacted the highest levels. 

I want to ask you something this morning.  Are you fighting where God has placed you?  Whether it's on your job, whether it's in your marriage.  How many know once you're married, you're there, God put you there.  Whether it's in certain places where you think, "If I could just get out of this now".  I bet that servant girl thought many times that she would just run away from all this but God put her in a strategic place.  Let me ask you, are you in a place where although you might not enjoy it, God has strategically placed you there to touch other people's lives?  There were a couple of times when I was at Real Life Children's Ranch when I said "God, I know you've called me to preach, I know that you want me to be a Pastor, why do you have me here right now for"?  God said to me, "Because there are people that I want you to touch.  Would you just quit fighting me"?

Let me ask you, are you also listening to those that God has put in your life?  There have been times where people have said something to me and they were probably people I usually wouldn't listen to.  How many have ever been there?  Someone said something and it grasped your heart and you're wondering why in the world am I even paying attention to them?  The truth is there were times in my life where I became so desperate that I wanted to hear the voice of God wherever it would come from.  Sometimes God will get you to that place so that you will know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is speaking to you so that you will know and move forward believing that God has the plan that he promised for your life and God will do it.  I want to encourage you to listen to the voice of the Lord, to speak and to hear.  There are many times that God will answer your prayers in unconventional ways.  I want to tell you that the miracles God often does often happen in simple ways and all we needed to do is obey.

Listen, all Naman had to do was go wash.  He said, "Why am I doing this"?  His servants came back as he was about to walk away and lose out on his miracle, there were some people in his life that loved him enough to speak into his life.  There are some people that are so strong in who they are that people are afraid to speak into their life because they're afraid of what they will do to them.  But these servants were looking at Naman about to walk away from the greatest miracle God was ever going to do for him and they said, "Listen if the man of God had asked you to do something great like jump off a mountain, if he had asked you to run into battle with a sword and fight 20 guys, you would have done it but all he said was to go dip in the water 7 times". 

I want to challenge us as Christians, in the world that we live in, we have become so conditioned even by the tv shows that go on and I'm not against all tv evangelists but there's so much wierd stuff going on that I am just about done with it all, stuff like you have to shout and holler and you've got to give $1000 to get your miracle and people will do that.  The truth is the man of God wouldn't even come out.  He sent a messenger who said, "Go do this and this will happen".  Our faith level is really high if God asks us to do something impossible especially in America, and we're all ready for it, we'll jump at it. But the truth is this, do we trust the Lord enough to know that if there isn't shouting going on, if there aren't 5 people laying hands on us, if we're just coming into agreement with prayer and God said to do something, that if you are willing enough to just believe his word and simply obey that God will do it.  How many believe that we have a big God who works in simple ways? That's a marvelous thing.

There's so much more I could talk about but I want to tell you this, do not miss out because you didn't like the way God delivered a message to you.  Don't miss out because there's something you're going through that you don't like but God's plan and God's hand is in it to change your life.  What God is doing in each and every one if us is developing the negative.  Some of you may be in a dark place right now but I want to tell you, it is the light of Jesus in that dark place that develops you to be more like Him.  I don't care what you're going through, I don't care how hard the thing is, God cares about what you're dealing with but he cares enough to make sure that as Christians we come out looking more like Jesus.  Can I encourage you in this last day and age, before Jesus comes back the Bible tells us that there will be trouble, there is a reason for it.  I want to challenge you, willingly obey the Lord because it is when we are obedient to God in those harsh times that we truly become more like Jesus.  How many know God is preparing his bride?  That's you and me.