I want to look at this Jehu (he gets a lot of ink…two CHs)

Jehu is a "Mashiach" i.e. anointed, a messiah-figure. So, let's look at that: 1 st - Jehu: a Different Kind of Messiah 2 nd - We Need This Kind of Messiah (sort of!) 3 rd - How the True Messiah Changes Judgment

Let's look at:

1. This Puzzling Episode – a weeping truth-teller who promotes lying and a loyal, trusted aide who betrays his king and usurps the throne!
2. This Puzzling Book – Evaluating Kings
3. The Puzzling Tie to Advent

The Bible demonstrates here, in a variety of ways, God's opinion and response to human weakness. And what eventually emerges fully (in the NT) is an understanding of weakness opposite and counter-intuitive to everything we're taught in society (in the secular world) AND even contrary to what we learn in spirituality, religion and morality as well.

Let's just look at the story and then look at what the Bible is teaching about weakness:

1. Retelling the story AND
2. What this odd story contributes to the Bible's unique understanding of weakness

We've been looking at the life of the Old Testament prophet, Elisha. And today we come to a story about… Perception. It's about how people see the world, how we interpret reality. It's a story about awakenings… about eye-openings …and seeing beyond the concrete and obvious.

Let's look at:

1. The decisive action or turning point in the story.
2. The key result of that decisive action
3. The FINAL outcome foreshadowing of the Ultimate outcome.

Today's sermon-title says it all, three words, each one a point in the sermon: #1 Power #2 Weakness #3 Healing

I want to use three points to guide us through this story today- and see how we can be life-giving people:

1. The Open Door of Hospitality
2. The Commitment of Faith
3. The Guarantee of Life

The Two Main Points I want to use as our guide today are simply this… I want us to see

1. A Culture of Death, and
2. The Giver of Life.