<TITLE>04. Par 9-10</TITLE>L-9 Now, our scene begins tonight upon a family in distress. And perhaps, this would be a good thing tonight to recognize that there's, perhaps, many families setting here tonight in distress.
And if we can only find something in the Old Testament here, which was an example of what believers done in that day when in distress, why, perhaps, maybe we can take them as an example and find our position then and what to do.
In the days of Elijah the prophet... After last night we seen that he was a type of the church. After Elijah, being the type of Christ taken away, and the double coming up on the prophet... We find that he made his way up to a Gentile country, Shunem. And there was a noble woman up there. And she was not an Israelite; she was a Shunammite.
And Elijah passing through this country, she taken notice to him that he was a holy man, a man of God. What a lesson we could get out of that, that we--our walk and our associations with people, that people would recognize that we were children of the King. God help us to be that way.
I believe the Scripture says that, "We are written epistles read of all men." And Elisha so conducted hisself around in that Gentile country there, that this Shunammite woman realized that he was truly a servant of God. His character, his conduct, and the things that God did by him, that she recognized him to be a servant of the Lord. So she wanted to show some kindness to him. So she had him come over for dinner, or whatmore, give him a little offering, help him pay for something. Treated him kind, not because she wanted any reward.

L-10 People who give to people thinking that they'd get a reward for it, well, they don't have any reward. It's those who give freely from the bottom of their heart, that says, "I just give it freely, not that I expect anything in return."
Jesus said that, "The Gentiles, or unbelievers do such as that. They give when they're expect to be given back." But we, the children of God, give when we don't want any return. We just give it.
And now, the woman had no... She proved it a little later. She had no alternative of giving to this man, the--the blessings that she was to him of giving him. Food, money, whatever she give him, had a little offering for him when he passed by, she only give it in respects of God. She said, "I know that he's a holy man. I know that he's a man of God. And I... He don't belong to my denomination. He doesn't belong to my church, perhaps, but maybe my pastor wouldn't agree with him; but yet, I believe that he's a holy man of God. I believe he's God's servant. So I'll just give him this little offering." So she did that in her kindness.


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