Craig Groeschel - God Can Restore What Seems Lost
Alright, let’s have some fun. All of our churches, do any of you have the spiritual gift of losing things? Raise your hand. Type in the comment section, I lose things all the time. Your keys, your wallet, your remote, whatever it is. True story, and I’m embarrassed to tell you this, but it is a true story. I couldn’t find my phone anywhere. I checked the bathroom, I checked the kitchen, I checked in my car, I checked under the seat in my car. I checked everywhere, couldn’t find my phone anywhere. And I heard myself say out loud to Amy, «I can’t find my phone anywhere». When she was on the other side of the call, when I was on the phone looking for my phone.
You know how you can pray for your pastor right now? And yes, I am seeking professional help. That’s how bad I am. And anybody ever done that? Anybody at all? You can’t find your sunglasses and you’re wearing 'em. Whatever, okay? We laugh about that because we all misplace things, but sometimes what we lose isn’t just a physical thing. Sometimes it’s much more personal. Like maybe you’ve experienced an emotional loss. Maybe you’ve lost your peace in the middle of a very complicated world, or maybe you’ve lost your purpose or sense of who you’re supposed to be. It could be that you have a relational loss.
You might have lost a friendship over something that wasn’t really that important. Or maybe you lost trust in somebody that was close to you. It could have been a spiritual loss that at one point you were full of the joy of the Lord, but you’ve lost your joy or you’ve lost your spiritual passion. Or you’ve lost your intimacy with God. You don’t feel close to Him anymore. What we’re gonna do today, looking at Elisha, is I’m gonna show you a very unusual kind of odd and quirky miracle that illustrates the very powerful and important principle for God. And that is this, our good God will help you find what you didn’t mean to lose. Our God is a good and a loving God who specializes in restoring what is lost. He is the God of restoration and He will help you find what you didn’t mean to lose.
So, Father, today, as I’m speaking to many people that are hurting and experiencing real loss, Holy Spirit, would you bring back whatever the enemy stole, and God help us to experience all your goodness, to serve you and make a difference in this world. We pray this in Jesus name. And everybody said, amen and amen.
We are in the message series on Elisha. We’re finishing up today. Let’s review where we’ve been so we can move forward. Week number one. You remember Elijah called Elisha and he burned the plows. He sacrificed the oxen to say, I am burning the bridges. I’m burning the ships. There’s no plan B, I’m gonna follow God’s call. No turning back. Week number two, we saw there were three armies that were out of water. And God spoke to Elisha and prophesied and said, go dig some ditches. Before there’s water, dig some ditches. Sometimes God asks you to dig a ditch. And when they dug a ditch, God filled it with water.
Last week we looked at a widow who was about to lose her two sons. She didn’t have enough and God said, «Gather some jars through the prophet Elijah». She gathered the jars and God filled them. As long as there was an empty jar, she was supplied what she needed, and more. Today we’re gonna see a miracle that seems just like almost pointless, kinda like a magic trick. Like that’s really cool, God, but why are you doing this? And for context, Elisha was training young prophets, almost like seminary students, to learn the ways of God, learn how to serve others. And they were living in this community getting closer to one another and learning the things of God. And it must have been similar to today.
Let me tell you why. In 30 years of leading Life Church, 35 years of ministry, I have never seen a spiritual hunger like we’re seeing right now. Is in college campuses we’re seeing like revivals break out. In post-Christian countries, we’re seeing Bible sales go out the roof. We’re seeing young adults come to faith in Jesus all over. We’ve got people coming back to church for the first time. People, our campus pastor tells us every single week, like there’s people coming to church. Like I don’t know why I’m here, but I’m here for the very first time in my life. There is a genuine spiritual hunger, people hurting, broken, longing for something more. And I promise you it’s unlike anything that I’ve seen in 35 years of ministry.
I think there might have been something like this because there were so many young prophets coming to serve God that they ran out of room. Their numbers had grown so much that their housing was too small, and so they decided to build a new campus. Essentially it’s my worst. They decided to add on. And so in 2 King 6, you can see they went down to the river to gather some trees, to cut the trees to add on to the housing. And in the middle of God’s work, this unnamed prophet, we don’t know who he is, but he loses a borrowed ax head, and so he pants, «Oh,» and Elisha comes and takes a stick and cuts it in half and throws the stick into the water where the ax head fell in. And guess what? The iron floated to the top. Cool, huh? And why? Like why would God get involved with something so small as an ax head that fell in the bottom of the water?
I’m not sure, but I think it’s possibly because it’s not always the big battles that break us, but often it’s the little losses along the way that pile up and pile up. The things that we thought didn’t matter until they did. And one day is just too much. I’m gonna show you the story that illustrates the principle God will help you find what you didn’t mean to lose. 2 Kings 6:4, we see when they arrived at the Jordan, these are all the young prophets, they begin cutting down trees. But as one of them was cutting a tree, his ex head, flew into the river. And he said, everybody say aloud what he said. He said. I wanna pause for a moment and just acknowledge his godliness. He said, «Oh sir,» which I think is great. Because some of you would’ve said, oh, something else. But this was a young man of God who said, «Oh, sir, he cried. It was a borrowed ax».
And so Elijah asked, the man of God says, where did it fall? Think about all the miracles God used Elisha to do. So many other big miracles. «Where did it fall»? the man of God asked. The text tells us this, «When he showed the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water at that spot. And then the ax had floated to the surface. 'Grab it, ' Elijah said. And the man reached out and grabbed it». God used the prophet to raise an ax head outta the water and it floated. All the miracles. God used Elijah to part the Jordan River. God used Elijah to purify water in the Jericho. God used Elijah to heal a leper. God used Elijah to raise a dead boy back to life. With all the problems in the world, why would God use Elijah to make an ax head float?
Well, we’re gonna discover the principle that sometimes the smallest miracle carries the biggest message. And I’ll explain it to you because in the 9th century when this was going on, BC, iron was very, very rare and very, very expensive. Most people couldn’t even come close to affording their own ax, so this young prophet very likely borrowed the acts from a very wealthy person and he lost something incredibly valuable. Now, if you were with us last week, do you remember that if you lost something or owed money, in this time a creditor could come and take your children and they would be slaves until this debt was paid off. That’s one of the reasons why Amy and I had six kids. If we got into trouble, be like, «Take those two right there». We got four left over.
And so like just teasing. And when you say which two, it depends on the day. And you all know that, right? So, like losing a valuable borrowed tool, this wasn’t just embarrassing for the young prophet. This could be like a lifelong debt. This small detail losing the ax head, it was a really, really big deal. And so whenever God makes this ax head float, it reminds us of the powerful principle that it matters to you, it matters to God. If it’s on your heart, our good God cares about the details of your life, which is mind blowing to think about how amazing our God is that the same God who rules over the nations and kings sees you and loves you more than you can imagine. And because God loves you, our good God cares about what you care about.
The same God that cared enough to make it ax head float cares about your headaches. It just won’t go away. The same God who made this ax head rise to the top cares about your anxiety that you can’t even put words on how it makes you feel. The same God that cares about the details of this prophet lives, cares about what matters to you because what matters to you matters to Him. I’m gonna tell you a real personal story. And Amy will verify this is true. If I heard some other guy telling, I’d be like, «Ah, whatever».
This story’s true. It’s hard to believe. In 2013 I preached on this text. Totally different message, but I used the same line. God will help you find what you didn’t mean to lose. Eight months prior to that day, Amy had lost her wedding ring. When I got married, I bought her the only ring I could afford. I called it my singles pastor ring because I was a singles pastor and I always wanted to get her a better one. But you know, she’s like, she loved it. Well, she lost it and she thought I took it. I didn’t take it, but she lost it. And so I wanted to get her a new one. She wouldn’t let me do it. Month one, month two, month three. Finally month seven, she let me get her a new ring, but she’s missed her original ring.
I preached this message and Sunday afternoon we were sitting in our living area and I said, God will help you find what you didn’t mean to lose. And I said, your ring. True story. I’m not making this up. I felt prompted to get up from where I was sitting. I walked about eight steps over to this other chair. True story. Lifted up the cushions and right there was her wedding ring. Right there was her wedding ring. I got a picture of how happy she was after she got her her wedding ring back. Then I went in and, I love her smile. I posted on it on Instagram. It says eight months ago, Amy lost her wedding ring. After today’s message, church, we talked about her missing ring. I got it, lifted two cushions and found this. God helps you find we didn’t mean to lose.
Right below it, ALC Conner said, «Oh my gosh, I’m speechless right now after having lost my ring for one year, we searched the couch and I found it». And then she posted, the same girl posted that right there thanks to your Instagram post about Amy’s ring. Now I have my ring I’ve been missing for five years. Oh my goodness. God will help you find what you didn’t mean to lose. So if you lost your ring, go home today. Ask the Spirit of God to lead you to the right couch at the right time because our God cares about what you care about. That’s how good our God is.
So what I wanna do is ask you this question. We’re having fun. This is serious. We’re gonna talk about this in our life groups. If you’re not in a live group, I wanna just remind you that we are better together, that we stand united as the body of Christ, praying for one another, caring for one another, bearing each other’s burdens. That’s what we do together. And we’re gonna ask this question and we’re gonna pray together and we’re gonna seek the God of restoration. The question we’re gonna ask is this, what have you lost that God wants to restore? What is something special that means something to you, meant something to you that you once had that you don’t have right now, something you’ve lost that God wants to restore?
And I want to be just clear and pastoral. I’m not talking about a permanent loss like you lost a child, you lost a loved one. I wanna acknowledge those are very real heartbreaking loss. I’m not talking about that. That’s a whole nother thing that we pray for healing in the presence of God. I’m talking about something that’s still recoverable. You lost something that God can still restore. You lost a relationship with somebody over politics or some petty disagreement or some rant on Facebook where you just told 'em what they needed to hear and now you don’t talk to them anymore. It felt right at the time and now you’re going, why did I do that? Maybe there are some of you that you lost your joy and cynicism took its place.
Some of you, you lost respect of maybe one of your children or both of you. You did something that you can’t undo. Some of you right now, you’ve lost peace, peace of mind. You have no sense of God’s presence. You’ve lost your hope for the future. Some of you, you are on fire for God sensitive to the voice of the Spirit being led by faith and not by sight seeking God in His word, hearing His voice, making a difference in the world, serving in church, you’ve lost your spiritual passion. You’ve lost your hunger for God’s Word. You’ve lost your urgency to share your faith. You’ve lost your drive to live for holiness.
That’s what I lost in my early years of ministry. When I was saved out of darkness into light, I was the boldest guy you’ve ever seen. Like maybe too bold, like kind of weird bold. I had little cross pins I would wear around. I’d buy 10 of 'em. And if someone said, I like your pin, I’d say, «Oh, God wanted me to give it to you right now,» and I gave it to 'em and witnessed to 'em over and over and over again. I wore Christian T-shirts. I’ll show you some of them.
This was Amy and me wearing our our Jesus shirts. This was actually our first date. Back when in the late '80s, I used, we made that shirt together. I used to think that Amy had a really small face. It was the '80s. Everybody had a small face. That’s why they all had big hair. It was a great season. And then I actually would wear this Christian watch. This is not the exact watch, but I had AI recreate it. That is as close as it can be. I had a Jesus watch that I would wear into the gym around all my athlete friends and fraternity brothers and be like, what time do you think it is? Oh, Jesus says, it’s time for you to get right with God. And I was so on fire for God. And then I became a pastor.
And you’d think that when you’re a pastor, the fire would burn hotter. But it was a weird thing. It’s a weird thing. The only way I can say it is like the way I was doing the work of God started to actually hurt the work of God in me. Some of you may have been there at some point. And I noticed that one week when I went to pray the pastoral prayer. It was first United Methodist Church and I’d wear a robe and we had pray the prayer. And I was praying the prayer publicly when I realized I hadn’t prayed all week long privately. And then it dawned on me, I would study the Word, but I was studying the Word to preach. I wasn’t studying the Word to feed on the living Word of God that always accomplishes the purposes of God. And God showed me very, very clearly that I had become a full-time pastor and a part-time follower of Christ.
I lost my first love. Some of you like that’s you right now. You lost your spiritual passion or you lost your joy or you lost trust in your spouse or you lost something else. And I wanna remind you that our God specializes in restoring what’s lost. Our good God can help you find what you didn’t mean to lose. You say, well, how does He do that? I’m gonna show you two thoughts from our story about Elisha. And the first thought is this, if you lost something, number one, be honest about where you lost it. Where did you lose it? In verse six, we see this, Elisha, the man of God asked the young prophet, where did it fall? Where’d you lose the ax head? Where’d you last see it? Where did it fall? Why did he ask this question? Because recovery starts with honesty.
Be honest about when you lost it, why you lost it, where you lost it. I’ll tell you right now, I lost my passion for Jesus when I neglected seeking Him, and when I started serving for the approval of people instead of for the goodness of God. That’s when I lost it. I stopped seeking Him for myself, and I started performing for people to like me instead of serving for the pleasure and goodness of God. What about you? If you lost something that matters to you, when did you lose it, why did you lose it? I’ll give you just some thoughts to kind of help maybe open you up to what God might want to say to you.
You might say this, I lost my way when I got into a relationship that I should have never gotten into. Maybe you started dating someone who pushed you to do things that you know you shouldn’t have done and took you to places that you shouldn’t have gone or you developed a friendship with a group of people that instead of sharpening you and drawing you closer to God, took you into things that were very, very destructive. Because the Bible’s really, really clear that bad company corrupts good character. And maybe you lost your way when you’re entered into a relationship that you shouldn’t have. Maybe you say, I lost my freedom when my secret habit took control of my life.
That thing that you thought, Hey, it’s no one else’s business. It’s no big deal. I mean, it’s not hurting anybody and it wasn’t hurting anybody until it hurt you and now you’re a prisoner to it. You might say, I lost my peace when I held onto a hurt instead of giving it to God when I held a grudge, when I hated, when I let bitterness overcome my soul, instead of releasing, forgiving and trusting God to bring about judgment, I tried to make things right in my own way. You might say I lost my joy when I let comparison take over. I started looking and strolling and feeling left down and less than, and why am I not, and why do they? And all of a sudden I just, I lost all my joy and I’m not seeking God because I’m dissatisfied with what I don’t have and where I’m not and who they are and why I can’t be what they are.
You might say I lost my intimacy with God when I stopped making space to hear His voice. When I stopped seeking Him early and letting His Word renew my mind and conform me to the image of Christ. When I stopped calling on Him, when I stopped letting Him direct my steps, when I stopped using the gifts that He’d given me to make a difference in the lives of others and thought that all of a sudden life was all about me and I stopped seeking Him and serving Him. Be honest about where you lost it, when you lost it, why you lost it. Recovery starts with honesty. Like admit it, talk to your Life group about it. Name it, confess it. Be honest about where and why and how you lost it. Then with God’s help, take back what you lost. Take back what the devil took from you.
Let God give it to you seven times over because our God is a God of restoration. Be honest about where you lost it, why you lost it, how you lost it. And by faith, take back which you should have never lost. Verse six, we see this, «When the prophet showed Elisha to the place». Hey, there’s where the ax head fell. «Elisha cut a stick and he threw it over there and made the iron float». And then what did he say? He said to the prophet, «Hey, lift it out». Everybody said that with me. What did he do? He said to the prophet, he said, what? Then the man reached down his hand and took it.
I like this. God will make it float, but you gotta lift it out because sometimes when we studied this a few weeks ago, sometimes God wants you to participate in the miracles. Jesus said, stretch out your hand. Have faith. Jesus said, wash off your eyes. Be healed. Jesus said, pick up your mat and walk. Sometimes He wants you to participate. In other words, only God can send the rain, but sometimes He wants you to? Dig a ditch. Only God can multiply the oil, but sometimes He wants you to gather the empty jars. And only God can make an ax head float, but He still wants you to lift it out.
And that’s why I want to tell you. And I want you to hear it. And I want you to be ready for it. God will help you find what you didn’t mean to lose, but be prepared because the devil is a liar. He is the father of lies. And the moment you step out in faith, he steps in with fear. And he’ll try to tell you, you’re too late, you’ve been too bad, you’ve gone too far. You can never get it back. You could never be happy. You could never be on fire for God again. You could never make a difference. You could never share your life with somebody else. After what you’ve done. You’ve gone too far. You’ll never be blessed. After what you did, you’ll never be close to God.
And that’s why I want to tell you, with God, it is not too late. Our God is a good God. The same God that oversees the nations and kings sees you and cares about you. And our God is the God of restoration. Scripture says this about God, «And the God of all grace will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast». The God of all grace, the God of all power. The God who is all present, the God who is, knows all things, will himself restore you and make you firm, strong and steadfast. And that’s why I want you to hear this. With God, you can still be the person that He called you to be. With God’s grace, by His grace, you can still have and experience what God wants you to have and experience. You haven’t gone too far, you haven’t failed too much to get back what you didn’t mean to lose.
And this is why Elisha’s story is so powerful. And this is one of the reasons why I chose to spend four weeks talking about him because his story is more than just a string of miracles. It is an ongoing story of faith. It’s a life of obedience and faith to trust in the power and the promises of God. An ordinary kid, a farmer who put his faith in the goodness of God and burns the plow to say, I’m burning my way back. Now, I’m fully all in. And put his faith in a God that cared about what he cared about the same way if you put your faith in the goodness of God. Our God cares about what you care about. And when you put your faith in God, He can help you find what you didn’t mean to lose. And Elijah’s story is, this isn’t just his story, this is the gospel.
Why did Jesus come to seek and save the lost? God sent His Son on a rescue mission. Jesus didn’t come for the righteous. He came for the sinners. He didn’t come for those who were healthy. He came for the broken. He came for people like me, lost, lying, desperate, hurting people, couldn’t find my way out. He came for people like me. And Jesus said, if a shepherd has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, the good shepherd leaves the 90 and nine and pursues the one lost sheep. There may be somebody here, and I don’t know who you are, but you are the one He’s coming for today. You’re not here by accident. He’s drawing you. He loves you. And he’ll leave the other 99 to come after the one because He cares about you.
That’s how good He is. And in the same way on the cross, Jesus, the Son of the living God, took our sins, took what was broken, took what was shameful, and died in our place. And through His resurrection, God lifted Him up, lifted out, lift the ax head, folks, lift it out. God lifted Him up outta the grave. Why? What the enemy tried to bury, God raised back to life. And so today, if you’re hurting, if you’ve lost something, lemme just ask you because it’s never too late.
What did you lose? What do the enemies steal from you? What did you once have that you don’t have that God can still restore? Because what’s broken, God can rebuild. And what’s lost, God can restore. And what’s dead, our God can resurrect. The enemy may try to steal it, but our God can restore it because that’s who our God is. A good God, a loving God, a caring God. The God who brings back what you thought was gone, the God will help you find what you didn’t mean to lose. So lift it up. Take back what you lost. Take back what the enemy stole because what matters to you matters to God.
So Father, we worship you not because of what we have or what we don’t have, but just because of who you are. You’re a gracious God. You’re a loving father. You sent your Son to save us and we worship you, God. You’re worthy of all of our praise. Now, Holy Spirit, I ask, and this is something only you can do. I ask you to do miracles in your presence. Healing miracles, miracles of restoration, trust in you.
As you’re praying today all over our churches, those of you online, I wonder, I wonder if you have something in your life that you know you once valued, you don’t have it now, and you believe God may wanna restore it. If that’s you, don’t think about it, don’t hold back, don’t hesitate. Just lift your hand right now. All over the place lift it up, lift it up, lift it up, lifted it up, lifted it up. All of our churches, type in the comments section, I have something I believe God wants to restore. Just I believe God wants to restore.
And now, Father, I pray, I pray for restored marriages. God, I pray for restored intimacy in marriages. God, I pray for restoration in relationships between parents and children. God, I pray for healing and restoration between siblings. God, I pray for your body where there is sometimes division, that there would be repentance and restoration and healing because it’s your will that we would be one God in a divided world when people have lost friendships. God, I pray for a spirit of repentance, of humility, of healing. God, for those who’ve lost their joy or their peace or their passion, God, I pray they’d just be honest about it. Say, here’s where I lost it. And God, we go back to you. And we know God you are the God that restores anytime seven times over whatever the enemy took. You are the God of restoration. God, we pray that you would help restore what we didn’t mean to lose.
God is a good God. He loves you. Call out to Him. He loves you. He cares about what you care about. The God of the nations, who cares about you. Today as you keep praying, some of you, and you’ll know this as you immediately, you’ve never really been at peace with God. If your life were to be over today, you’re not sure where you would spend eternity. Let me tell you about our good God. God loves you. You’re not here by accident. He cares about you. And every single one of us the reason you feel this way is because we’ve all sinned against a holy God.
Every single one of us, the Bible’s clear, we’ve all sinned against God. But God sent His Son. God became flesh. He sent Jesus on a rescue mission to restore those who were lost. Jesus the perfect sinless Son of God came not for the righteous, but He came for the broken for the sinners, and He lived the perfect life. And on a cross, Jesus bore our sins. He died in our place, taking the punishment that we deserved and died as the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God. Three days after His death, God raised Him from the grave. That’s who our God is, the resurrection power of God. And Jesus defeated death, hell and the grave.
Now anyone, and this includes you, doesn’t matter what you’ve done, doesn’t matter how dark your life has been. Anyone who calls on the name that is above every name, the name of Jesus, your sins would be forgiven in a moment. You can’t work your way there. You can’t be good enough. This is the grace of God. This is the gospel good news that you’re saved by grace through faith in the perfect work of Jesus, His death and His resurrection. So if you find yourself not sure where you stand, today is the day of your salvation. Jesus was raised from the dead. Put your faith in Him and you’ll become new.
All of our churches, you say, okay, Craig, I don’t know where I stand with God, but I’m being drawn to Him. What is that? It’s a power of the Holy Spirit. It is no accident. This is your moment today. Take it out. Take it back. Take back what the devil took from you and surrender your life to Jesus. You’re made new instantly. All of our churches say, «Yes, I’m ready. I’m stepping away from my sin. Jesus, I’m surrendering my life to you. Be the Lord of my life. I give my whole life to you.»
That’s your prayer. Lift your hands high right now all over the place and say yes. Praise God for you guys. Back over here praise God for you and others right back here. Oh church, come on. Spiritual hunger in the house. Others today say, «yes, Jesus, I surrender. Be the Lord of my life». Online, type in the comments section, «I’m surrendering my life to Jesus». Just type that in. We’ve got many people here, people in all of our churches, record numbers of people calling on the name of Jesus. So in this holy moment, church and around the world online, would you just very simply join your faith with those around you? Pray:
Heavenly Father. I need you. Your grace. Your forgiveness. Salvation. Through Jesus. Forgive all of my sins. Fill me with your Spirit so I could know you and so I could live for you. My life is not my own. I belong to you. Direct my steps. Use me, God to show your love. Thank you for new life. In Jesus name I pray.