Frankie Mazzapica - Bring Me A Musician
Thank you for tuning in today, my name's Frankie Mazzapica, the title of today's message is "Bring Me A Musician", Bring Me A Musician. Let me just go to the Scripture that I'm basing that title on, so that everything begins to make sense straight away. In 2 Kings chapter 3, verse 15, it says this and this is Elisha speaking. He says this, "'Bring me a musician.' And when the musician arrived and began to play, then the hand of the Lord was upon him". "Then the hand of the Lord was upon him". Just let me be redundant, just for a second. When the musician played, the hand of the Lord was upon him. Let me just say it one more time, if you'd let me. When the musician played, the hand of the Lord was upon him.
Let me give you a little bit of background. So there was a king named Jehoram, he was evil in the sight of God, and he was going into a battle, and his strategy was to go through the wilderness. As they were going through the wilderness, there was no water there, the animals were getting weak, they were getting weak, seven days had gone by. And so the king said, "Is there a man of God anywhere who will pray for us"? And someone said, "Well, Elisha is nearby, I'll go ask him to pray for us". And King Jehoram went with them. They come up to Elisha and they say, "Will you seek the Lord on our behalf"?
Now, Elisha immediately became indignant, he was angered because he does not like King Jehoram. I don't know if you can relate to that, where someone you don't like is around you too much. He's looking at him and he's like, "I don't like you, I don't like your mother and I don't like your father, your entire family, I don't like any of you guys". Maybe he was Southern, "I don't like any of y'all," en-y'all, it's just one word, "I don't like en-y'all". And that's true, his mother was Jezebel, his father was Ahab. And when he was just an intern, if you will, his mentor was Elijah, and they threatened to kill Elijah, and there was this major war.
At the end of the war, the Lord took care of Elijah, and had Jezebel and Ahab killed, it's a massive story. And so, now, Elijah has gone to heaven, and Ahab and Jezebel, they're dead, and now their son is coming up to him, King Jehoram, and he's saying, "Will you pray for me"? And Elisha is like, "I've already prayed for you, that you would go to the moon and never come back, I've already prayed for you, that I would never see you again". Imagine, the person at work or the person down the street that vexes you, they come up to you and even just saying, "Do you wanna go out to lunch"? Forget saying, "Will you pray for me"? I if I saw you 100 years from now, it would be too soon. Here he comes, he comes up to Elisha and says, "Will you pray for me"?
Now, I've got three major points, the first point is how troubled Elisha was with the entire situation, the second major point is how he called for a musician, the third point, the very last major point is gonna be how you are a musician. So, let's just dive into the first point, he was vexed, he was angry, he was overcome. And again, imagine, over and over again somebody just constantly bombarding you. This is a very tough thing, because knowing what the Scripture tells us to do is a conflict in our spirit. We know that, and you may not know the address but you know the principle, it's seared in your heart. It's in Luke chapter 6, verse 28, where it says, "Bless those who curse you". Can you?
Now, cursing in the Bible, or even cursing anywhere, there's multiple different types of cursing, all of them are offensive. And the reason why I say, "Different types," there's curse words, there's putting a curse on someone. Regardless, when somebody does that to us, in that moment, let's just take curse words, in that moment, you are now, I hate this, for lack of a better, "You're an enemy of mine, you just cursed me out". So now, this is the game that we're gonna play, "You're gonna act crazy? Well, guess what? I invented crazy, I'm gonna meet your crazy, raise you by ten crazies, you're not ready for this kind of crazy, I'm about to go nuts". And so this is how we respond. The second part says, "Pray for those who have hurt you".
This is a major problem for Elisha, he's troubled, he's conflicted, so, point number two, he calls for a musician. Now when he calls for a musician, it's as if, "There is no way that I'm gonna be able to forgive you, there is no way I'm gonna be able to pray for you, and you know what? I don't even want you to be blessed, I want a front row seat on watching you fail, I want a front row seat". Now some of us in this room would say, "I would never think that". Ok, that's cool, the rest of us are like, "Lord, please forgive me," because it's vexing. And usually, we don't have that thought towards every single person, we just end up having that thought towards one person, one. And so here's Elisha, a man of God, and he says, "Bring me a musician".
Now, when he's saying, "Bring me a musician," he's asking for someone to worship in his presence, just come into the room and worship. In most cases, that would show up with a harp just like King Saul, when he was being vexed he brought in a worshiper, which was David. So the musician comes in to worship and, I just told you the end of the story already, when that happened, the Lord placed his hand on Elisha. When that happened, the anger, the frustration, the irritation, what's the word I wanna use, it's the offense, all of that began to just seep away. This is something only the hand of God can do.
Sometimes we have unforgiveness in our heart. Somebody tells us, "Hey, you really need to forgive," and what do we say? "Yeah, I know". But getting from really being angry, hurt, to forgive, that's like the distance between one side of the Grand Canyon and the other, only the hand of God can do that. And when that happened, all of a sudden he was able to pray. Now let me just take a quick sidebar from Elisha. Peter said, in 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 7, he said, "Be clear minded so that you can pray". So, here we go, we got Elisha who's saying, "I can't pray, 'Bring in a musician,'" we got Peter saying, "I'm having trouble, and I'm just telling you what I tell myself, 'Be clear minded so you can pray.'"
They both have different situations. Elisha is looking at someone he does not like. Not only does he not like him because of what his parents had done, but he is a leader of God's people and he is sinful, he's wicked, he's looking at a wicked person, and he's supposed to pray for him. And so, now Peter, it's not offense like Elisha. Peter, if you read his story, he's got this self-condemnation, he's constantly beating himself up, he is a person that hides hurt that he is causing himself. Now in full transparency, between Elisha and Peter, I really don't relate to Elisha, I've been hurt many times, but I really don't have a challenge in forgiving people, I really don't. And the reason for that is I have a really good memory and I can remember how much, some of you are ahead of me, how much God has forgiven me. I can remember, I can remember. Four of you are like, "Yeah," right?
I can remember very clearly how much mercy I have needed from God. The Bible says this in, let me think, what is it, Matthew chapter 6:15, where it says this, "If you do not forgive others, you yourself will not be forgiven". And I'm like, "I don't need that, I don't need to not be forgiven". And so I don't have trouble with that, what I do have trouble with is Peter's situation, where I'm constantly fighting the stupid, idiotic, humiliating things that I have done. These things come back over my mind, the sins that I've committed, the enemy brings these things back to my mind over and over again. And it is a battle for me to tell the enemy, "God does not see this, the only thing he sees is the blood of Jesus, and if God doesn't remember it, stop reminding me of it, because it's gone".
I know that's the truth, I know it, I preach it to you, I preach it to me, but that is more of a challenge for me than it is to forgive people, to forgive myself. You may be the exact opposite, it's easier for you to forgive yourself than it is to forgive other people. But in that moment, he's saying, "Bring me a musician," and he began to feel the weight coming off his shoulders. The same way with Peter, when he was in the presence of Jesus he felt forgiveness and embraced. I remember I went to go speak at a church in another state and I had a rental car, I was coming back to the airport. And while I was driving back to the airport, I thought to myself, "If Donald Duck were to have preached at that church instead of me, he would have done a better job than what I just did".
I know it's not true, I know what you're thinking, "Hey, that's the devil," yeah, it was the devil and I was losing. I was losing, I'm in the car and I feel myself going down a spiral of depression, it was terrible. And so, I was having trouble praying, all I could do was beat myself up. And so I thought, "Well, I just missed Sunday at Celebration Church," at our church, because I was at another church. And I thought, "I wonder how the service went". So I went to our "YouTube" channel and I started playing worship. And as the service was going on, as I was listening to the worshippers, all of a sudden I felt the atmosphere in the car completely change. I'm not a big crier, 98% of the time when I'm worshiping or I'm praying, I'm not crying, I'm not a big crier, but in that car I felt his presence so strong that I had to pull over into an empty parking lot and just cry.
I wasn't crying because I was broken that I didn't do a good job. No, I wasn't crying for that, that emotion was gone. It was gone because, as soon as I began to play that worship music, the hand of God just came into the car, absolutely, just came into the car. I wasn't strong enough to pray, I wasn't strong enough to worship, but I had called in, if you will, "Bring me a musician, bring me a musician". You see, the Lord knows how strong you are, the Lord knows everything about you. In Psalms chapter 116, verse 1, it says this, "O Lord, you have searched my heart, you know everything about me. You see me when I sit down, you see me when I stand up. You see me when my thoughts are afar off.
You see me when I travel, you see me when I stay at home and rest. You know every thought that I'm thinking. You know everything I do. And you know every word I'm going to say before I say it". When he knows that you are having trouble getting the word out of your mouth, "Jesus, I need your help," but you back up and you say, "Bring me a musician". I'm weak right now, I can't worship right now, I'm overwhelmed right now, bring me a musician. I'm frustrated, I don't have a clear mind, bring me a musician. I'm beating myself up, bring me a musician. I'm listening to the devil's lies, I can't hear the Holy Spirit, bring me a musician, bring me a musician. Come on, put your hands together.
I wanna challenge you, I wanna challenge you with every fiber in my body, when you're in the car, say, "Bring me a musician". You see, Elisha, Elisha had to say, "Bring me a musician," and he had to wait. I don't know how far that musician was, how far that worshiper was. I do know that when David went to go to Saul's kingdom, because Saul was so stressed out that he called for a musician, he had to wait for David to get all the way over to the kingdom. I don't know how long Elisha had to wait for the musician, I don't know how long he had to sit there feeling angry and agitated. I don't know how long he had to wait, I know how long you have to wait, you have to wait as long as it takes for you to grab your cell phone, because, when you pick up your cell phone, there are 1.9 zillion worship songs one peck away. That's how long you have to wait when you say, "Bring me a musician". If you have a phone, you have access to worship, you have access to a musician.
Let me jump to the third point, the third point is, there are times where you need to call in a musician to change the atmosphere, there are times where you need to call in a musician for the Lord to lay his hand upon you. But then there are other times, where you will feel the Holy Spirit drawing you, where you know, "Hey, I'm gonna call on the Lord myself, I'm going to change the atmosphere myself". I think I've given this illustration before, but it's worth giving again. When it's your birthday, or it's Valentine's Day or it's Christmas, whatever, and somebody brings you a card, you read the front of the card and you smile. And then you open the card, and you're supposed to go straight to what's already printed in the card, and that's supposed to make you smile as well because that person took a long time to pick out the card.
But if all they did was hand you the card and they didn't write in the card, you would look at them and say, "Why didn't you write anything? I know what the card says, but I wanna know what you say, I wanna know what's in your heart, I wanna know. I want you to tell me how much you love me, I don't want you to just have the card tell me how much, I wanna hear it from you". And there are times where you know in your spirit the Lord doesn't want you to rely on someone else's words when you bring in a musician, he's looking at you and he's saying, "I wanna hear your words, I will lay my hand on your head just like I do when you call in a musician". You see, when you're vexed, you can't think, your mind is going crazy, you need help, you need to call in a musician. But then there's other times where you realize, "I am the musician, this is what I'm born to do".
I was watching an interview with Kobe Bryant, it was several years ago, and they asked him, "Do you think you can beat LeBron James if you guys play one on one"? Now, of course, LeBron James is gonna have a different answer, because they're competitors, but Kobe Bryant said, "One on one, no other players on the floor except just he and I, one on one"? And he goes, "I'd win, there's no doubt about it, I'd win". He goes, "You have to understand," he goes, "One on one is what I do, that's what I do". All right, you're ahead of me now, let me catch up to you. See, what you do is a worshiper, that's what you do, that's who you are. And when you do what you do, things happen, things begin to shift, things begin to move.
I remember, several years ago, I'd watch these worshippers sing on the stage, and I'd look at them and I'd always think the same thing, and I still do, "How do you know that the right note is gonna come out of your mouth when you sing"? And I remember Frank Sinatra was asked that question, a reporter said, "How do you know"? And Frank Sinatra, with his cigarette, he just goes, "When I open my mouth, it just comes out". And I thought to myself, "You know what? I can do that, it will come out, and if it's not the first word, I'll figure it out," and I never figured it out. And when I look around, I think, Man, there are so many people who can out-sing me, but I also say, "Lord, they might be able to out-sing me, but they're not gonna be able to out-worship me, this is what I do". Come on, "This is what I do".