Dock Resource Kit
Sunday sermon, 16 November 2025
Summary
This week Phil explored the story of Elisha and his servant in 2 Kings 6, a moment where two people stand in the same place and see two completely different realities. The servant sees only danger, but Elisha sees the presence and power of God surrounding them. Formation teaches us to see with new eyes. God opens our vision to recognise his strength in our weakness, his presence in our pressure and his mercy in our battles. As God fights for his people, he also forms us to respond with compassion rather than fear, carrying his peace into the world around us.
Key Points & Takeways
Formation shapes how we see: Christian formation is not only about behaviour but vision — learning to see our lives, our challenges and our city through God’s perspective.
Fear narrows our vision: Like Elisha’s servant, we often see only the visible problem and feel outnumbered or overwhelmed.
God opens our eyes: Elisha’s prayer, Lord, open his eyes, reveals a deeper reality — God’s presence surrounding the very places that frighten us.
God fights for his people: Throughout Scripture God carries burdens we cannot carry and steps into battles we cannot win.
Mercy is the surprise ending: The miracle is not only sight but compassion. Elisha refuses retaliation and chooses mercy, showing the heart of God.
Formation leads to Christlike response: Seeing through God’s eyes shapes how we act — with courage, grace and kindness in places where fear would normally take over.
Dock Discussion Questions
Where do you feel outnumbered or overwhelmed right now?
Share honestly about a situation that feels bigger than you, and pray together for God to open your eyes to his presence in the middle of it.
What pressures most often shape your vision?
Is it fear, tiredness, distraction, disappointment, comparison? How do these things narrow what you see?
Where have you recognised God at work behind the scenes in your life?
Look back and reflect on a time when clarity came in hindsight. What might that reveal about the present?
Who is God inviting you to show unexpected compassion to this week?
Consider someone who needs patience, kindness, or grace from you, and pray for courage to respond with the heart of Jesus.
Long-form, edited transcript
Formation:
Seeing Through God’s Eyes
2 Kings 6:8–23
How many fingers am I holding up?
Who knows that seeing is important?
Ever since I hit my forties my eyesight has been on a bit of a journey. I found myself reading my phone at arm’s length, then my arm wasn’t long enough — so it was reading glasses. Then glasses for distance. And I kept swapping between them like a confused librarian. Drove me mad. Life always felt slightly blurry.
Then last year I finally got varifocals. And it was like someone upgraded the whole world. Suddenly everything was clear — near, far, reading, driving. No more squinting. No more switching glasses. Even got the cool snap-on shades. My eyesight was completely reformed.
I realised that seeing clearly was something I had always taken for granted.
We have spent most of this term sitting on a Sunday with a simple but searching question. What is forming you? Particularly, what are the lenses that are shaping the way you see God, the way you see yourself, the way you see the world around you?
Over this last series we have journeyed with Elijah and Elisha, two Old Testament prophets, and watched as they have walked through their calling and the miracles, wilderness and fear, and moments of overwhelming pressure. Week after week we have seen through their stories that being formed by God is not just about altering our behaviour. God reforms our vision. He shapes our instincts, how we read our circumstances, how we see and understand and react to what is actually happening around us.
Today we come to one of the clearest episodes of this in the whole Elijah and Elisha story. A moment where two people stand in the same place, facing the same situation, and see two completely different realities. One sees danger and fear. One sees God and hope. One sees only what is visible. The other sees what God is doing behind the scenes.
This is the heart of Christian formation. Not simply learning Christian things, but learning to see with a Christian imagination. Learning to see our battles, our city, our work, our relationships and our challenges through the eyes of the One who loves us.
This is where God’s formation leads us.
To new eyes. To a new way of seeing.
So as we come to this passage in 2 Kings 6, I want us to ask God to do in us what we will see Elisha asks God to do for his servant. So before I read, let’s pray together.
Lord, open our eyes.
Help us to see as you see.
Help us to recognise where fear has been blurring our vision.
Where pressure or tiredness or disappointment has narrowed our sight.
Help us to see East London, our communities and our workplaces, filled with your presence.
Help us to see that you are fighting our battles.
That your ways are better than ours.
Help us to see with the clarity that comes from being formed by your Spirit.
Amen.
Please feel free to follow along on your devices or with the text on screen. This is 2 Kings 6.8-23…
Elisha Traps Blinded Arameans
8 Now the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, “I will set up my camp in such and such a place.”
9 The man of God sent word to the king of Israel: “Beware of passing that place, because the Arameans (Ara-me-ans) are going down there.” 10 So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again Elisha warned the king, so that he was on his guard in such places.
11 This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, “Tell me! Which of us is on the side of the king of Israel?”
12 “None of us, my lord the king,” said one of his officers, “but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.”
13 “Go, find out where he is,” the king ordered, “so I can send men and capture him.” The report came back: “He is in Dothan.” 14 Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city.
15 When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. “Oh no, my lord! What shall we do?” the servant asked.
16 “Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”
17 And Elisha prayed, “Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
18 As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, “Strike this army with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha had asked.
19 Elisha told them, “This is not the road and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will lead you to the man you are looking for.” And he led them to Samaria.
20 After they entered the city, Elisha said, “Lord, open the eyes of these men so they can see.” Then the Lord opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were, inside Samaria.
21 When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, “Shall I kill them, my father? Shall I kill them?”
22 “Do not kill them,” he answered. “Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master.” 23 So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away, and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel’s territory.
This is the words of the Lord!
The Story Beyond The Surface
So, on the surface it looks like big trouble. Elisha and his servant wake up one morning and the city is surrounded by an enemy army. Soldiers on every side. No way out. No escape. No plan B. From the servant’s point of view this is just the worst possible situation. He sees what any of us would see. Threat. Pressure. A situation completely out of his control.
And he does what most of us do when life closes in. He panics. He blurts out the only thing he can muster, verse 15: “Oh no, Lord! What shall we do?”
I think that line is one of those super-honest biblical prayers. What shall we do?! It is the prayer of someone who cannot see beyond the problem in front of them. Someone who feels outnumbered, and small.
I am sure that most of us know that feeling, and have prayed that prayer.
You wake up and something has already wrapped itself around your thoughts. A problem at work. A conversation you have been avoiding. A situation in your family. A financial pressure. A health concern. It sits on you like a weight. You look around and it feels like there are more enemies than answers.
That is exactly what is happening for Elsiha’s servant. His whole field of vision is filled with the problem. And this is where this story, this mad story from the Old Testament, becomes a mirror for us. Because often the thing that forms our perspective is not faith. It’s fear. It’s pressure. It is that old inner voice that says ‘this is all too big for you’, ‘you are on your own’.
When the pace of life hits you. The noise, the stories, the needs, the demands. You look out at the estate you live on, or the school you teach in, or the team you lead, and you think, this is too much for me.
That is the servant’s vision. Full of the visible problem. Unaware of the invisible presence of God.
And this is the contrast this whole passage is about. The servant sees the crisis. Elisha sees something else. Same place. Same moment. Completely different vision.
In a second we will watch what Elisha does. But first I want us to recognise that spiritual formation always begins by noticing what we are looking at. Noticing what fills our sight. Noticing what grips our attention.
I wonder today, or this week, what do you see? What’s consuming your vision?
God’s Perspective Revealed
So, the servant is overwhelmed. The army is real. The fear is real. The pressure is real. But Elisha sees something the servant doesn’t. He doesn’t deny the danger. He doesn’t pretend everything is fine. He simply sees more than the servant can see.
And Elisha’s response is not a strategy meeting or an escape plan. His response is prayer, for his servant: Lord, open his eyes.
It is such a simple prayer. Just a quiet invitation for God to change the servants vision. And in a moment this man’s entire world shifts. The hills are full of horses and chariots of fire. The presence of God surrounding them. The servant has not moved, he’s standing in the same place, but he’s no longer seeing the same world. His place of vulnerability and impossibility suddenly surrounded by the presence and power of God.
Spiritual formation gives you new eyes to see.
Some of you will know Adelaide’s story — how our eldest daughter was born — and how God gave Charlotte, my wife and I, fresh eyes and carried us through what seemed like an impossible situation. Just recently, I’ve written a lyrical story that captures something of our difficult journey to parenthood with both of our amazing girls — I thought I’d read you a little extract, that starts with us waiting and hoping:
“…After what seemed like an eternity, another day dawned, and two small blue lines signalled the beginning of a new journey.
It was only week thirteen when our excitement was shattered by a brutal pronouncement: “The foetus is not compatible with life.” A senior consultant went to great lengths to explain the lethal condition, how our baby’s bones weren’t forming as they should, how the rib cage would be too small, and how, though the pregnancy might go full term, there would be no room for those tiny lungs to inflate.
Termination, we were told, was the only option.
We fell into the arms of our community. There was nowhere else to go. We cried and we prayed, and when we could no longer cry or pray, they cried and prayed for us. Two weeks later, with a holy resolve that can only be found in the embrace of others, we returned to that consultant, much to her bemusement, to explain that we would continue.
And again we waited.
Waited and hoped.In those dark months, haunted by medical certainty and the shadow of death, Choose Joy became our refrain, and the angel of the Lord encamped around us.
It was cold when she arrived. Winter. Midnight. Unexpected, earlier than the intervention that had been planned. Even in those rushed final minutes, the prognosis of loss decisively confirmed.
Yet amidst a scramble of doctors, a baby screamed. Our baby. The baby we were told would never breathe. With one cry we knew that God had the final word.
Adelaide was alive...”
One of my abiding memories of Charlotte and I journeying through such a challenging season, is the echo of Psalm 34 —
“The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.”
That’s what we experienced. It’s was simple prayers that changed what we saw. That was what encouraged us and held, the presence of God surrounding us.
And that is what happens to Elisha’s servant. One prayer and he goes from confusion to confidence, his problem to God’s presence. The situation hadn’t changed, but everything about how he sees it has.
This is the gift God gives to his people — not the removal of every challenge, but the ability to see those challenges through new eyes. To see our lives held by his presence. To see that the battle we are worried about is already surrounded by the God who loves us.
Spiritual formation leads us to understand that clarity and hope doesn’t come from getting rid of all our problems. It comes from learning to see God in the middle of them.
God Fights Our Battles
So, the servant can suddenly see the reality he had missed. And it’s crazy — horses and chariots of fire all around. But the story doesn’t finish there, because now the question becomes: what does God do next? If the hills are filled with the fire of God’s presence, what difference does that make in the actual battle?
And what happens next is perhaps a touch Monty Python. The army that has come to capture Elisha ends up being blinded by God, and Elisha walks straight up to the commander and says, you are in the wrong place, let me show you the way. And he leads this entire army, blinded, right into the heart of Samaria (which was the capital of Israel — the northern kingdom — at the time), right into the king of Israel’s courtyard, right into a place where the enemy are suddenly completely powerless.
The moment their eyes are opened they realise they are surrounded. The threat has been reversed. The battle they were so confident about has already been won by God. And Elisha hasn’t lifted a sword. He hasn’t shouted or scrambled to defend himself. He has simply trusted that the God who opened his servant’s eyes will also act on their behalf.
This is a pattern that we see all through Scripture — God fights for his people. God carries burdens we cannot carry. Steps into battles we do not have the strength to win. And he does it in ways we would never expect. Often not through force or some great spectacle. Sometimes through quiet intervention that only becomes clear in hindsight.
So this, again, is a mirror for us. Most of us have places where we feel outmatched, places where the pressure is real and we cannot see a way forward. But we see in Scripture time and time again that God does his best work in the places where we feel least in control. God is not waiting for us to conjure up strength or to shout louder or try harder. God moves towards us in our weakness. God surrounds the very places that frighten us. God fights for his people.
And sometimes the victory is dramatic. Sometimes it is quiet. Sometimes it is slow. But the heart of the story is the same. When you cannot see a way forward, God is already at work behind the scenes. When you feel surrounded, God has already surrounded what surrounds you.
Our formation as disciples enables us to see with new eyes and to trust the One we see, who fights for us.
The Miracle Of Mercy
So, the army that surrounded Elisha is now surrounded by Israel. The tables have completely turned. And the king of Israel, exactly as you might expect, says: shall I kill them? Shall I kill them? He is ready to finish the fight. He is ready to strike while he has the power.
But Elisha says no. Do not kill them. Feed them. Give them water. Treat them as guests. Send them home.
And we see that the miracle in this passage is not only the opening of eyes. Amazingly, Elisha refuses to turn his advantage into aggression, and we see the miracle of mercy.
This is God’s formation of Elisha as someone who does not simply see differently but acts differently. Someone whose response is compassion, not revenge. Someone who having seen with God’s eyes, feels with God’s heart. Someone who knows that the love of God is just as powerful as the armies of God.
This mercy isn’t weakness. It’s Christian formation. The shaping of our hearts to mirror the heart of God.
You can imagine the scene. These soldiers have come to destroy Elisha. They find themselves sitting at a table eating bread and drinking water in the city they meant to overthrow. Their weapons are still by their sides, but their hearts have been disarmed. The passage ends by telling us that the Aramean raiders stopped attacking Israel after this. Mercy changed what force never could.
And, there’s a challenge for us here too. Because when we feel threatened, our first instinct is rarely compassion. When someone hurts us, our instinct is to protect ourselves, to push back, to brace ourselves.
God is forming us to be different. The more we see through God’s eyes we also begin to feel with God’s heart. The more we trust God to fight our battles the less we need to fight the people around us.
This is the mark of a disciple. Eyes opened by God. Hearts shaped by what we see, by His kindness and compassion.
Seeing Through God’s Eyes
So what can you take away from this passage today? What does it mean for you, here, now, in East London, in your actual life? If formation begins by learning to see through God’s eyes, how do you begin to correct your lenses?
I want to offer two simple questions — or invitations. And I’d love to encourage you, if you feel comfortable, to just close your eyes.
First, to think where do you feel outnumbered, or attacked?
Where do you feel surrounded by something you can’t control? It might be a situation at work. It might be something in your family. It might be a fear that won’t let you go. Maybe a habit you cannot break, or a pressure you cannot name.
I invite you to hold that place, person, pressure before God now and ask him to show you his presence surrounding it — ask him to help you see with new eyes — to see that you are not standing there alone.
Second, where might God be giving you vision to be a channel of his kindness, compassion, mercy?
We mustn’t miss the end of this story — it doesn’t end with victory but with mercy, and a meal. That’s the heart of God. That’s what it looks like to be truly formed. To have God’s eye and God’s heart.
So ask yourself: who needs that from you this week? Who needs your patience? Who needs kindness? Who needs someone who carries the peace and presence of Jesus into their world?
God opens our eyes so that our hearts can be opened too.
Let us pray
Lord, open our eyes.
Open our eyes to your presence.
Open our eyes to your strength.
Open our eyes to your love.
Help us to see with the clarity that comes from being formed by your Spirit.
Amen.