Too Good Not To Share

Redeeming Grace Church

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Good morning, everyone Let me try that one more time. Good morning, everyone.

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Oh That's better That's better. I'm just glad I'll help all these pillars here if this place falls down.

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I bet it goes that way Hey Zach that last hymn, whatever my

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God ordains is right Good friends of the pastor's wife who when she had a miscarriage once she fell in love with that song and boy, there's a lot there that you can cling to and rejoice in and You know that your your life your soul your faith is built upon a rock that When the rains come down and the floods rise up You know that you're in good stead

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Well take your Bibles turn with me to second Kings chapter 9 make that chapter 7 second

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Kings and chapter 7 Make that chapter 6.

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I'm going to begin with chapter 6. We're gonna work our way to chapter 7 something of a different type of Sermon, maybe then you typically hear we're in the second

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Kings 6 and Elisha is the principal prophet of God at this time

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He took over from Elijah Now we have Elisha the king of Israel at that time was

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Jehoram and He's the son of Ahab and Jezebel and you can read about him in chapter 3 the first several verses

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Jehoram king of the Northern Kingdom The Northern Kingdom was called Israel. The Southern Kingdom was called

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Judah. So the two prophets Elijah and Elisha were Set principally in the

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Northern Kingdom and that's where the context is that we have here So follow along as I read beginning in chapter 6 verse 1 now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha this is he has his own pastoral

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Academy and Men who are training to be prophets under Elisha were there with him

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They lived with him and stayed with him and they said to him this day See the place where we live where we dwell under your charge is too small for us

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We need a bigger place to live the we're busting out at the seams let us go to the

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Jordan and each one get there a log and Let us make a place for us to dwell there.

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Let's add on to our facility He answered go then one of them said be pleased to go with your servants.

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Come on Elisha come with us He answered I will go so he went with them and when they came to the

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Jordan they cut down trees as One was felling a log His axe head fell into the water and he cried out.

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Oh, no Alas my master it was borrowed Axe heads were those iron axe heads were expensive

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Not not many of them around and I borrowed it now it's down the bottom of this deep river

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What am I gonna do? Then the man of God said where'd it fall? Then he showed him the place

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He cut off a stick. He threw it in there and made the iron float

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And he said take it up So he reached out his hand and took it and was able to take it back to his neighbor

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Just like neighbors who loan you things hope that you always do bring back what you borrowed

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That is called a miracle that the Prophet of God by those means

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Would display the power of God over that natural those natural limitations and what it really does show is the concern that God's Faithful servant had for the everyday

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Difficulties of people's lives. He didn't have to do that, but he was concerned for this servant of God pick up in verse 8

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Once when the king of Syria was warning against Israel. He took counsel with his servants saying at such -and -such a place

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Shall be my camp But the man of God or Elisha sent word to the king of Israel Ben -Hadad

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Beware that you do not pass this place for the Syrians are going down there and the

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New American Standard says these were scouts They're going down there and the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him

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Thus he used to warn him so that he saved himself there more than once or twice

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So there was a leak going on or at least that's what Ben -Hadad thought pick up in verse 11 and the mind of the king

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Of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing and he called his servants and said to them

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Will you not show me who it of us is for the king of Israel? Somebody's letting out our secret plans to send our armies to this such -and -such a place these roads this pass

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Someone is letting out that information so that the enemy is not they're not showing up there like they would normally do

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You know that was happening with ice agents Even recently there was some type of leak when they were going to do a big bust that go to this area but The information got out before they got there

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So all the folks they wanted to arrest they didn't show up in that particular place and the administration was very unhappy Somebody is leaking this information and that's what the king of Syria thought

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Who is for this the king of Israel That they're letting out this information verse 12 and one of the servants said none my lord.

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Oh king But Elisha the prophet who is in Israel Tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom

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You know God is able to do that, isn't it? When you about the time you think you're doing something that no one else knows

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God Has a way of sending a little bird out of that bedroom or out of that place where you thought you were all alone

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And getting away with some he knows how to make it known everywhere and that's what he's doing

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Oh King Elisha the prophets down there in Israel and God is Making known to him everything that you thought was secret

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He says goes he said verse 13 Go and see where he is that I may send and seize him.

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We got to get this prophet It was told him. Well, he's in Dothan So he sent their horses and chariots and a great army and they came by night and surrounded the city and When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out and he looks outside the city

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Behold an army with horses and chariots was all around the city they're surrounded with all these this great big army and The servant said like the last guy when he lost the iron axe said alas.

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Oh, no What are we gonna do my master? He said don't be afraid

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For those who are with us are more than those who are with them

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Then Elisha prayed and said O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see So Yahweh opened the eyes of the young man and he saw

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What did he see? Behold the mountain Was full of horses and chariots of fire

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All around Elisha, that's where the

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Lord is You think you're surrounded by all the difficulties and Heartaches of life and you think oh, no, my life is going down But if God would give us eyes to see what he is doing and how he's taking care of us you we know that the redeemed of the

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Lord are in the hands of God and Nothing can hurt us. Nothing can touch us.

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But whatever our God ordains is exactly right So it teaches us that we can look at life circumstances either with eyes of faith conscious of God's hands and purposes his protection and his provision or we can look at those same

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Circumstances like the servant did and only see that which threatens us and is our undoing

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See them through the eyes of flesh with our reasoning and with our resources pick up in verse 18 and When the

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Syrians came down against him Elijah prayed to the Lord to Yahweh and said please strike this people with blindness so he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha and Elisha said to them.

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This is not the way Come on, y 'all. This is not the city you want to go to Follow me and I'll bring you to the man who he happened to be the man

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Whom you ever whom you're seeking? So he leads them to Samaria the capital city of the northern kingdom

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He gets them by the hand they're blinded You can take him wherever you want to go and you can tell him follow me and he takes him by the hand the entire

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Army, he leads them over to the city of Samaria the capital big city Right through the gate shuts the gate puts them in the center of the city

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Verse 20 and as soon as they enter Samaria Elisha said O Lord open the eyes of these men that they may see

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Had to open the eyes of the servant earlier to help him to see God is in control and there's nothing to be afraid of Lord open these eyes in verse 20 of these men that they may see

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How much trouble they're in? So the Lord opened their eyes and they saw and behold they were in the midst of Samaria They're right in the center of this great big enemy metropolis

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They're in big trouble as soon as the king of Israel saw them This is

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Benedet Said to Elisha my father Shall I strike them down?

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Shall I strike them down? Let me kill them. They're my enemy And he answered you shall not strike them down.

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You know, it should not kill them Would you strike down those whom you've taken captive with your sword and with your bow

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Set water bread and water before them That they may eat and drink and go to their master so he prepared for them a great feast and when they had eaten and drunk he sent them away and they went to their master and The Syrians did not come again on raids into the land of Israel If you're gonna kill him kill him with food and kill him with love not with your swords

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Be good Those that give evil to you return good

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That's the way of our God That's the way he shows his sovereign power.

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That is good power These miracles aren't they something and you know, there's three time periods in the scripture where miracles are really prevalent one during the time of Moses two during the time of Elijah and Elisha and three during the time of Christ and the

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Apostles there were miracles at other times, but during those three time epochs there were a prevalent a mighty display of many miracles and this was one of them showing the the power of God You'd think they would have listened

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You'd have think that that Jehoram the king of Israel that so benefited by the power of God through his servant would have humbled himself and started listening instead of Directing just listen to what

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God has to say through the prophet and Yet that shows you how depraved he really was how blinded he really was pick up in verse 24

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Afterward Benedad king of Syria mustered his entire army and went up and besieged Samaria.

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He didn't learn his lesson good enough Here he comes again And there was a great famine he surrounded the city of Samaria for so long be besieged it until a donkey's head was sold for 80 shekels of silver and a fourth part of a cab of doves dung

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Because you don't have anything else to eat Would sell for five shekels of silver that's a bad famine a donkey being an unclean animal and You're gonna pay 80 shekels of silver for the privilege of eating something that doesn't have much meat on it and it's ceremonially

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It'll it's unclean and then you get a half pint of dove droppings

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It must have been a very bad Famine. Oh, it was verse 26

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Now the king of Israel was passing by on the wall a woman cried out to him saying help my lord

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Oh king and he says if the Lord if Yahweh will not help you. What can I possibly do?

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Am I going to help you from the threshing floor from the wine press where you get bread or where you get wine?

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And the king asked her what is your trouble? She answered this woman said to me give your son that we may eat him today and We'll eat my son tomorrow

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So we boiled my son and ate him and on the next day. I said to her give your son that we may eat him

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But he is she has hidden her son when the king heard these words of the woman he tore his clothes now as he was passing by on the wall and the people look behold, he had a sackcloth beneath his body and He said may

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God do so to me and more. Also if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today

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What a horrible situation and rather than repenting before God they're gonna blame the man of God And then they're gonna end up blaming the

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Lord of Glory and it's true times of great distress are from the hand of God If God would bless us we shall be blessed if God curses we shall be cursed

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Verse 32 Elisha was sitting in his house and the elders were sitting with him now the king

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Had dispatched a man from his presence. This is Jehoram king of Israel Dispatched a man from his presence, but before the messenger arrived

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Elisha said to the elders Do you see how this murderer has sent to take a has been sent to take off my head?

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Look when the messenger comes shut the door and hold the door fast against him

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Is not the sound of his master's feet? Right behind him and while he was still speaking with them

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The messenger came down to him and said this trouble is from the Lord Why should we

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I wait for the Lord any longer Typical of what we might say without saying it.

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Why should I wait for God to move in my life any longer? Chapter 7 verse 1

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But Elisha says hear the word of Yahweh Thus says the

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Lord tomorrow about this time a sea of fine flowers shall be sold for a shekel and To see is of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria Are you kidding me?

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How can that possibly be? Today you get a fourth of a quart or a half of a pint of Dove -dung for five shekels and a donkey's head for 80 shekels of silver

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But tomorrow the Prophet says that's all going to change Dramatically and you'll be able to buy seven quarts of flour for one shekel 13 quarts of barley for one shekel.

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There's gonna be a complete reversal from disaster to amazing abundance and verse 2 and to see is

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For a shekel at the gate of Samaria Then the captain on whose hand the king lean said to the man of God if the

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Lord himself would make windows in heaven Could this thing be? But he said the

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Prophet says you'll see it with your own eyes But you will not eat of it with that type of an proclamation of unbelief

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You are not going to participate in this amazing reversal

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The unbelief of the Syrians captain. How can this possibly be? How about us?

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We have been given the Great Commission But then we look around at our culture This world our nation the churches the churches are small and weak and fledgling

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We look at our many former attempts and our many failures How can this possibly be that in the

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Great Commission God would say give promises like I'm gonna build my church and it's going to be so strong that when it

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Marches the gates of hell will not be able to stand against it or that the knowledge of the

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Lord shall cover the entire earth as the waters cover the sea and You'll not be able to stop this incredible spread of the knowledge of the

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Lord Where God says my kingdom is an ever -lasting

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Kingdom and it will conquer. How can this thing possibly be?

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Well, I guess we have to ask ourselves the question do we believe That God can make axe heads to float

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Can your God give the secret military plans of the enemy to his people and place them?

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strategically In the place to win the day and accomplish his purpose

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Are your God's heavenly hosts surrounding your life and your family in your church?

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assuring us of safety certainty and victory Can your

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God lay hold of sinners like this Syrian army? blind them thwart their course of rebellion hit them with this helpless blindness confuse their wicked agenda and Lead them as lambs right into the city of God Can your

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God do that? we tend to look at what has been as Defeatist and say what are we gonna do and we're looking at things with our own reasoning and with our own resources

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But look what happens pick up in chapter 7 verse 3 Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate and they said to one another

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Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say let us enter the city the famine is in the city.

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Why go there? We shall only die there and if we sit here, we're gonna die

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So, let's go let's go over to the camp of the Syrians who surrounded this great city

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Let's go there if they spare our lives. We shall live if they kill us. We're just gonna die anyway

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So they rose in twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians But when they were to the edge of the camp of the

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Syrians Behold there was no one there For the

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Lord Yahweh made the army of the Syrians to hear the sound of chariots and of horses

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The sound of a great army so that they said to one another Oh Behold the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the

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Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us let's get out of here and So they all fled away and in the twilight and they abandoned their tents their horses their donkeys leaving the camp as it was and fled for their lives and Here comes these four lepers

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Just coming in Wondering if they were gonna be immediately put to death or Maybe there's some mercy for them, but they just come trotting into the

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Syrian camp verse 8

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They went into a tent and ate and drank No one's there.

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They carried off the silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them and They came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them

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Yahweh had made the Syrian army to hear in their ears The noise of horses and chariots and they thought we're gonna get slaughtered.

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Let's get out of here There wasn't any army coming God did that and they're just going on they can't believe what they've fallen into look at the food and the wine and and the clothing here's lepers that had been put outside the city and Just think how their clothes were rotten and stinking

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And all of a sudden they come into all this abundance. They're going crazy Enjoying all of this and verse 9

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Then they said to one another We are not doing right This day is a day of good news

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If we are silent and wait until morning light punishment will overtake us now therefore

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Come let us go and tell the king's household

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This is a day of good news. We've got to go tell people The one thing that can save their lives and make a difference

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In all their hunger and agony and misery Let's go and tell go and tell go and tell have you heard that somewhere else?

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Haven't you heard that when Jesus was? gathering Andrew did

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Peter and Nathaniel and and all the disciples He said go and tell and that's exactly what they were saying to one another we've got to go and tell

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Cor they they went to the city notice in verse 10 the gatekeepers of the city and they say guys

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We got to share our testimony We came to the camp of the Syrians and behold there was no one to be seen or heard there.

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Yeah likely story Nothing, but the horses were tied and the donkeys tied and the tents were there

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Then the gatekeepers called out and said and it was told within the king's household

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They relayed the message to the king verse 12 the king rose In the night and said to the servants.

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I'll tell you what the Syrians have done. It's a trick. It's a plot

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They know that we're hungry Therefore they've gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the open country thinking that when we come out of the city

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We shall take them alive and get into the city It's a plot Those guys aren't being honest

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Folks, this is a day of good news five things I typically like five points

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Number one point we must not We cannot Keep the good news of the gospel to ourselves

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Very soon after coming into all this undeserved wealth Into all this life -saving bounty the lepers

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Consciences kicked in in verse 9 hold everything They are discovering they are gathering they are hoarding and it's all about them

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They're hiding So that no one else can get it they wouldn't be bothered by others

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Trying to distribute it divide it and share it People are trouble people or doesn't that brings problems get involved in people's lives

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We can just be happy with what we've discovered and we're enjoying it's all for us

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Others in our community are starving to death they're in utter misery and They're without hope and we have the answer

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Our eternal God has provided salvation in abundance

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It wasn't that these lepers were such good guys That the Israelites it wasn't that they were so deserving it wasn't

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The Israelites had treated those lepers like outcasts

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We don't want you in our city We don't want you to be around us and now they're posed with this question

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We have all this bounty and these guys that have rejected us They're in such misery and want

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We cannot We cannot But the news was so good

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The nature of the blessing was such that to remain silent to hoard

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Would be grossly immoral To keep such a blessing so obviously big enough for themselves and all others they could not live with themselves

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They had this powerful sense of responsibility Like the Apostle Paul in Romans 1 where he says

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I'm a debtor I'm a debtor to the Jews. I'm a debtor to the Greeks. I'm a debtor to people

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I've never met in all my life to the educated and the refined To the barbarians

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I'm a debtor. I've come into this bounty this soul -saving

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Bounty and I asked brothers and sisters do our consciences do the same?

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We have the answer in the gospel of Jesus Christ. We've experienced it We've tasted it.

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We've fed upon it Our souls are filled and satisfied and we are commissioned to testify of it

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Can we justify our Silence Now we have no excuses

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They could these lepers could have said hey, we're just lepers. No one's gonna listen to us

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And look how they've treated us to this point No, we must speak

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We must share what we've received But you say well, I'm an older person.

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I don't know anybody. I don't get out Or I'm a young mother I'm consumed with my home and my children

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I'm a young person. Nobody wants to hear about my religion I'm a husband and a father.

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I Have so many things to think about with my business and career and taking care of my family

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Let's hear the words of Horatious Bonar In a book that changed my life

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Early on call words to winners of souls Quote he that saved our souls

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Has taught us to weep over the unsaved Lord, let that mind be in us that was in thee

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Give us thy tears to weep For Lord our hearts are hard toward our fellows

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We can see thousands perish around us and our sleep never be disturbed

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No vision of their awful doom ever scaring us no cry from their lives

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Our lost souls ever turning our peace into bitterness Our families our schools our congregations

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Not to speak of our cities at large our land our world might well send us daily to our knees

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For the loss of even one soul is terrible beyond conception Eye has not seen nor ear heard

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Nor has entered into the heart of man. What a soul in hell must suffer forever

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Lord give us bowels of mercies What a mystery the soul and eternity of one man depends upon the voice of another

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He goes on and who can say How much of the overflowing infidelity unbelief all around us of this present day

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Is owing not only to the lack of spiritual instructors, you know, we have more evangelists and pastors

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But this overflowing infidelity Of the present day is not owing only to our lack of spiritual instructors

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Not merely to the existence of grossly unfaithful and inconsistent ones

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But to the coldness Of many who are reputed sound and faithful Man cannot but feel that if religion is worth anything

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It is worth everything That if it calls for any measure of zeal and warmth

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It will justify the utmost degrees of these And that there's no consistent medium between reckless atheism and the most intense warmth of religious zeal

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Man may dislike detest scoff at persecute the latter

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Yet their consciences are all the while silently reminding them that if there be a god and a savior a heaven and a hell

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Anything short of such life and love is hypocrisy dishonesty perjury

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This really is a day of good news And we must shout it

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We cannot be silent We must tell of god's salvation according to psalm 96 one through three

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Tell of his salvation from day to day And I say to all of us including myself if we have got away from aggressive witnessing

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Let us make some definitive resolutions Right here today We must be the voices that go about to rescue the perishing and to care for the dying

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Today is a day of good news Meet people

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Turn conversations Carry tracks pray for open doors seize those opportunities

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Make it the first thing in your mind and the first thing off your lips to speak of christ

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And so great salvation number two

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God has given to us a very powerful gospel Both to the individual person who's never got serious about becoming a christian

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But also to the church and our mission to take the gospel to rescue god's elect from destruction

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Knowing that we as a church, we're not going to fail in the work of god In Spreading the gospel of christ not sing not one single one of god's elect will fail to believe

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First let me just take a few moments to address those here today young people children

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Any teenagers anybody? If you've never come to christ And experienced a powerful salvation in your life

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I want to take the opportunity here today To tell you just like what happened to these lever, uh the city

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That there can be a complete reversal Of what life you're living

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And what you may enter into what god can do in your life I want to urge you to come to christ today

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And you might ask well, I i've heard this but will I regret becoming a christian? And I gotta tell you no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

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I became a christian when I was a teenager God saved my wretched soul.

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He made all the difference in this wavered guy And I have not once once regretted

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Coming to christ following christ serving christ Identifying publicly with jesus christ and I can go to my high school reunions and I can see what not having christ

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Does for those that don't have christ? What a difference he's made in my life

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And i've seen it with all kinds of people and he can make that difference in your life, too in isaiah 55

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The prophet says hey all of you who thirst come to the waters and you who have no money come buy and eat

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Now that's the kind of purchasing power. I like You don't need money to come to christ.

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You don't need your good works or your merits You just come on and you can buy all of jesus christ with faith

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Yes, come buy wine and milk without money without price Why do you spend your money for what is not bread?

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And your wages for what does not satisfy and i'll guarantee you'll work all your life trying to have significance or pleasure or comfort or prestige

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You can spend everything you have Trying to accomplish those things but you're not going to find it

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With what you have to offer Is to be found in the lord of glory jesus christ

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He says let your soul delight itself in abundance. You'll be completely satisfied in coming to christ

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This promise comes against all odds because you've tried all kinds of things if you're miserable today

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And you're famished today About just living life and you realize you're just you're not getting anywhere

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With your life Just know that jesus christ is an all -sufficient savior

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And your soul can be filled with life today And jesus christ can set you free from the curse and the condemnation

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Of god's law and relieve your conscience from anything and everything that oppresses you today

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And jesus christ can bring you into that living relationship with that living god

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And into a life of joy and peace and purpose Just taste of him and see for yourself

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If you care for yourself like the lepers did Then they did obviously

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Let's try anything And possibly our lives might be spared

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I ask you what do you have to do to lose your soul?

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The answer is nothing Like these lepers could have done

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Just sit Right where you're at In the church in your home in your school.

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Just sit do nothing Pay no attention to your parents teaching you the bible

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Pay no attention to your pastors teaching you the word of god. Just sit Let things roll off you like water goes off the back of a duck

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Treat this sermon like all the others you've ever heard Wondering when it's time is he when is he going to stop and we're going to have that wonderful potluck be thinking about that food be thinking about What you can do the rest of the day or tomorrow?

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Let your thoughts wander away from what is here in the scripture That's all you need to do

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But think of your soul It's the most important important part of you

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You really don't want that to be lost forever And you don't have to be for jesus says for god so loved the world

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That he gave his one and only son That whoever would believe in him you don't have to perish

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You can have everlasting life If you'll come to christ Call upon christ right now your soul may be saved

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And I ask why not if you've never done that why not do it today? right now Give yourself to the lord.

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Jesus christ right now Secure from him that everlasting relationship that cannot be broken before you lay your head on your pillow tonight

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Turn from your life of sin turn to christ Yes Why not go to christ today?

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And present your soul to him with all your sins with all your doubts with all your fears. Why not go to him right now?

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If you're if you're old It's not long before you're gonna die Why don't you get ready right now for the day of your death?

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And be prepared to meet your god do something today If you're young And you don't you don't know when you're gonna die

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Why don't you come on to christ right now and give the best years of your life to serving christ?

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Right now for the rest of your life. Why don't you do it? And in christ, you'll find a never failing friend

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You'll find a friend that sticks closer than any brother anybody on planet earth

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But don't waste your life on things that are gonna rot Don't spend your life building sand castles waiting for that big wave to come along and wipe them off the beach of life

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Don't you want to know what real love is?

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When all others are turning their backs on at you

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Jesus christ will never loosen his grip of you and he'll never let you go

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Are you a sinner? a great sinner like me

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And I peep I tell people on the streets of Of west atlanta, I am the biggest sinner in atlanta, georgia

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And they look at me and kind of chuckle and roll their eyes and I said no no I'm serious. I'm a bigger sinner than you and bigger than anybody here on in west atlanta

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But I have a great big savior That loves to save great big sinners and god saved me by his mercy and grace and made me a new man with a new life

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Are you a sinner? Come to christ And the blood of jesus christ god's son can wash away all your sins

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And they'll be remembered no more Like these lepers found

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There's such abundance in jesus christ It cannot be exhausted

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There's more healing and joy in jesus than you can ever possibly use So accept the fact that there's only one way of knowing god in a real and personal relationship

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Just one way of salvation and come to the lord. Jesus christ right now

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Call upon the lord in desperate prayer. Maybe you've called many times and you haven't felt anything or known

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Any kind of change of heart or life just keep calling Come to christ

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Do as many others have done come now come right now Tell jesus you come to him because you heard that he receives sinners

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And that you're a sinner and that you want him to save you Tell the whole tell him the whole story of your past life

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Tell him you've been an unbeliever an immoral person But you're a sinner and you want to be saved

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Tell him That you've been a godless reckless ill -tempered person

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Tell him And he will not turn you away He'll not cast you out

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He will not turn his back on you. He'll be so gentle to you

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You just got to get rid you've got to get tired of eating donkey's heads and dove poop

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That's all this world has to offer Come to christ now and you'll find some real real glorious fare for your soul secondly to the church us witnesses of for jesus christ

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There is such a powerful gospel that you and I cannot fail

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We will be successful People will hear the gospel and they will be able to believe

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We get discouraged when no one listens But we have to know that god will save his people from their sins

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No matter how helpless and hopeless this generation appears

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We serve a risen savior He's in the world today

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I know that he is living Whatever men may say He's i've heard his

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I've known as his voice of cheer his hand of mercy and just the time

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I need him He really is always near This great savior jesus christ.

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He is all Thirdly he opens the doors of opportunity to share the gospel

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I appreciate the amen I'll say that one again

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God opens the doors of opportunity to share the gospel And he does so in the most unlikely ways

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As we see he used angels nature The senses of men we saw where he opened eyes in chapter 6 verse 17 to encourage

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He opened ears in 7 verse 6 to terrorize You never know when god is working arranging

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It just calls us especially as a church who are Winners of souls for christ to always be ready

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There's a young man that is a very special guy in our lives that when my daughter was in high school

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She was getting to be pretty pretty And so the older guys started noticing her and they started hanging out

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I lived at a church and they started hanging around the church and the house in the parking lot

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They'd like to show off they'd bring a football and they'd throw a long pass and catch it so easy and just Want to be near want to impress want to make themselves available and I had a policy that I'd That I'd let him have one free visit and the second time

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I hit him with the gospel Well kenneth turner came for his second visit and He was there at high school that day and he he told my daughter who was in literature class and they were reading moby dick that um, hey get the movie you can watch it, so my daughter said well, that's what our family's going to do tonight and kenneth offered to come in and Give his expertise his interpretation of the movie

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And so he came over we watched the movie and after the movie was over. I got up and turned off the vcr

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Remember vcr? Turned off the vcr and I sat down. I said kenneth If before you get across town

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You get in an accident and you die What happens to your eternal soul?

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And later he would testify that that hit that question hit him like a ton of bricks And he went home that night.

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He couldn't sleep He started coming to church and he sat right there on the front pew

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And finally kenneth turner came to christ He believed in the savior

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He was an athlete in high school He went and got his buddy who's the quarterback of the football team and chad and he came

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He went got his twin brother keith and he came Kenneth got his phd at southern seminary finally and after he went to arizona state and majored in physics and Brilliant guy

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Now he's a professor in bible college God's really saved kenneth His twin brother they were co -valedictorians of the high school

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And keith went to the air force academy And is loving christ serving christ last

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I heard he had memorized a hundred chapters of the bible as he drove across the deserts of nevada shooting missiles out of drones over iraq and afghanistan and Chad Went on to full -time ministry as a pastor in greenville

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And serving christ and god just worked powerfully in the lives of guys like them

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And it's just that question Kenneth if you die before you get across town, what's going to happen to your soul?

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Drove him nuts But see I didn't know god was going to work powerfully. I had no idea what one question could do

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In conquering this guy's heart and life God was going to work.

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He was working And that's the way we've got to think we've got to think If this next person

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I talk to broach about their soul what may happen to them and who might god use?

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through their lives being transformed Gotta have that mentality Now kathy and I sow a lot of seed there on the streets of west atlanta

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We never know what god is going to do in saving any one particular person if he would

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Please pray for us as we sow that seed because god is able to Bring a lot of lepers into a camp he's able to make

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All their ungodly friends and influences to hear the the sounds of armies and chariots

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And they flee out of their life. He's able To lay hold of people's lives and make a difference in their souls

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The person you're with tomorrow If you would talk to them about their soul

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About what's the most important thing in your life? About the confidence you have to take your last breath

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What might god do in their lives? with just one question with just some approach of care and love

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Reaching out to them Maybe in the fall you would rake their leaves in the in the winter if they have snow shovel their snow if there's

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Some spring cleaning if there's some football game that you could tailgate and if there's something you could barbecue in your if there anything you could do gather with people just Find ways to enter their lives and be able to ask those types of searching questions

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What may god do? We will not fail And we'll go through a lot of kath and i've gone through a lot of people

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And it's easy to be discouraged if I get our eyes fixed on our own abilities and resources

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But if god would enable us day by day to have our eyes fixed on jesus And keep our vision fixed on him

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We know we know we know in our heart of hearts that he's going to Save his people from their sins and he might even use that Question or that act of love that particular day

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Fourthly god can and will use anybody to rescue others from death God used these lepers

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You say he can't use me I'm too ignorant I don't know the bible well enough.

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I'm i'm too ugly i'm too Put in the blank what excuses might we use to say?

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I can't i'm too unpopular too unsuccessful unskilled No, no matter who you are

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Even if you are wealthy, even if you are strong Even if you are intelligent and beautiful God can use even you and fifthly

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How excited are we about the day of good news How believable are we

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When people come into our churches Do they sense our fervency our seriousness

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Can they hear it the way we sing? Pray Shake their hand ask questions show concern about Their lives their kids their dogs, whoever

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Can they tell that we are convinced of the eternal realities that We speak of do our children

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When they hear dad when they hear you they hear you pray Do they? Sense it in your voice.

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Do they see it in your tears? Do they feel it in your touch?

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When you put them to bed at night and tuck them in When you open the scripture And you read the word of god

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Do they know in your in their heart of hearts that it's something that really is deep and powerful and Capturing captured of your heart of hearts

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Is a joy of christ evident in us Is christ on the tip of our tongues when these lepers went to the city gates and they began to cry out about the

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All the tents and all the food Do you think they were monotone? Do you think they were?

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Putting people to sleep I think they were excited

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They had found the answer And they could not but pour their souls into seeking to rescue those in the city

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And let me close by just saying a word to us calvinist We believe that men can't believe unless god gives them faith that's true

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And we emphasize total depravity or man's total inability And that's true

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But if you're not careful You can feel down deep inside that your witnessing really doesn't make a difference

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That it does no good And furthermore as calvinists we can be proud

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And be more interested in in arguing calvinism And a whole that kind of a theological slant

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Than we about are about what jesus christ can do in a sinner's heart

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And life and we need to ask ourselves as calvinists.

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Do we have the simplicity of joy? in jesus christ Do we have the fascination with grace that we once had?

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In the person and presence and work of jesus christ in our own souls

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Yes Do we wait in prayer until we have that? We've we've we've tasted we've experienced it on a daily basis

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That god has opened the eyes of our souls and we behold something of the glory of god in the face of jesus christ

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Are we taken with the wonder of this salvation in our own soul? And our burden then to share the good news

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With all the other folks we know where they're at We know they're struggling with misery and famine of soul

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And with the destiny that's going to take them way far away from the life of life

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May god work in all of us If you're not a christian kids If you have not if you've not got serious about coming to jesus christ

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And laying hold of him by faith Don't wait think that some day when you'll get serious when you're older Pursue christ right now with every fiber in your being with everything in your soul