# We Will Do Well When We Tell

Category: Evangelism & Soul Winning
Key Passage: 2 Kings 7
Date: June 7, 2024

You see what these people are missing by being sick with the coronavirus?

All right, go with me quickly over to 2nd Kings Chapter 7. Second Kings Chapter 7. Do you could turn me down a little bit. I’m hearing some echo up here. Please turn me down a bit. I will compensate for that, and I’ll do my best to make sure everybody can hear this morning. But look over there in 2nd Kings chapter 7. The Bible says, stretch your legs a little bit.

This morning. I know we, folks, I know we tease about things like, you know, being sick and all the things, but I’m glad folks that you’re healthy. I’m glad that you’re here. I’m glad we’re in the House of God. I’m glad that it’s missions conference time and we get to be a part of doing something great. Missions conference is a business meeting where God’s people decide if they’re going to listen to what God has planned for them. God already has something he has for you.

He has an amount he wants you to give. It’s just a matter of us being yielded, as we heard last night, of us being yielded to what he has. So I don’t take it lightly that you’re here this morning. I don’t take it lightly that I get a chance to preach to you, and I do hope that God can speak to us this morning. Let’s look at verse one, and I want you to look verses one, and we’re going to read just a few verses this morning. The Bible says, Then Elisha said, hear ye the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord.

Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel in the gate of Samaria. Then the Lord on whose hand the king leaned answered the man of God, and said, behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven might this thing be? And he said, behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not eat thereof.

In verse three it says, and there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate. And they said, one to another, why sit we here until we die? If we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. Now therefore come, let us fall into the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live. If they kill us, we shall but die.

And if go down with me to verse 8, the Bible says that when the lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver and gold and raiment, and went and hid it, and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it.

Now, if you look in this passage and you read, of course, the previous passage, you see, I’m tempting fate here a little bit. I’m going to walk around and see if we get a little bit of some feedback here. But in this passage, if you know from the story what had happened was that the nation of Israel was under a siege.

We have any history fans here? Anyone like to read about history or maybe watch the history channel? Pawn Stars does not count as watching the history channel, okay, as actually being a history fan. If you like history and if you enjoy battles and warfare, you’ll know that in history, one of the most efficient and effective ways of conquering a city was to lay siege to that city. What they would do is that an army would completely surround that city. And then it was basically a waiting game. They were trying to see if they could outlast the people that were inside.

Hopefully, the people inside the city had enough provisions, had access to water, had some way to be able to stay alive, hoping that in turn, the people outside, the enemies that were at the gates would then get tired, bored, run out of their own resources. Those things would happen, and sometimes those sieges would last a very long time.

The ultimate goal for the people that were outside was that eventually the people would be so emaciated, so desperate that they would literally open the doors and say, please, just come on in. We can’t take this anymore. The nation of Israel, the northern tribes, were actually under such a siege. The city of Samaria, which was the capital of the northern tribes, they were in that situation. The enemy was at the gate, and it was a terrible, desperate time. It was a time where the things had gotten so bad that they didn’t even know if they could survive much longer at all.

And I want to point out a few different things this morning. I want us to look at the story, and I want us to draw an application. By the way, listen to me, folks, the Word of God isn’t just something that you read. It’s not just a collection of stories. It’s not just something that you would say, okay, well, that’s neat for my children to be able to learn a Bible story or to be able to sing a nice little song. No, when we read the Word of God, these are things that actually happened. These are things that God actually said, this is going to happen, and it did happen. We can look at this, and we shouldn’t just look at it as a story, but we should begin to look at it and say, how does this apply to me?

I think we miss out when we read our Bible and we just look at it and we say, okay, well, I just, I did what I was supposed to do. As opposed to saying, God, speak to me. God, change me. I want to bring to your attention three different people in this story. And as I bring to your attention these people, I want you to realize and see and ask the Lord, how does this apply to me?

The first person that I want you to see, or the first type of person that we see in this story, is I want you to see that, first off, there was an unrelenting enemy. In 2 Kings chapter 6, in the previous chapter, if you look in verse 24, it says, and it came to pass after this, the Benhad, King of Syria, gathered all his hosts, went up, besieged Samaria. He’s around. We see an enemy that was at the gates. It was an unrelenting enemy that was not going to give up.

It was not going to give them an opportunity to escape, and the place got so desperate. They were so worried about what they could possibly do that the people started resorting to all kinds of things. Now, I’ve eaten some weird things in my life. But these people were, I mean, these people were paying silver for dove’s droppings to be able to eat. A donkey’s head was selling for gold.

Now, like I said, I’ve eaten some strange things. I grew up on the mission field. I grew up in the country of Argentina. Now, there’s stranger places than that. But I’ve eaten some strange things over there before. I’ve eaten basically every part of the cow at some point or another. I remember when I was a teenager, or young teenager, we had these people over. And I was kind of, I’ll admit, I was naturally a little bit of a picky eater. I’m an adventurous eater, but usually it’s like, Oh, that’s nice, never again. The lady had brought over some raviolis. How many like pasta? I love fresh pasta, you know, the kind of stuff that is just, I mean, especially if it’s filled, you know, I just, ravioles are one of my favorite types of pasta. And this lady had brought over some pasta, and I’m eating, and I took one bite, and I look at my mom, I said, Mom, I don’t like this. She said, you don’t have to eat it. Like, I was in shock. I couldn’t believe that. Well, she told me later on that it was cow brains.

I know we’ve all probably eaten some strange things here and there, but these people were so desperate. It got so bad for the nation of Israel. They got to the point where the king heard these two women that came with a complaint, and these two women said, we both had a little baby. I know this is sad, but this is fact. This is stuff that happened. We both had our own little baby. We made a deal that we were going to cook and eat my son on the first day, and on the next day we were going to eat hers. And she hid her son. How dare she?

This enemy was fighting. This enemy was not going to give up. This enemy was not going to stop until it saw blood, until it got what it came to do, which was to conquer, and it was to destroy.

But I want you to see something. This unrelenting enemy isn’t the only person that we see here. Look in 1st Kings chapter 7, then Elisha said, hear ye the word of the Lord. Folks, listen, when God and God’s man gets up and says, hear the word of the Lord, you ought to listen. Hey, we tune out a lot of the things that we should be listening to sometimes. When God says something, it’s the best we pay attention, amen. Elisha stands up and he says, hear you the word of the Lord, thus saith the Lord.

Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel, two measures of barley for a shekel in the gates of Samaria. Not only was there an unrelenting enemy, but there was an unmatched conqueror. You see, while man may shake his fist at God, while man may try his own devices and try to do whatever he can, ignoring what God has said, listen to me, nothing can stop God.

We live in a world today that is constantly going against God. Our own country, a country that was founded on God’s word, shakes its fist at God, saying we don’t need the word of God, we don’t need prayer, we don’t need the principles that this country was founded on, we’ll do what we want to do, and they shake their fist at God and say, God is dead, it does not matter, but I want to tell you this morning, nothing can stop our God.

We may vote in some crazy people into office. Doesn’t surprise God. And it won’t stop his will. You can look around and say, well, there’s some terrible things in this world. There’s viruses. There’s war. There’s pestilence. All these different things. But listen to me, God is still in control.

The nation of Israel was surrounded by an enemy. They were looking on every corner. There was no escape. There was no way out from this enemy that was looking to seek, to devour, to destroy them. But listen to me, folks, there was a God that said, there was a told his man to say, thus saith the Lord. I’m thankful there’s a church today that is still preaching saying, thus saith the Lord. This community, this state, this country needs churches like this that are going to stand up and speak out for God. And no matter what man tries to do, nothing can stand against God. Think about that. When we serve God. And God made it look easy too.

If you read later on in chapter 7, what you see that happened is that God made a noise. All the Syrians that were encamped outside heard a noise, and they thought that the Egyptians had been hired. They thought that these kings were going to come to destroy them. They got so scared they heard. They literally left everything that they had and ran for the hills.

And it was done in such an impressive fashion that the people inside the city had no clue that it even happened. You would think that if the man of God who’s done all these different things being used by God, you’d think if he got up and said it that people would have paid attention and said, well, hey, we should expect God to do something great. As a matter of fact, there was a man in there who said, you know what, even if God opens the windows of heaven, this isn’t going to happen.

I’m thankful we serve an unmatched conqueror. By the way, he’s bigger than any problem you face. He’s bigger than any temptation you may go up against. He’s bigger than anything that you and I may think that is impossible to overcome. He is unmatched. He is undefeated. He is God, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. And just like he delivered the nation of Israel, he’s still in control today.

Now, I want you to look at our final group of people here. Because not only was there an unrelenting enemy, an unmatched conqueror, but there were four unlikely heroes. Look at verse three, it says, and there were four leprous men at the entering of the gate, and they said one to another, why sit we here until we die? If we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city. And we shall die therein. If we sit here, we die also. Now therefore come, let us fall into the hosts of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live. If they kill us, we shall but die.

And we read verse 8, how they begin to go through. And I’ll basically explain what happened. These four men, these were lepers. These were guys that nobody liked, nobody wanted. As a matter of fact, there’s entire chapters of the Bible that are dedicated to how to deal with people with leprosy. I’ve had a chance to actually go to a leper colony before. It is… I couldn’t really know what to expect until I got there. But you’re talking about people that are missing fingers, ears, noses, entire feet with a smile on their face. Just glad that somebody’s coming to sing and preach to them. They all wanted to hug me. And I did. And I…

I’ve told this joke before, but never when the pastor was missing some digits. It feels a little out of place. Nobody wanted these men. Nobody looked at these people as the paragons of society as the examples. These four men are outside the gate saying, look, we’re going to die. If we’re going to die, I mean, we could just sit here and die, or let’s go to the Syrians. Maybe they’ll feel bad for us and throw some food at us to get rid of us. I don’t know. What do we got to lose?

These four men, they go, and they notice that the camp’s real quiet. They look into that first tent. They don’t see any people. But you know what they see? Table just lined with food. I mean, delicious food. We take for granted how much food we get. Folks, for most of us, we don’t even remember the last time we were hungry. I mean, really hungry. Oh, I guess it’s time to eat. Not really hungry, but I better eat. What are we going to do after that? I don’t know. We could eat something. I’ve heard it said that Baptists are the only people that will talk about food while they’re eating food. They go in there, they see bread, meat, fruits. And these guys were starving just like the rest of them.

I just imagine them just, I mean, just gorging themselves. There’s fruit juice running down their faces. They’re stuffing beef jerky in their mouth, filling their pockets with everything they can get. All of a sudden, another guy goes, come here, come into this other tent. They walk inside, and the Bible says that there was gold, there was silver. Now, I don’t know what kind of… kind of gems they were in there, but I know that it was good. I know that whatever they found in there belonged to the Syrians, probably from other things that they had captured. I don’t know if there was all kinds of neat and beautiful things. Maybe there was some, maybe there was gold, maybe there’s diamonds, maybe there was some priceless chandelier that had been stashed away somewhere else. I don’t know what it was, but I do know that these people began to hoard it and take it and hide it in different places, try to be able to get as much as they could.

They go into the final tent and they see all there’s garments and there’s all these beautiful clothes. And I can imagine these guys, you know, they’re maybe missing like an arm or something. They’re put, they feel like kings. They’re enjoying all of these wonderful things that they didn’t work for. All of these blessings. And they said, we’ve got to hide this stuff. And then all of a sudden, I don’t know if it was one or all four of them, they say to themselves, hang on a second. We have all these blessings. We have all this food and treasures and clothing. But look what it says in verse 9. It says, then they said one to another. And I want you to read those four words with me. Okay, folks, let’s all read that together. It says, then they say one to another, read those four words. We do not well.

This day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace. If we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us. Now therefore come that we may go and tell the king’s household.

I’m glad that someone took a Bible and told me about an unmatched conqueror who came to this earth 2,000 years ago and died on a cross for me. Because there was an enemy that was unrelenting. The enemy was called sin. The enemy was called Satan, the accuser. I deserve so much that I’m not going to get. I deserve hell. Let me let you know on a little clue. You deserve hell. And that enemy was at the gates and there was no way out.

But praise the Lord. Hey, thank God that he sent his son to this earth to die on a cross for you and I, to save us of our sins. And he didn’t just save us. He adopted us into his family. He made us joint heirs with him, sons and daughters of God. And he has allowed us to sit with him in heavenly place. He has given us so many blessings, not only in the next life, but in this life as well.

He’s given you His Word. He’s given you a church. He’s given you a family. He’s given you peace, joy. He’s blessed us with so many things, has he not? Yet so often, we take those blessings and we just hide them away. There’s a city that’s dying. And praise the Lord, we’re saved. But if we hold our tongue, if we stay silent, the Bible says that we do not well.

Just imagine all those people in that city, they were waiting on some good news. They didn’t even know what had happened. They didn’t even know that they had been delivered. They didn’t even know what God had done for them. I don’t know what all of the reasons are that we hold our peace. Maybe it’s the love of the world. Maybe it’s convenience. Maybe it’s selfishness. Maybe it’s a lack of a burden. But the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4:3, but if our gospel be hid. It is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Listen to me, folks. We’ve been given a blessing. You and I have been delivered. Listen to me, folks. Hey, listen to me, young people. You and I have been saved. And if you’ve been saved, it’s not just so that you can take the blessings that God has given you and hoard them for yourself. You’ve been saved so that you can shine. I’m just guessing here, but maybe Christ told us to shine.

This is a little song that the children learn, right? This little light of mine. That’s not so you just have a smile on your face. That’s because you have a light that Christ has put inside of you that you need to share with this world. And if we hold our peace, we do not well.

How do we do well? It’s real simple. Write this down on the side of your Bible or somewhere, because I believe this is the truth that every single Christian we struggle with so often. We’ve been given so much, and I’m glad that we’re thankful and we should be thankful for it. We should be appreciative for what God has given us. But you know when we do well, it’s just as simple as this. We do well when we tell.

I want you say that with me. We do well when we tell. Let’s try that again. I think there’s some people that didn’t say it this morning. We do well when we tell. Hey, you can hide your gospel all you want, but if you want to do well, you need to tell. You say, Brother Kyle, I’m not the greatest speaker. I’m not a preacher. That’s for all, that’s our pastor’s job. No, that’s the Christian’s job.

You can take one of these and put these in someone’s hand. And you know what you’re doing? You’re doing well. Yesterday morning, a group of folks came out in spite of the promise of rain, in spite of the disease that’s killed billions of people. It’s not sure it didn’t, okay? Eight people got saved yesterday. Now, that’s not because we’re anything special, but it’s because we have a special God.

And the least we can do is say there’s some provision that he has, there’s something better that he has, that peace you’ve been looking for, that life that you’ve been longing for, the emptiness that you’ve been feeling, you don’t have to stay in that place. God has something better for you. God has freed you. God has delivered you, and you don’t even know about it. So I need to tell you, you and I do well when we tell.

When’s the last time you’ve told someone about Christ? When’s the last time that you’ve gone out of your way to invite someone to church, to give them a track? By the way, there’s coworkers that you see every single day that have no clue where they’re headed. They have no clue that they’ve been delivered. They have no clue. And we hide it, we hoard it, and we do not well.

I want to take your mind somewhere else for a second. If you look what it says in verse 9. It says, in chapter 7 verse 9, it says at the very end, it says that we may go and tell the king’s household. We’re in the middle of missions conference right now. And tonight we’ll have one more message about this, and then your pastor will be talking about your faith promise cards.

You know something? Those lepers, you know what they were not ever going to get? Was an audience with the king. It was going to be impossible for them to be able to go and talk to the king. Why? Well, their bodies were literally falling apart with an infectious disease, okay? So that’s that for starters. You know what they needed to do? They needed to go tell someone else and commission that person to be able to go and tell the king.

You know, when you put money in that offering plate, when you give, you are allowing someone else to go and tell the king. You are commissioning, you are enabling them to be able to go and do what they need to do. Look, I love the flags. I love the Spirit of Missions Conference. I love when we have things like an international banquet. All those things are wonderful. All those things are exciting. But listen to me, you know what it’s about? It’s about telling. It’s about enabling someone else to tell. And that goes beyond our borders, beyond our country. But listen to me, it starts right here in Smyrna, Georgia. I’m sorry, Smyrna, Tennessee.

I preached this morning about complaining, so no complaining. That was the whole real reason. I was like, oh, he’s terrible. Don’t complain. Now, for the record, I’m not a Bulldog fan, okay? So you folks… What team do you like? Yes.

Start to cross the street, across the cubicle, across the classroom. It continues on with you telling someone else and allowing someone else to go and enabling them. When you make that promise and you make that commitment and you stick to that promise by faith saying, God, you’re going to enable me to do this. God, I’m going to be faithful to do this. You are allowing someone else to go and say, you’ve been delivered. All you have to do is accept it. Christian, are you doing well?

It’s every Christian’s responsibility to tell.

I’ll end with this story, and we’ll finish this morning. But years ago, I was a youth pastor in Texas, and after a Sunday morning, we went out to eat to a fancy restaurant called Le Tacobel. It’s French. I went up to the counter and paid for my nutritious food. That was a lie. I shouldn’t have lied in the church. We take our tray and we sit down.

And as we’re eating, I see these two older men come in, probably in their late 70s. They weren’t dressed nice. Their hair was not kemped. They reach into their pockets to pay for their food and literally put change they start counting out to buy their food. They get their couple of tacos and they sit down. And the taller of the two starts talking to the people next to them. And I could tell it was getting awkward for them. And I could tell because I started feeling awkward for them too. You know what I’m saying? I see him stand up, but he starts talking to a few other people in the restaurant. After a while, I start to notice he’s giving them all tracks. He’s going table by table and saying, do you know Jesus?

Now, you and I can look at that and say, okay, well, he’s older. Maybe he’s a little, insert whatever adjective you want there. He began to sing a song in the middle of the Taco Bell restaurant. And I could tell people were feeling uncomfortable. He sang this song. He sang, “Jesus, oh Jesus, do you know him today? Please don’t turn him away. Oh, Jesus, my Jesus, without him how lost I would be. Without him out lost, I would be.”

And while understandably so, the people were feeling a little awkward. All I could think about was how, I hadn’t even given the lady who took my order a track. Here was a leper. I think when we get to heaven, we’re not going to regret any time that we did well. I think we’re going to look back and said, I’m glad for what God gave me, but did I do well? Did I give to others so that they could go and tell? Have I done my part? We do well when we tell.

Heads bowed and eyes closed. No one looking around. Christian, this is not something that is complicated or very, very profound, but it is important. Maybe God puts someone specific on your mind that you need to tell. Maybe it’s just an overall change in habit. I’m glad that he’s been so good to us, and he has been so good to us. But have you been doing well?

Maybe this morning you’re not even saved. Maybe this morning you’re like the people in that city who don’t even, this is maybe even the first time you’ve heard or maybe you’ve rejected this message before. This is the day of your salvation. This is the day that you can come and get that settled. There’ll be a pastor more than happy to show you from the word how you can have that same deliverance. But Christian, are you doing well?

I’m thankful there were some men yesterday and ladies yesterday that went out and were doing well. Maybe this morning you need to say, God, help me to continue to tell and do well.

Original File: We Will do Well When we Tell - Mission Conference 31520