How Can We Keep This to Ourselves?

1. VOLUNTEERING
1. (Volunteering Needs Slide)
2. Good morning! My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here at Renovation Church.
1. It was pretty amazing to have hundreds of kids here at VBS this past week.
1. We’re so grateful for those of you that served and for what God did!
2. Real quick before we jump into 2 Kings.
1. 2 weeks ago, we let you know that as our church continues to grow rapidly, we continue to need more people to pick up an oar and serve with us.
1. 2 weeks ago, we needed 188 of you to step up and that number is now down to 64.
3. But our God-sized prayer is finish this today. To make that need a zero.
1. God can really use you! Particularly in:
1. Our kids rooms as they grow and fill up quickly
2. And in Ushering (which is helping people find a seat) and parking team.
1. Those are our 3 biggest needs
3. I am also officially announcing today that we will be returning to 4 services (8:00, 9:10, 10:20, & 11:30) once we hit September.
1. We just filled this room up and overflowed into our extra seating area just 2 weeks ago…in the middle of July…when everyone’s gone on vacation.
1. So September is going to get crazy.
1. Which is why we’re going back to 4 services
2. And also why we need you (not just to come and watch)…that’s consuming church, not being the church.
1. But pick up an oar and row with us…
1. ..to help people coming to hear about God for the first time, find a seat in a crowded room… (that’s what our ushers do)
2. …to help people find a parking spot in a packed parking lot when they’re nervous trying church for the first time.
4. So, would you do me a favor, even right now, and open up our app , or our website.
1. And make a step of faith this morning to say, “I don’t want to consume church, I want to be the church”
2. INTRODUCTION / THE CONDITION
1. All right, go ahead and grab a Bible
1. 2 Kings 6:24-7:2
2. Page 254
2. We are continuing in our Life of Elisha series on the Elisha the prophet who lived and ministered around 850 BC in Judah & Israel
1. And listen, I hope you’ve been loving this series.
1. We’ve read SO SO many great stories together this summer.
1. My prayer is that this series is igniting or reigniting your love for the Old Testament
3. (2 Kings 6:24 – 7:2) – NIV
4. 24 Some time later, Ben-Hadad king of Aram mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria. 25 There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels.
   26 As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, “Help me, my lord the king!”
   27 The king replied, “If the Lord does not help you, where can I get help for you? From the threshing floor? From the winepress?” 28 Then he asked her, “What’s the matter?”
   She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.’ 29 So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, ‘Give up your son so we may eat him,’ but she had hidden him.”
   30 When the king heard the woman’s words, he tore his robes. As he went along the wall, the people looked, and they saw that, under his robes, he had sackcloth on his body. 31 He said, “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!”
   32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Don’t you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it shut against him. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?” 33 While he was still talking to them, the messenger came down to him.
   The king said, “This disaster is from the Lord. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer?”
   7 Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”
   2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?”
   “You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!”
5. (Life of Elisha)
1. Okay, so let’s pause for a few minutes and talk about the set-up here.
1. What’s happening?
2. The Arameans have laid siege to the capital city of Israel, Samaria.
1. This was very common in ancient warfare.
1. An enemy would surround a walled city, and then not let anyone or anything in or out.
1. And over a period of a few months (sometimes even shorter), you could completely starve out a city.
3. And so things have gotten really bad inside the city.
1. Even a donkey’s head (which Israelites even weren’t supposed to eat), is selling for MONTHS’ worth of wages.
1. This would be like if there was a siege on Blaine, and you went to Target, and they said, “All we have is a donkey’s head, and it’s going to cost you $30,000.”
1. That’s what’s happening here.
4. In fact, things have gotten SO dire that mothers have resorted to cannibalism on their own children.
1. And as a reader of history, I’ll tell you, things can get much worse than this.
1. Read about the killing fields in Cambodia, the Rwandan Genocide, you name it.
1. Humanity can sink way lower than you’ve probably even imagined.
5. And the only one that can truly solve it is God.
1. No ruler, or authority, or king.
1. The woman asks the king for help, and he basically says, “What can I do? “
1. Because only God can truly do the miraculous.
2. And He can!
1. In fact, Elisha tells the king that by the same time tomorrow, the famine would be over.
1. But how?
1. Well, let’s keep reading.
3. HOW CAN WE KEEP THIS TO OURSELVES?
1. 2 Kings 7:3-20
2. Page 255
3. 3 Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”
   5 At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there, 6 for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” 7 So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.
   8 The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.
   9 Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”
   10 So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.” 11 The gatekeepers shouted the news, and it was reported within the palace.
   12 The king got up in the night and said to his officers, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving; so they have left the camp to hide in the countryside, thinking, ‘They will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.’”
   13 One of his officers answered, “Have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here—yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened.”
   14 So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, “Go and find out what has happened.” 15 They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight. So the messengers returned and reported to the king. 16 Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said.
   17 Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house. 18 It happened as the man of God had said to the king: “About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”
   19 The officer had said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?” The man of God had replied, “You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of it!” 20 And that is exactly what happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died.
1. (How Can We Keep This to Ourselves?)
2. Okay, wow.
1. So the four lepers sitting just outside the city gate have one of THE most logical conversations in the entire Bible.
1. They say,
1. “Listen, if we go back into the city, we’re going to die of famine. It’s a done deal.”
2. “If we stay here and do nothing, we’re also going to die”
3. “Our only chance is to go surrender to the enemy.”
1. “Will they probably kill us? Yes!
   But a 10% chance is better than a 0% chance”
2. So they walk over to the enemy camp, but the enemy isn’t there!
1. Because, during the night the Lord caused the Arameans to think they were hearing this massive army approaching them, so they fled like puppies from a thunderstorm, and just left all of their stuff
1. So the lepers discover this and just go from tent to tent eating and drinking like crazy (they’re feasting like kings!)
1. And then they hide silver, gold, and clothes.
4. Until, they come to their senses, and we get the key verse of the passage, verse 9. Open up to verse 9 again.
1. 9 Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news, and we are keeping it to ourselves.
1. What’s really neat is that they say this is “Good News”
1. That’s written in Hebrew, but when the Hebrew Bible was translated to Greek 200 years before the New Testament (it’s a translation called the Septuagint)…
1. That Greek word for Good News in verse 9 is the exact same word for Good News in the New Testament: The Gospel
5. And so we then should ask ourselves the same question those 4 lepers asked when they discovered the Good News
1. And it’s that very question you’ve been looking at on the screen:
2. How Can We Keep This to Ourselves?
1. Because isn’t that what we do?
1. As Christians, we have this amazing discovery:
1. God loves us, forgives us, walks with us…
1. And we say it’s the best thing we’ve ever found, and the very thing that changed our lives, and we respond by telling….no one.
2. And like the 4 lepers, we go from tent to tent…
1. …from church service to church service…
2. …to Christian concert to concert…
3. …to amazing Christian book to inspiring Christian podcast…
1. And we’re feasting on all of these amazing things for ourselves.
3. And when you read the passage, you can become frustrated with the lepers, because you, as the reader, can see the whole picture.
1. So you say, “What about the people back in Samaria, dying of famine?”
1. “They’re so desperate that they’ve resorted to cannibalism, and you’re out here just feasting?!”
2. But could we not say the same thing about ourselves?
1. “What about the people of our city?”
1. And we’re not just talking about physical ramifications, but eternal ones.
2. “What about the lost people of MN?”
1. So many are lost and confused about so many things, in so much pain, so alone?
1. …and if we just continue to go from tent to tent, consuming joy, while they suffer only a mile away, or next door, or a cubicle over…
1. …then who are we?
3. Listen, we need more Christian men, and more Christian women, and more Christian teenagers…who will be the type of Christian that will say, like the 4 lepers did in verse 9:
1. What we’re doing is not right.
1. That’s what they said.
1. It’s just not right.
4. And because it’s not right, we’ve got to shed our excuses.
1. So let’s out some of the excuses we all have for not sharing the Good News and then let’s get rid of them
2. NO MORE EXCUSES
3. But I don’t know what to say
1. I want you to write this down, and then cross it off…because we’re crossing off excuses today.
4. No more saying, “I would talk to someone about the Good News of Jesus, but I just don’t know what to say”
1. You know, one of the reasons we share the gospel here every week is so you will know what to say.
5. Some of you have heard me explain the gospel 200 times.
1. You can do this. Just start.
2. You know what it is to be a Christian.
1. If you don’t know how to be a Christian, how are you even a Christian?
1. You know what it is.
6. You don’t have to word anything perfectly.
1. Just start sharing the good news.
1. And this is such a good story for that because that’s all these 4 men did, they just went and shared the good news.
1. “Hey, the enemy fled! The treasure is ours! We are saved!”
2. They didn’t huddle up & say:
1. “Hey, guys, before we go back to the city and share the good news…Let’s get all of our points straight first”
2. “Let’s first make sure all of our 4 points start with Q”
3. These guys don’t even know every detail of what happened to the Arameans, but they know that they’re gone, the famine is over, and people can live!
1. That’s all they need to know.
4. You don’t have to get everything perfect, just start sharing.
5. Okay, here’s another excuse I want you to write, and then scratch out.
1. NO MORE EXCUSES
2. But I don’t know what to say
3. But who am I to share?
1. A lot of people say, “I want to tell people about Jesus, but I’m still pretty messy. You should’ve seen what I did yesterday. When I get my life more together, I’ll talk about God more”
1. And again, 2 Kings 6 & 7 is really helpful here because look at the narrative here.
1. The good news is not about the lepers.
1. They’re not the central point of the story.
2. The central point is that the enemy has fled, there is treasure and food to be found, come and partake!
1. The lepers aren’t going, “Everyone, look at me! Look at the change in my belly! I was skinny, but now I’ve been feasting!
1. Look at me! Look at me!
4. Evangelism (the sharing of our faith) is not “Look at me,” it’s “Look at Him”
1. Sometimes people define evangelism just simply as one beggar pointing another beggar to bread
1. Which is what this story so well encapsulates
2. I read one scholar this week who said essentially that:
1. The lepers were rejoicing in the spoils of a triumph they did not win
1. They didn’t scare away the enemy and get the food for everyone.
1. They’re just passing on the good news.
2. And see when we make the excuse that we can’t talk to someone about Jesus because of our own problems, we’ve fallen for the lie that Christianity is about us.
1. It’s not.
1. You didn’t set yourself free from sin and change your life.
1. Jesus triumphed over your sin and brought you the spoils of His victory.
1. Just point to him.
2. I hope this is freeing to you.
1. It’s not about you.
1. Everybody say, “It’s not about me!”
6. And let’s look at one more excuse we need to scratch out of our lives. And it’s a big one.
1. NO MORE EXCUSES
2. But I don’t know what to say
3. But who am I to share?
4. But I don’t want to upset anyone
1. We would talk to our siblings, our friends, our coworkers about Christ…but we know it might make them mad if we start talking about spiritual things or eternity.
7. First of all, I will tell you, plenty of people are NOT upset by the gospel.
1. But even if they are, what does the Word say?
1. Let’s look to that pivotal verse 9 again. 2nd half this time. The lepers say:
2. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”
1. What are they saying?
1. They’re saying, “If we just stay out here in the tents, gorging ourselves and hiding everything for ourselves, eventually (probably at daylight), someone is going to notice the enemy is gone.
1. And they’re going to come out here and say, “Why did you not come tell us right away? My child died last night in the famine while you were out here gorging yourself!”
8. It makes me think of this: You know we have A LOT of amazing Christian biographies in our newly expanded library, but one of my all-time favorites is Roger Steer’s biography of Hudson Taylor
1. (Hudson Taylor Cover)
9. Hudson Taylor was a 19th century missionary to China, and Taylor once led a Buddhist leader to Christ
1. The man had long been seeking truth by studying Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, but there was no rest for his soul until he heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
1. Well, one day, shortly after his conversion, he asked Hudson Taylor how long the English had known about Jesus?
1. Had they just found out recently?
1. When he was told that the English had had known Jesus for centuries, he was shocked.
1. He replied, “For hundreds of years you have had these glad tidings and only now have come to preach it to us? My father sought after the truth for more than 20 years, and died without finding it. Oh, why did you not come sooner!”
2. NO MORE EXCUSES
3. But I don’t know what to say
4. But who am I to share?
5. But I don’t want to upset anyone
10. And so like the lepers we face a choice.
1. Will we keep this to ourselves?
1. Or will we bring the good news back to our city?
1. Even if they don’t believe us at first
2. Even if some get upset.
1. But alternatively, what is the risk if we never go back to the city?
2. Who do you need to talk to this week?
1. Who is God putting on your heart?
1. Just start talking.
2. It doesn’t need to be perfect.
3. It’s not about you.
4. Just share the Good News.
3. In fact, we want to do that right now by celebrating a baptism together.
11. BAPTISMS
1. (Baptism Slide)
2. So, at this point I want to call out Baptismal Team on stage.
1. As we are going to celebrate a baptism at this service
3. Baptisms are a visual reminder that God’s Son, Jesus Christ has paid for our sins.
1. And by our faith in Him, we were forgiven, washed clean.
1. And not only that, that God has raised us up from the dead and given us new life.
2. Baptism doesn’t save you.
1. But it is such an important symbol of his love.
3. Every person you see baptized at Renovation Church is baptized by sponsors (people who’ve had a spiritual impact on them)

Baptisms

9:00 - One: Devon Kriesel (waiting on final testimony confirmation) (Testimony->Baptism)
10:15 - One: Mandy Gravley (Testimony->Baptism)
11:30 - Two: Elisa Samudio & Sarah Stachowski (Testimony->Baptism->Testimony->Baptism)

1. GOSPEL
1. (How Can We Keep This to Ourselves?)
2. We live in a world that is deeply skeptical of good news.
1. Especially news that sounds too good to be true.
1. News like the army that has been camping around us for months is gone and they left all of their food and supplies!
2. Or news like what the Bible describes with Jesus.
1. That He has seen all of your sin and mistakes and messes, and yet loves you so much anyway, that He came to die on the cross in your place and offer you forgiveness and eternal life.
2. People, by nature, are generally skeptical of news like that.
1. And this is, in part, why we do a lot of public baptisms.
1. We want you to see this isn’t just some guy talking about how some news could change your life.
1. A) What I’m saying is from the Word of God.
2. And B) These lives are evidence that the Word of God is true, and that it works!
1. And if God did it in their lives, He can do it in yours!
3. But now you’ve got to decide: Do YOU believe that God could do this?
1. Could God really look at all of your mistakes and messes and forgive them?
2. Could He really come into your life, and turn it all around?
1. And some people, honestly, they say, “No.”
1. They’re like the King, when the news from the lepers finally reached the palace, and he said, “No, this is just a trick from the Arameans! They just left for a bit, so we’d come out, and they’ll attack us!”
1. For him, it’s too good to be true.
3. The same with his officer at the beginning.
1. When Elisha says, “A day from now, everything will be different”
1. He says, “Even if the floodgates of heaven should open, it can’t happen”
4. So what about you?
1. Will you believe?
2. Will you believe that God can really change your life?
3. And by believing that Jesus died in your place, for your sins, that you can now have eternal life in heaven, not in hell?
5. But what I want you to understand is that you DO have to make a decision one way or the other…about God.
1. I think a lot of Americans don’t think about the fact that there is a price for not believing.
2. There is no such thing as staying neutral.
1. You either believe Jesus saved you and go to heaven.
2. Or you don’t believe, and you go to hell.
1. That is so hard to say, and no one ever says that because even though it’s all over this book, it’s upsetting for most people to hear (so we keep quiet about it)
1. But I’d rather you be upset with me now and be saved then be upset with me in hell because I was too afraid to ever tell you.
1. I am in no way loving your eternal soul if I don’t tell you the truth about what is coming…and what Jesus came to save you from!
6. And so you need to look at Jesus like the 4 lepers were looking at their situation when they were back at the gate.
1. I know some of you are thinking, “But I don’t know exactly what will happen if I walk out and give my life to God?”
1. Neither did the lepers when they started walking in faith.
2. But they knew that if they did nothing, they were going to perish.
1. And the same is true with you.
1. To not make a decision to accept Jesus’ salvation & forgiveness is to effectively say no.
1. It’s to stay in spiritual famine, at the gate.
1. To stay is to perish.
1. So I urge you to walk away from your old life, give your life to Jesus, and let Him save you.
2. In fact, I want to give some of you the opportunity to turn your life over to God today.
3. Let’s just have everyone bow their head and close their eyes.
1. If you’ve never done this before, and you want to believe and Jesus and turn your life over to Him
1. I urge you to respond.
1. If that’s you, as a way to mark this day, and tell Him that you believe, I want you to stand up where you are right now.
2. Everyone has their eyes closed, so don’t think about that.
1. If you need to tell Jesus that you believe, and you need His forgiveness…
2. If you’re ready to surrender to Him…
1. Stand up right now.
4. For those of you standing, we want to pray with you.
1. Repeat this out loud after me…whether you’re a brand-new believer or have been one for quite some time.
5. Repeat after me
6. Dear God
1. I confess to you, that I have sinned against you.
2. But God I believe, that you sent your Son Jesus, to take my place
1. And God I thank you, for forgiving my sins.
3. And now I commit, to following you, with my life.
7. Amen, you can have a seat.
1. For those of you that stood up…
1. Important decision, need resources, what to do next.
8. For everyone else, have an amazing week, and please, stop by the volunteer needs pegboard before you leave, and pick up an oar to help serve as we prepare for more & more people who are coming to be saved just like this.
1. We need you.