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You know, you get to your, you pay your meal and the person in front of you has already paid it. You guys, has that ever happened to any of you? You poor souls. I'm sorry for you. Okay. There's one right there. I see that in hand. All right. It happens. Okay. People do that sometimes where they'll pay for the person behind them. They'll pay for the coffee behind them, the meal behind them, and that's considered paying it forward. And what basically the deal is there is that once you get it, you know, the goal would be for you to pay for the person behind you. And it kind of keeps going until you have a cheapskate who just decides to stop the entire chain. Okay. And then they're like, nah, I'll just, I'll just get all the blessings and then, you know, move, move on with my life. And this is basically what we see in second Kings chapter seven, because we see the story of these four leprous men who are about to die. They really have no hope, they're diseased, they're unclean. And they stumble upon, uh, this camp of the Syrians. They stumble upon food. They have silver, gold, arraignment, so they not only get their needs met, but they also get an abundance of trash to go along with that. And really they're faced with a decision either they just stay there and they consume everything, they hide it, or what do they do? They actually go spread those bits of the ghost who were in the city of Samaria where there was a famine in the land. And that's basically what they did. They took the benefits, the blessing of what they found in the camp of the Syrians and what did they do? They hid it all. They brought those good tidings to the city of Samaria where there was a famine. And let me just give you a brief review of the story that we see here. This actually starts in chapter six. And what we see taking place here is that Ben-Hadad, King of Samaria had besieged Samaria. And during this time there was a great famine, even to the point where they were selling, you know, an ass's head for meal, right? They were selling dove's dung, you know, dove's dung, okay? This is how bad the famine was to the point where there was no food. And the King of Israel goes to Elisha and basically tells him of this problem and look down at your Bibles at 2 Kings chapter seven, verse number one, it says, then Elisha said, hear ye the word of the Lord, thus say 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 a Lord on whose hand the King leaned, answered the man of God and said, behold, if the Lord would take windows, excuse me, would make windows in heaven, might this thing be? And he said, behold, thou shall see it with thine eyes, but shall not eat thereof. So we see here that Elisha basically proclaims a miracle that God is going to do the very next day. Now it's kind of hard to think about it, but there's a famine and all of a sudden there's going to be food. And you often think, you know, this is a miracle and it is. And it was God basically working behind the scenes to create this miracle. And the principle that we see there doesn't have anything to do with the sermon that, you know, circumstances can change overnight. You know, don't lose hope when things go bad in your life. You know why? Because things can change over night. Now we as Christians should not have these high expectations of our circumstances changing, but we should have high expectations of the promises of God. We should highly esteem God's word, God's promises and understand that God is faithful. God is faithful. God is loyal. God will always be there for us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. And we should understand that just as he was able to change famine into abundance, he could do the same for us. In a time of famine, when you're going through a tough time, whether it's financially, whether it's whatever situation that you're going through, things can turn around on a dime. It can happen. God is still in the business of miracles. Amen. And this thing could take place. We see it taking place here now, but there's some things that we can learn here because obviously Elisha prophesies of this. Now the Lord, this is not referring to the Lord as far as God is concerned. This is talking about one of the Lords of the King basically had no faith. Now this is not the kind of guy you want to be because the Bible tells us that he doesn't have faith. It expresses faith. And what does Elisha tell him? He's like, you're going to see it with your eyes, but you're not going to be able to enjoy it. I mean, that's the worst possible way to just finish your life is like, you're going to see the fact that I was telling the truth, but you're not going to be able to have faith. They have a relapse in faith. And right before they get to that over the top of the mountain where they see that come to pass, they quit on God. You know, they get out of church, they stop reading their Bibles. You know, it's typically the darkest of the night. That's when the sunlight is going to come up. The hardest time that you're in, that's typically when the blessing comes. But you know what? If you're not steadfast, unmovable, rebounding in the work of the Lord, if you faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. We need to make sure that we pray and ask God to strengthen us, that we were strong in the Lord and the power of his might throughout these times, knowing full well that God can change the situation at any moment. But this guy, he didn't do that. In fact, he questioned God, what would happen? He was trampled by all the people getting the food. I mean, talk about Black Friday, this is the first time it took place, right? This is the first time Black Friday ever took place. You know, the only difference is that God got trampled by all the people and it was prophesied of God, so that was justified. Typically, you know, Black Friday has to do with covetous, wicked people who just can't have enough of a good thing. And so that's what we see there. Now, in light of the Sony Mega Marathon, okay, you know, we need to have this attitude of paying it forward, don't we? You know, someone invested in us or someone gave us the gospel. They gave us this wonderful treasure and, you know, it's unfortunate, but many Christians, they receive this treasure, but they don't pay it forward, right? They receive this treasure of the gospel, the forgiveness of sins, the inheritance that's incorruptible, and what happens? They just kind of hide it under the tent. They don't pay it forward. They don't do their due diligence to learn how to be good soul winners. But how about this? Not just that. What about just the investment that people have just made to you in general, right? Teaching you biblical principles, giving you a godly example. Hey, how about paying it forward for the sake of your parents? Well, my parents aren't perfect. Yeah, but you know what? Obviously, they do something good if you're in church. Yeah, but they got all kinds of issues. Well, yeah, well, look in the mirror. You probably have them too. So before you get this attitude that, you know, you're better than your parents, you know, why don't you just have the attitude of paying forward what they gave to you? Okay. Take the good that you learn from your parents and pay that forward to who? To your children. Because guess what? If you have that right attitude towards your parents, you're basically sowing those seeds in the hearts of your children as well. And your children are going to have the same attitude towards you as you had towards your parents. That's why the Bible tells us to honor our father and mother. We need to make sure that we're sowing those good seeds and we're paying forward that which we learned. Okay. But other than that, what about men of God who have helped you throughout the year, that have preached to you the Word of God, they've taught you doctrine, or they've had a good conversation whose faith follow? You know, we should be able to pay that forward as well and be a good example to others. Maybe when you first came to church, whether here or a different church, someone was a good testimony unto you, right? They were a good testimony to you. They became your friend. They took you out to eat. They took you out for a coffee. They invested in your life. Pay it forward. Don't be this person that just reaps all the blessings and chooses not to pay it forward to somebody else. We need to make sure that we have a heart of God in everything that we have. Well, you know, I'm a self-made man, there's no such thing as a self-made man. You know? Yeah, you may have put your due diligence to be successful in life, but you know what? We are all a compilation of God's blessing and people who invested in our lives. We are a compilation of God's blessing, right? And people who have invested in our lives to be the kind of people that we are today. And we need to make sure that we pay that forward. Look at 2 Kings 7, we're going to look at a couple of verses here, some principles that apply to this. You know, and primarily I'm talking about the so many mega-marathon because I want to encourage everyone, I want to encourage 100% participation for the mega-marathon. You know, we're going to Watts, amen? And don't look at any news articles, okay? About Watts, don't worry about that, all right? We're going to be A-okay, you know, God's protecting us. And we want to go there to see people saved. We want to go there to preach the gospel. We want to go there to change someone's destiny because they're destined for hell. We want to go and change that, but that's only going to happen as we pay it forward, okay? Now, let me give you a couple of things here in regards to the story here and how this can apply to us, not just in soul winning, but just in life in general as a Christian. Number one, we see here four condemned lepers. This is a picture of just sinful men. Look at verse number one, it 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 shall see it with thine eyes, but thou shall not eat thereof. And there were four lepers men at the entering in of the gate. And they said one to another, why sit we here until we die? Go with me to Leviticus chapter 13, Leviticus chapter 13, hold your place there in second Kings chapter seven. Why sit we here till we die? Now it's pretty obvious that in the Bible leprosy is a picture of sin, okay? Leprosy is a picture of sin. Therefore a leper could be a picture just of a sinful person, someone who has sinned in their lives. And this basically is every single one of us prior to Christ and even afterwards, right? Because we're not perfect. Our flesh is not made perfect when we get saved, but our spirit is. But even prior to that, we are in bondage to sin, okay? The Bible tells us that there's none that do with good, no, not one. The Bible tells us that our righteousness are as filthy rags. And look at Leviticus chapter 13 verse number eight, it says here, and if the priests see that behold the scab spreadeth in the skin, then the priest shall pronounce him unclean. It is a leprosy. Now why are we considered unclean spiritually speaking? Because of sin. We are all considered as an unclean thing and our righteousness are as filthy rags, the Bible says. Skip down to verse number 43 or 42, it says here, and if there be in the bald head or a bald forehead, a white reddish sore, it is a leprosy sprung up in his bald head or his bald forehead. Then the priest shall look upon and behold, if the rising of the sore be white, reddish in his bald head or in his bald forehead, as the leprosy appeared in the skin of the flesh, he's a leprous man. He is unclean. The priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean. His plague is in his head and the leper in whom the plague is, his clothes shall be rent and his head bare. And he shall put a covering upon his upper lip and shall cry unclean, unclean. All the days rent in him, he shall be defiled. He is unclean. He shall dwell alone without the camp shall his habitation be. Go to Mark chapter two. So that explains why these lepers are outside of Samaria, because that is exactly what you have to do to lepers. They were outside. They were outcasts, right? Just as us, we're outcasts of the kingdom of God before Christ, right? Because we are all as an unclean thing. Now look at Mark chapter two and verse 17, and then we're going to go to first Corinthians chapter one. It says here, when Jesus said unto them, they that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So what's the good news? Well, the good news is this, is that we qualify for that, right? We qualify for the grace of God, because the Bible tells us that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You see, Jesus Christ has come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners, just like you and I, and don't ever get this attitude that because now you're saved, you've cleaned up your life, that you're better than anybody else out in the world. Have this self-righteous, holier than thou, pompous attitude, that you're just better than everyone else because God has cleaned up your life, because you got your life cleaned up and you're good to go. No, you know what? We're sinners saved by the grace of God, okay? We're not better than anybody else, but you know what? We're better off. We're not going to hell. You know, our own righteousness is not going to be imputed upon us. We have the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and that's a blessing. Go to first Corinthians chapter one, first Corinthians chapter number one. And this is what we see here with the four lepers men. So these men are nothing special. They don't even have a name. God doesn't even disclose their names. He just says the four lepers men, the four sinful men. You know what this shows us is that the emphasis is not placed on the person, but rather the God who's doing the miracle, right? You know, God saves you the same way He saves everyone else. And we're nothing special because we got saved and we came to the knowledge of the truth. You know, God is the one who's special. God is the one who did the miracle in our lives. Look at verse 26, it says, for you see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the world and things that are despised have God chosen. Yea and things which are not to bring to not the things that are that no flesh should glory in His presence. You know, those lepers couldn't say, because we're just like lepers, we got this blessing. No, because no flesh can glory in His presence because that flesh was filthy. You know, they can't say that they're the ones who merited the treasure, the raiment, the food, they were able to rescue Samaria. It was God who did all that. Look what it says in verse 30, but of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification and redemption, that according as He that glorieth let Him glory in the Lord. You know, a common temptation for Christians is to believe in themselves, because you have a corner on the truth, right? And you know, in our church, you know, we emphasize a lot of doctrine. We emphasize learning the deep things of the Bible. But if you're not careful, if you don't balance that out with charity, you can become puffed up and think that you're like all that in the bag of chips, because you know all about end times Bible prophecy. You know all about the reprobate doctrine. You know all about the, the, the, the, the deceitfulness of Zionism and the, in the evil and the wickedness thereof. But you know what, He that glory, let Him glory in the Lord. We had a glory in the cross of Christ. The fact that He did all the work. He's great. He's wonderful. He's our God. Go to first Corinthians chapter number six, first Corinthians chapter six. This would apply. This scripture would apply to what we see in second Kings chapter seven, look at verse number nine. It says, know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abuses of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but ye are washed. But ye are sanctified, but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. See, we're not washed because we cleaned up our lepers, those lepers, all the pus that came out of their sores and all they can wash it with the rag as much as they want, it would just continue to come out. You know, they weren't able to make themselves clean just as us before Christ, we could do everything we can possibly think of to try to make ourselves clean. It's impossible. Before God, it takes the blood of Christ to wash all that away, right? Now I do want to mention that verse number nine is not talking about homosexuals. That's a common misconception of verse number nine, the effeminate or abuses themselves with mankind. Effeminate just simply means soft. Like a guy who's soft, he's a little light on his toes. You know, he wears the pink ties, pink shirts and just kind of, you know, just looks a little too pretty, you know what I mean? Just looks a little too effeminate. That's what that's talking about. Okay. A guy who's girly, but it doesn't mean they're a homosexual. Okay. And then abusing themselves with mankind, I can, I preached an entire sermon on this is not referring to homosexuals. Now the modern versions will put homosexual right there, you know, they'll put sodomite or homosexual, but they're lying to you. Okay. It's not, that's not what it's talking about. In fact, you could compare this with first Timothy chapter one, verse number 10, and it's referring to a person who is a woman, right? It's a woman who is basically what the Bible would refer to as a whore. Okay. I mean, you can see it in the context of first Corinthians chapter six, but we see here that all these people, whether he's feminine, abused themselves with mankind, covetous, all these people can be washed, can be sanctified, justified in the name of Jesus Christ by the spirit. Go back to second Kings chapter seven. So we see this, that would picture us at one point. So what should that teach us? We are nothing, okay? And if God gives us the opportunity to do great exploits for him, I'll praise be to God for that. You know, if God gives you the opportunity to see people saved, to, to, to, you know, rescue people out of the flames of hell and do great exploits, don't glory in that glory in the Lord. Why? Because God can't use a proud person, you know, and sometimes you know what God has to do when we're proud. He has to take the carpet out from under us. What does that do? That humbles us. That helps us to recognize we're nothing without God. You know, I guarantee you these four lepers meant to them most of anything. They still had in their flesh, the leprosy. They're just like, well, you know, we just went in there and we just basically inherited something. We didn't do anything to even inherit it. We just went there and we'll get into that in just a bit. So we see first and foremost, but then we see that they stepped out in faith, right? Look at verse number four. If we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city and we shall die there. If we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come and let us fall into the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live. And if they kill us, we shall, but die. So basically say, look, here's the thing, guys, we can either go into the city of Samaria and we're going to die. They're starving too. And we're not even allowed in there. Or we can just go to the camp of the Syrians and maybe they'll have compassion on us and give us food or maybe they'll kill us. But here's the thing, we're going to die either way is what he's saying. So it's just like, might as well just step out in faith and go see what's, we know there's no food here, but we don't know if there's any food there. So we should just step out in faith and go try it out and see if there's anything there. Look at verse five, and they rose up in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians. And when they, when they came, were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. So through faith, they had access to all these risks because they took that risk, right? Hold your place or go to Romans chapter five, Romans chapter number five. Through faith, they had access to all this, all this undeserved spoil. All these treasures and food buffet, I mean, they're just in the tent, just eating, going from tent to tent, just, you know, buffet potluck status. No one to forbid them or say unclean. They're just filling up their hearts. Look what it says in Romans chapter five, verse one, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace, wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulation also knowing that tribulation work of patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy ghost, which has given unto us for when we were yet without strength and due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die yet peradventure for a good man with some, some would even dare to die, but God committed his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So how do we gain access to this grace by faith, by faith, because no one's 2000 years old here. No one saw when Christ died in the cross. No one saw when he resurrected that those are things that have to be accepted by faith. And you know what the Bible tells us is that we're supposed to go from faith to faith. Amen. So just as we exercise faith in order to believe on Christ, we need to continue to exercise faith for everything else in life. Not for salvation, not to stay saved, but for God's provision, God's protection. You know, I remember a preacher used to say, man, you trust Christ for the most important thing, salvation, being rescued from hell, having heaven. But then after that, it's just like, you can't even trust them to put a meal on the table. You can't even trust them to just obey his word, to have order in your home and to just trust them with the basic daily needs of life. It's by faith that we have access to this grace, but you know what? It's also by faith that we continue to have access to that grace for the day-to-day needs of God. Okay. And there's going to be times in your life that you're going to come across doubts. You're going to come across hardships. It's going to happen. You need to increase your faith. Don't just run on the coattails of the faith of your fathers, of the faith of other members. You need to increase your faith. You need to make sure that you increase your faith, that you're growing in your belief of God's promises and that you're exercising those so you can have access to this on a day-to-day basis. You think of the most impossible thing that's possible for everyone else, but not possible for you. Okay. And I'm not talking about anything sinful, just needs. Exercise faith. Because here's the thing, you know, without faith it's impossible to please God. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. But you know, that only comes by faith, right? That's what we see there. Now, go with me if you went to Revelation chapter two, look, these guys, they had to do a lot of overcoming them, didn't they? They had to overcome fear, the unknown, they had to overcome the fear of not knowing if they were going to die with the Syrians, if the Syrians were going to put them to death. And you know what, today, in order for someone to get saved, they need to be an overcomer too. The only difference is, is that the Bible tells us, for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. So when the Bible talks about overcoming, it's not this, you know, this, you know, cholo church type of theology, victory outreach, where you have to overcome your addictions in order to be saved. You know, you got to overcome your drunkenness, your weed, you got to overcome the low-rise fighters, you got to overcome the crap and all these things in order to be saved. That's not what overcoming means. We need to make sure that we get biblical definitions for these things. Okay. And the biblical definition of overcoming is the fact that we, our faith is overcome, our belief. And look, when you go to the diocese, when you have so many, you're trying to convince them to overcome their false ideologies. Now, by the way, don't use overcome when you, when you present the gospel, because the fact that that has an association with actually overcoming addictions and so on and so forth. But we know what the Bible says about that. And what the Bible is teaching us here is that people in the world in order, if they're going to get saved, if they're going to have access to this grace, it's going to be by faith. It's going to be by overcoming, you know, their belief system about Catholicism, right? No one can get saved and just still be full-blown Catholic. Just they're still praying to Mary. They still believe they have to keep the sacraments. You know, that doesn't exist, but how about this overcoming fear, the Bible says the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable revelation 31.8, they have to overcome the fear of whatever it may be. That's keeping them from giving. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches to him that overcometh. Will I give to eat of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written, which no man knows saving he that receiveth it. Go to revelation 21, if you would revelation chapter 21. So just as these lepers came in and they're just filling their hearts, their stomachs with food and they're eating. The Bible says here that he that overcometh will God give to eat of the hidden manna. Revelation 21 verse seven. He that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son, but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and whoremongers and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake, which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Hey, these lepers inherited everything in the Syrian camp. It was all theirs. And look, if they were to just stay there, just eat, drink and be married for tomorrow, they die. No one would have even known probably. They could have just done that, enjoy the clothing, the food, but what did they decide to do to pay it forward? Okay, go back to second Kings chapter seven. Now as Christians, we have to continually overcome because after salvation, there's going to be some problems, right? We have Satan who's our enemy. We have the flesh that still resides, right, desires to do wrong and to disobey God. We have all kinds of opposition and adversaries after we get saved and we have to continually work on overcoming the devil, overcoming the flesh, walking in the spirit, not fulfilling the lust of the flesh, but just know this, at the height of your temptation, that's typically when the victory comes, you know, at the height of the difficulty, that's typically when, as you resist Satan, that he flees from you for a season, okay? Now what else can we see here? We see that God provides a miracle, right? Look at second Kings seven verse six says, for the Lord has made the host in the Syrians to hear a noise of chariots and a noise of horses, even the noise of a great host. And they said one to another, lo, the King of Israel had hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us. Wherefore they arose and fled in the twilight and left their tents and their horses and their asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. So let me ask you, did they do anything to scare off the Syrians? No, God caused them to hear a fake animal, chariots and horses, and they tuck-tailed and they ran. I mean, they were so scared. They left even their transportation, which could have gotten them out of there faster. Think about that. You ever been so scared, you just leave everything, you just drop everything and run, you know? I saw this one video, it was like a meme, and this guy was going around throwing a fake snake, and this guy was with his girlfriend, right? And they're just talking and courting and stuff, and he throws a snake and the guy just runs and leaves his girlfriend. He's just like, he takes off and the girl's just like there, you know? So scary, you just leave that which is most important behind. Well, this is what these guys did. They're so fearful, they even leave their transportation behind. The Bible says there that even as the camp, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life, all the silver, gold, food, raiment, transportation, they just ran, okay? That's a miracle. Now, this can be an illustration of salvation. Why is that? Because the lepers didn't do anything to receive that. God did all the work, right? God is the one who did all the work. We inherit that which has already been paid for. That's all we have to do. Same thing with salvation is, you know, we don't do anything to earn or merit the free gift of God of eternal life. It's already paid for by Jesus Christ, you know? We just have to believe, we just have to have faith in Christ for our salvation. But God is the one that did all the work. Now look at verse number eight. We also see here that they inherited the treasures, it says in verse number eight, and when these lepers came to the outermost part of the camp, they went into one tent and did eat and drink, and carried then silver and gold and raiment, and went and hid it and came again and enter into another tent and carry things also and went in and hid it. So they're like on a shopping spree. They're like going from one tent to another and they're just like, oh we got grapes here or whatever, you know? They're just going from tent to tent. Now hold your place there, go to 1 Peter chapter one. This is interesting because, you know, the Bible likens the gospel to treasure, you know? But here's the difference. Look at 1 Peter chapter one in verse 17. It says here, and if you call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, past the time of your sojourning here in fear, for as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by the tradition of your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blood and without blood, fully ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that was just made by God. You see, unlike the lepers, we're not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold. We're redeemed with that which is more precious and more valuable, which is the blood of Jesus Christ. Go to Revelation chapter three. Revelation chapter three. They found their food, likened unto the man of unseen revelation. They find their silver and gold, likened unto the person who received the neutral strength of God. We also see that they find raiment, right? Look at verse five. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angel. Hey, you want to get started on something, study all the things you know about raiment. You know, when someone first gets saved out, you know, when we go out sowing, they only The Bible explicitly goes into detail all the things that we get in Christ. Here we see that we're, that we shall be clothed in white raiment. So our filthy rags are removed and a white raiment is given unto us, which pictures the righteousness of Jesus Christ, okay? He that overcometh, the Bible says, but he that believeth that excuse me, first John five, four says, for whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the son of God. Go with me to Isaiah 61, Isaiah 61. So remember, these lepers were considered to be unclean, but all of a sudden, they just ran into all these riches, all the clothing and that which is needed, Isaiah 61 in verse number 10. I'm gonna read you from Isaiah 64, it says, but we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags, and we all do fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. Look at Isaiah 61, 10, it says, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, and as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments and as a bride adorned herself with her jewels. Now herein lies the problem, because they get all these goods, and if you notice, what does it say? They hid it. They hid it. That's not really smart. So you get all these silver and all this gold, and then you hide it? You can't even like use it then. It's like Achan, when he took the Babylonian garment and all the goods, and what did he do? He hid it under his tent. It's like, hey, you might as well like not have taken it then, because you can't even use it, and it ended up costing him his life. You know, he got stoned by the camp, and he was really aching after that. You'll catch that after lunch. Just kidding. Bad joke. All right. Looking at verse number eight, it says, and when these lepers came to the uttermost parts of the camp, they went into one tent and did eat and drink and carried then silver and gold, raiment, and went and hid it and came again and entered into another tent and carried thens also and went and hid it. What is this picture? You know, the picture is the Christian who doesn't want to pay it forward. It pictures the believer who gets saved. They are thankful for the free gift of salvation. They're thankful that a soul winner came and talked to them, but they don't want to do the same thing. They don't want to pay it forward. Why? Laziness, apathy, you know, just plain being busy with life, not having the right priorities. What are the priorities? Other things in this world, money. You know, the Bible says that the safe of riches and the lust of other things entering in choked the word and he become unfruitful. That's not about soul winning. You know what can make you unfruitful as a Christian? Just when you're entangled with the things of this world, your priorities are out of whack. You're not placing a priority on soul winning. Now look, soul winning is not the most important thing in the Christian life. It's one of the most important things. It's up there. It's not the most important thing. You know, our church is not going soul winning 24 seven because there's other things we have to do. We have to preach the word of God. We have to keep our houses in order. We have to throw out heretics, you know, two of other things we have to take care of, but you know what? Soul winning should always be at the top of that list at all times, right? We can't just be a church. We can't be Christians who just take those treasures and we hide it, you know, hide it under the guise of track dropping. Okay. Hide it under the guise of door hangers. I mean you think track dropping is bad. Door hangers is worse because at that point you're, you're like messing with the door door hanger, you think people really read that, just be honest with yourself, you know, they, but a lot of churches choose to hide the treasure instead of giving it out instead of handing it in their hand, instead of giving them the garment, instead of giving them the raiment in the food, the, the, the water where they shall never thirst, the bread of life where they shall never hunger. What do they do? They hide it. They hide it under, Oh, I got other things to do. Well, you know what? So does everyone else, you know, but if you love me, keep my commandments. The Bible says the commandment is to preach the gospel to every creature to go there for and teach all nations and baptize them in the name of the father and son, the Holy spirit, you know, teaching them to observe all things, whichever I've commanded you, all responsibilities to give out these treasures. Okay. Look what it goes on to say verse nine. Then they said one to another, we do not well. I mean, whoever that was smart guy, they're like hiding. I'm all for, you know, with the program of the church, but we're not doing so many and we do not well. We do not well to not give out the gospel. We do not well to open our mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel. We do not well. This day is a day of good tidings. That's what the gospel is referred to as right. And we hold our peace. So how can you say you have the God, we're a gospel preaching church, but you're holding your peace. You know, the gospel is meant to be proclaimed from the house, but they held their peace. If we tear into the morning light, some mischief will come upon us. Now therefore come to, we may go and tell the King's household. He was like, look, if we forbear to go bring these glad tidings to the people, something can happen to us. And then that, guess what? That opportunity is over. And you know what? The application is there for us. Go preach the gospel now. Cause you know what? You may not have an opportunity tomorrow. And you know what's going to happen if you don't, you know, what's going to happen if you hide it under a bushel and you don't make it a priority to preach the gospel, guess what? Your judgment seat of Christ is going to be embarrassing. You're going to be saved yet so as by fire, but you're not going to get any, you're not going to get any rewards for the things that you did here because you didn't do anything. You held your peace. You hid it under the sand. You waited until the morning light. And when the opportunity came, it's too late. That's why Jesus told his servants occupy, because we don't know it is a point where man wants to die. And after this, the judgment, you know, it's appointed for every human being. Every human being has an appointment with death. Only thing is we don't know what time that is. You know what we need to do? We need to make sure that we're giving out the treasure. Go to second Corinthians chapter four, second Corinthians chapter four. They hid the treasure. They held their peace. We do not. Well, hey, pastor out there who is emphasizing everything, but so many emphasizing every other ministry, but preaching the gospel, you do not well, you know, I'm not against the bus ministry. I'm partly against the bus ministry because I've seen the fruit thereof. I know that a lot of churches have bus ministry and they see good food come from that. We have people in our church who are part of the bus ministry. I was a bus worker and I was a bus captain for years, you know, but you know, the danger is when it comes to the bus ministry is that the pastor will have that ministry. And what does that do? That causes the members to say, well, everyone else can take care of that. I don't have to do any sowing ministry. I don't have to do any sowing. I just got to put money in the plate to finance the buses so that others can do the work for me. And then they alleviate their conscience. And look, most, I hate to say it, but I mean, my experience, most of the workers, they don't do any sowing. They do bus picking upping, bus kids picking upping is what they do. You know, they're not seeing their kids saved. They're not giving them the gospel. And I'm not saying everyone, because I know people, my brother-in-law is a bus worker, he's a bus captain, and he makes sure he will make sure that he sees his fatigue. And then he disciples them. He gets them faithful to church. He's a godly man and he's doing the work. And thank God for that, amen. But you know what? That can't be said of everyone. There's people who just see bus kids as a matter of fact, you know, a couple of months back when I, when I was sowing here around the neighborhood, I ran into some bus kids who were going to, um, Ezekiel Salazar's church, who's like the fundamental Pope in Spanish churches. Okay. And those kids were going to church there for years and you know what, they weren't even saved. They weren't even saved. You know what that shows me? You do not well. You do not well. Okay. Look at 2 Corinthians 4, 1, it says, Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of this honesty, not walking in craftiness, you know, not being deceitful, not hiding it, right? Nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hit to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world had blinded the minds of them which believed not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ was the image of God should shine into them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and ourselves, your servants for Jesus sake, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness had shining in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earth and vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us, that same treasure, just like the lepers found the treasure, you know, we have that treasure of the gospel in earth and vessels. Now, why is it in earth and vessels? Well, it says that the excellency of the power may be of God. You see, when these lepers came to the king of Israel, the king of Israel was like, oh man, you got to bring those people away. No, he was like, hey, the things you're doing to me, those glad tidies, there's obviously God who did it, you know. The glory of God was not going to go to the lepers. Who got the glory? God did. Okay. Who gets the glory when we see people saved? God does. He said, well, I got them saved too. Yeah. Well, God's going to praise you for that. He's going to reward you for that. Okay. Later on. Now go to Matthew chapter 25, if you would. But it says here that we have this treasure in earth and vessels, the gospel is the treasure in earth and vessels. Look at Matthew 25 and verse 14, it says, for the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. And until one, he gave five talents to another two, to another one, and straightway took his journey. Then he that had received the five talents went and traded with the same and made them other five talents. And likewise, he that had received two, he also gained other two, but he that had received one went and digged in the earth and hid his Lord's money. And after a long time, the Lord of those servants cometh and reckoneth with them. Go to verse 24. Then he, which had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew that thou art and hard man reaping where thou has not sown and gathering where thou has not strong. And I was afraid. And I went and hid thy talent in the earth. Lo, there thou hast that is dying. His Lord answered and said unto him, thou wicked and slothful servant. Thou knewest that I reap where I sowed not and gather where I have not strong. Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers. And then am I coming. I should have received mine own with usury. Take therefore the talent from him and give it unto them which hath 10 talents for unto every one that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance. But from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath. Now, what is the primary interpretation of this parable? Well, the primary interpretation, because we see that it's in the book of Matthew, it's dealing with the fact that the Jews had the talent, they had the treasure, they had the word of God. But the Bible says that what do they do? And therefore it was taken from them, right? The kingdom of God was taken from them and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. It was given to the gentiles. That is the primary application of what we see here in this chapter. But there is also secondary applications and the secondary application to us is this. Hey, we've been given talents. Don't hide it. Don't be wicked and slothful. Don't be a wicked slothful Christian and just hide that which has been given to you. You say, what do I do with it? Pay it forward. Pay it forward. Now I'm out of time, but let me go to second Kings chapter seven. Second Kings chapter seven. Here's my last point. And that's basically it right there is this. Pay it forward. They paid it forward is what they did. Look at verse number 10. Then they said one to another, 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. So they came and called them to the port of the city. And they told them saying, we came to the camp of the Syrians and behold, there was no man there, neither voice of a man, but horses tied and asses tied and the tents as they were. And he called the porters and they told it to the King's house within. And the rest is history. Now go to Mark chapter five. And that'll be the last scripture we go to Mark chapter five. So they were able to do a great exploit because they ended up rescuing that city from that grievous famine that they had. They came there, they saw the food they're able to sell it. People were able to have meals again and they basically did a great exploit, but obviously all the glory went to God. But they chose to pay it forward. And that's basically the question that we propose today is here, are you going to pay it forward? I don't think I'm going to go to the sony mega marathon. You know, I'm not ready or, you know, I got things to do on that Saturday and I got this and that. Yeah. We all have excuses and they all stink. Okay. It takes place once a year. Be a part of that. Participate in the sony. Even if you don't know how to preach the gospel, you can still be a silent partner. Nothing wrong with that. You can still still partake. But do this forward and look, so we make a marathon is important. Don't get me wrong. It's an important day, but you know what? It's more important. The week in, week out. So evangelism, that guy has the gift of, that girl has the gift of evangelism. No, you just have the gift of excuses. You have the gift of laziness. The Bible tells us that it's a command because it's a command. God can enable us to do it. If we do our due diligence to prepare and to do the work. Look at verse 11 of Mark chapter five. Now there was nine through the mountains, a great herd of swine feeding. This is referring to the man who had many demons within him and, and, and Jesus Christ came and passed them out. Verse 12 says, and all the devils besought him saying, send us into the swine that we may enter into them. And forth Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine. And the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea. They were about 2000 and were choked in the sea. And it had fled the swine, excuse me. And they that fed the swine fled and told them in the city and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done. And they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the Legion sitting in clothes and in his right mind. And they were afraid. And they, they that saw it told them how it befell him that was possessed with the devil and also concerned in the swine. And they began to pray him to depart out of their coast. And when he had come into the ship, he that was, had been possessed with the devil, prayed him that he may, he might be with them. How be it Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, go home to thy friends and how great things the Lord had done for thee. And hath had compassion on thee. And he departed and began to publish in the top list how great things Jesus had done for him and all men did marvel. What did he do? He paid it forward. Okay. And that's basically what we're doing when we go out preaching the gospel is we're basically painful with someone has done into us. And let me just share this illustration I've done regarding just seeing people say, okay. You know, we want to make sure that we pay it forward because there's people out here that we don't know how long they're going to live for. You know, people die every single day that we don't know about. And who knows today could be the last day that someone's time on this earth and they can die. Years ago, when I was in the bus ministry, I would, you know, the bus ministry where I was at to give you like a section. Okay. It's like a couple of blocks and your responsibility is basically to knock every single door, give the gospel, invite kids to church, get them on the bus, so on and so forth. And so I had my area. I didn't have a partner to go with at that time. So we would go on Saturdays at like nine to about two. And under him was a guy named Adrian Torres. And he said, you know, this is your area. And I'd go there and I'd knock and talk to people. Well, it was always great. Like when you would run into like a Hispanic house, cause they have like a lot of kids. Okay. You're racist. I'm Hispanic. So, you know, I don't care what you say. I don't care if you think I'm Muslim, I'm Hispanic. Okay. That's the truth. And we ran into this household and this lady, she had like four or five daughters. You know, they were very, these little girls. And, um, I went into the house and I gave the mom the gospel. She got saved and, and I gave the girls the gospel, but they didn't get saved at that point, but I signed them up for the bus to go ride the bus. You know, we were giving out goldfish or whatever. We're doing all the, all these promotions and these girls came for only four of them came at that time. And four of them came, we had a big day at the church. We used to have like junior church and preaching for them and Sunday school class and all this. And I took it serious. Okay. When I preached there, I would preach doctrine and, you know, all this. And I tell my workers or the people I would work with, like, Hey, these people aren't saved, let's try to get them saved. And these girls, they ended up getting saved at the church. So thank God for that. Amen. They got saved and, you know, they're, they just had a lot of gratitude. I was very thankful for that. And so they went home and then on Saturdays, what you would do is Saturdays, you would go Sony and get new kids, but you would also do visitation, which is you visit the kids that typically come on a weekly basis. Right. You have your list or whatever of the kids you go visit and you say, Hey, I'm going to church tomorrow. We're coming. The bus is coming to pick you up nine o'clock or eight o'clock or whatever. Just be ready. Sometimes you have to go in there and pull them out or whatever and, you know, get them ready. And, you know, I met a lot of great children during those times. I had a lot of great relationships with a lot of children who I got saved and we became good friends and stuff like that. And, but I remember going to those girls' houses and I went there, I remember walking. There's just a lot of people outside the house the following Saturday. And, you know, I was in my, in my suit, shirt, and tie. And they said, are you from the church? And I said, yeah, I'm from the church. I'm here to see the girls. They're like, yeah, we got bad news for you. They're like yesterday, they went to their grandma's house and they were staying in one of the rooms and they had a space here, caught on fire and they, they died, all four of them. And one of them, you know, she lived for a little bit in the hospital, but there's so many, so much smoke in her lungs that she couldn't take. And she ended up passing away as well. And they died, you know, and I was thinking to myself, man, I'm so glad I like told them. I'm glad I told them because if I were to have gone and just seen him as bus kids or as a number, you know, the guilt that you would carry would have been devastating. And though I was heartbroken, it was a relief knowing that one day I'm going to see them again, you know, those four little girls that decided to come and, and I gave them the gospel and thankfully, you know, through their death, you know, we, I came back and I said, Hey, I'm preaching for junior church and I preach for junior church and all these kids. And I, and I, and I gave the gospel to the kids and I told them about the girls and a bunch of kids got saved that day. You know, I was thankful for that, but you know what a week prior to that, I never would have thought, I thought those girls are going to live out their lives to, you know, their 50, 60, whatever. I didn't think that the next week something was going to happen to them, but you know, that's why we got to make sure that we pay it forward because we just never know who's going to receive those treasures. And we never know who is their last day is going to be. You know, it's sad, but you know, one day I will see them because it was paid for. Amen. Spider-Heads, I have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for your word and thank you for those who invested in our lives, Lord, and who gave us the gospel. We're forever grateful for those who took the time to memorize the scriptures, to have a soul winning time, to be conscious about those who are around them, who are lost. And we are the recipient of that person and we got saved because of it. And we're so thankful for them. And I pray that we'd be not kind of like the way the lepers were at first, where we're just hiding it and just kind of not propagating the glad tidings. I pray that you'd help us to recognize that there's people out there who need to be a recipient of that which we received. And specifically, obviously we're talking about the soul when you make a marathon, I pray that you bless it. I pray that you'd use our church in a great way to see someone saved in Watts and change someone's eternal destiny. And thank you again for all that you do for us. And in Jesus name we pray. Amen.