Video Transcript: Evaluating Your Vocal Witness

Well, we're ready to get back again. And this time, we're talking about evaluating our vocal witness. But what I want to do is read-- back to the Scriptures again. That's where I learned what I know. And I want to read a passage that is really helpful and interesting for us. But first, let's pray.

Lord, Jesus, the Bible is your Word to us. And we never want to handle it lightly. There's not one word in the Bible that is trivial. Everything you tell us true, and we believe it. And as we study it now from week to week, we want to hide in our souls so that we will always be obedient to you. Jesus, we love you and we are grateful that we became children of the Heavenly Father through the power of your Holy Spirit within us. Amen.

This story comes from the Old Testament in 2 Kings 6. It's a long story. It starts in 2 Kings 6:24. I'm just doing a few verses here. But look in chapters 6 and 7 in 2 Kings. Ben-Hadad, the king of the country of Aram, mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to the city of Samaria. So, there was a great famine in the city. Now, there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate of Samaria. They said to each other, "'Why stay here until we die? If we say we'll go into our own city, Samaria, the famine is there and we will die. And if we stay here, outside the city, we will die. So, let's go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we will live. If they kill us, then, we'll die.' So, at dusk they got up and went to the camp of the enemy of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there. For the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army so that they got up and fled and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys."

"They all left the camp as it was and ran for their lives. The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents, and ate and drank. Then, they took silver and gold and clothes and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some more things from it and hid them also. And 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. Let's go at once and report this.' So, they went and called out to the city gate keepers and told them the Good News."

What a story. So many stories in the Old Testament are interesting, and they're all there, Saint Paul said, to teach us something. And what about this story? Well, here are the people of God. And the name of their enemy is the Arameans. And so, Ben-Hadad is the king of the Arameans, and he comes and wants to fight against God's people. So, he lays a siege around the city. They can't get in. They can't get out. You read the story there. Terrible starvation. Awful things happening because people are desperate. And outside the gate of Samaria are four men. You say, "Well, why are they out there? Why aren't they in with their people?"

It says they had leprosy. And leprosy was a terrible skin disease in those days that was very catching. And if you had leprosy, you weren't allowed to be around other people because they would catch it. And if you were a leper, if somebody started to come near you, you had to call out and say, "Leper, leper!" And so, here are these four poor men, no food, nobody caring for them, nobody wondering what's happening to them. They had to live outside the gate, because they had leprosy. 

Now, they're getting desperate. They talk among themselves. But before they do that, I want to point out that in the Bible, leprosy is a picture of sin. Leprosy is something that separates us from each other. And leprosy was pictured as something that was unclean in the sight of God. The Bible talks not only about being healed from leprosy, but it also talks about being cleansed from leprosy. 

And so, these four men sitting out there, they're sort of a picture of people who had sin. I'm not saying they sinned and they got leprosy. But hear me. It's a picture of sin. And they're outside from God's people, out there by themselves. 

"Like the world, Ren?"

Yeah.

"Like those who have sinned and haven't been saved?"

Yeah. 

"Like those who are on the wrong side of that fence you showed us?

Yeah. These are what we would call sinners. Again, not because they had leprosy, but because of the picture they were given. And what happens? They sit there and they say, "Do you know what? Chances are, we're going to die. We've got nothing here. If we go in the city, they've got nothing there. They'd throw us out anyway. So, let's go to the camp of the enemy. Only one of two things can happen. Either they'll have mercy on us or they'll kill us. But either way, we're going to die." And so, they do that. 

But before we go on, I want to point that out. What happens to people who are separated from God's love? What happens to people who are still in their trespasses and sins? What they were born with and added to their own lives, they die. The Bible says that at the final day Jesus separates between those who trusted in him and those who don't. And those who didn't trust in him, they go off to the side to spend eternity apart from him. They die. They live but their existence is so miserable that the Bible calls it Death - your cousin, your own mother, your son who lives away from home, the teammate you played with so long, the kid you've been in school with all your life, the neighbor who does such kind things to you, the people at work, the thousands of people you see on TV. 

When I go to a movie, I just want to stand up sometimes and talk about Jesus with all those people there. We tour Europe. We go in those great cathedrals. I just want to go up on the big place where the preacher stands, where they don't preach anymore, and I want to tell the story about Jesus. Because these people are going to die. 

Do you know what? Nice people go to hell. Unsaved people go to hell. Bad people go to hell. They choose it. But they go there. They're going to die. 

So, they go to this camp. Crazy. You wouldn't believe it if you hadn't been there. They go to this camp. There's nobody there. Thousands of tents, thousands of camels, thousands of donkeys. Nobody's there. It's quiet. They go tiptoeing up to the first tent. Nobody's in it. They can't wait. They're eating, they're drinking. It's a great life. Nobody's around. "Look at that robe. Look at those sandals. Look at that sword." They got arms full of stuff, they run, and they hide it from each other. And they run back and they get more. And they're getting more and more. They took it, and they're so happy about what they have. They're not hungry anymore. Now, they matter. They're going to make it in life. They're not scared. It says they took the stuff. 

I wonder if that's relating to us. We were outside the gate once - every single one of us. That's what the Bible said in Ephesians 2. We were all born in trespasses and sins. And when we crossed over, it's all there for us - forgiveness, we got rid of our guilt. There's meaning in life. It's not meaningless anymore. Warmth of feelings, freedom, a community, people who care. To know that Jesus is with us, to know that he said we are held in his hands and that he has placed us in his Father's hands, that no one can ever take us out, the opportunity to live the new life, the opportunity to live out everything that he sets before us. And then, one day, to die. 

And Paul said, "Do you know what? When you die, to be absent from this body is instantaneously to be with the Lord." and to know that one day, Jesus will come back. And he'll bring those who died ahead of us with him. And those who died will be raised up, and all together, we'll be with him in the air forever. 

That's like going in that camp. It's all there. "Look in that tent. Too much for us. Look in that tent. Too much for us." Over and over and they took it. And we took it. That's us, isn't it? We have all of that. It's been given to us. Do you begin to see ourselves there? 

We were the ones with leprosy. We were the ones who were going to die. We who found that empty camp took it all. And do you know why? Because it says there, "The Lord had caused the enemy to flee." What can a dead person do? "The Lord had caused the enemy to flee." Satan flees from the presence of Jesus. Not because of what we do. Not because of the good life that we lead. But because of what Jesus does. 

We saw in that demonstration the sins of the people are placed on Jesus, and he goes to the cross because of what I did and what you did. And we are set free because of what the Lord did. It doesn't say there whether or not those men knew it. They probably just thought, "Hey, good luck. I wonder what happened to those guys. They're gone. This is all for us." But we know.

It says right there that the Lord caused the enemy to flee. And we know why we're forgiven and why we can live without guilt. Because the Lord laid on Jesus all of our sin. And with his punishment, we are healed, we are cleansed. Is that a story about us?

But we're not done yet. These guys are there. They've eaten enough. They had all they needed, more than they needed. And something inside of them, they look at each other and they say, "We're not doing the right thing. This is a day of Good News. And we're keeping it to ourselves." 

So, they went and they told them in the city. And everybody comes out of the city and now, they're all eating and drinking - the ones who had been starving. Because God delivered them. But the words there are for us, aren't they? They looked at each other and by God's grace. Could we say that? "What we're doing is not right. This is a day of Good News, and we are keeping it to ourselves." Is that us? That's why the Bible is so powerful. And I want to ask you right now while your experience is fresh, write down a couple of things. I want to ask you how are you feeling about this? Am I making you uncomfortable - as uncomfortable as it makes me? Do you think Ren keeps repeating and repeating? Doesn't the Bible do that? Are you feeling some anger that we feel when we're challenged? Do you feel like quitting? All those emotions? But let me ask you. Meanwhile, have you done it? Have you absorbed the material? Have you made your plans? Have you followed the action steps?

It says, "So, they went." Is that you? "So, they went." Could that be on your tombstone? There's a great preacher by the name of Spurgeon in England, he kept hitting week after week after week. He had thousands (10,000 members or more) in his church. He kept preaching week after week, "You must be born again. You must be born again."

And finally, his deacons said to him, "When are you going to quit preaching about you must be born again?" 

He said, "When everybody is born again."

And you say, "Ren, when are you going quit repeating it?" 

And I say, "When it's true about us as it was about those men - 'So, they went.'" I will talk about this until my dying day. 

So, now, I want to ask you, if you did "be" it, what did you learn? What did you learn about your feelings? Was it scary when you were done? Were you pleased? Were you thankful? What did you learn about your story? Do you have to clean it up a little bit? Do you have to point out other things? What did you learn about next time?

What I want you to do is pause right here. Hit the pause and answer that question. What did you learn about your feelings and about your presentation and about next time?

And if you didn't "be" it. Notice I'm not saying do it. If you didn't "be" it, why not and when will you? I'm asking you. When will you? It says, "So, they went." What if that were on your tombstone? Would it be accurate? When will you? 

When I was four years old, I used to stand in front of the old radio with my mother's broom and listen to country music. And I would play that broom like it was a guitar. And all my life, I've wanted to play a guitar. Now, I'm an older man. I still can't play the guitar, because I never got around to doing it. And when will you do it? 

Pray about it. Go over these materials again. And I want you to hit the pause button once again. When will you do it? Go over the materials. Pray. And then, finally, what about your thoughts about being a vocal witness? Be honest about it. 

Are you saying, "It's not for me"? Are you using some of Moses' excuses? Not reasons. Are you saying, "Well, I'll get around to it someday"?

Do you know what? Jesus knows already what's in your heart. You might as well be honest about it. I'm going to ask you at the end of this to pause again and write it down. And remember what your God is like - a God of love and forgiveness, a God of firmness. But a God who wants the whole world saved. Can you say to yourself along with people in your church and others, "Let's go at once and report this. Let's go at once and report this." 

Jesus is calling you for that. He doesn't want you to be part of that 90% who never get around to it. In business, they have to measure in order to improve. You must measure. Take this time. Pause. Go over these again. What did you learn? When will you do it? And what are your honest thoughts? God loves you. He loves the whole world, and he wants to use you as his vocal witness.