In this sermon, the preacher discusses the story of four lepers men who were facing death and had little faith. Despite their doubts, they felt led by God to move forward. As they walked down the road, the spirit of God caused confusion in the enemy ranks, making the lepers' footsteps sound like a mighty army. The enemy fled in fear, leaving behind their possessions. The preacher ponders why God granted such a tremendous victory to these four lepers with little faith.

This message is one of the Times Square Church pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. You are welcome to make additional cassettes of this message for free distribution to friends. However, for all other forms of reproduction or electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply. We're going to take him at his word. Hallelujah. We'll be a blessed people. Today, a very simple word, and probably not too long of a word, but sometimes those simple ones have a way of getting the message through. And the title of my message today is, Led Into Abundance. Led Into Abundance. Father, I pray now, oh God, I need you and I need the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, please let this word come forth in clarity. Let you be glorified in it. Oh God, bring your people, oh God, into the glory of it. Give us, oh God, the strength, my Jesus, to hear it and receive it. And Lord, we'll give you all the praise and the glory because Lord, we know you're leading us to a place, oh God, in you. Lord, that we can't go by ourselves. So Lord, we will give you the praise and the glory because it all belongs to you. And I thank you, Lord, you're making that so real to our heart. In Jesus' precious name, I pray. Amen. Amen. Jesus said, I am come that they may have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Beloved, the whole mission Jesus expressed purpose was that he, his sheep, would have not just life but abundant life. And we heard so clearly this morning, as powerfully as I have ever heard it, how that the abundance is in Jesus Christ. That everything that we need, our total supply for spirit, soul, and body to be nourished and not just be healthy but to know what it is to flow in divine life and be transformed by that life is found in Jesus Christ. It's found in that union and communion with him. But that was this morning's message. And I, it was, I can't say enough how, if you haven't heard that, to get that tape. But today, I want to talk about being led into that abundance. And if you would turn with me to 2 Kings chapter 7, 2 Kings 7, we're just going to look at a few verses today. Being led into the abundant life in Jesus Christ is a place where no man can go alone. Alone. It's a place where God wants to take us but we can never get there ourselves. It's a place where that, that road really starts in the heart of God. It goes right, and it goes right through into our heart. And so we can't see that road with our physical eye. And we can't know it by our human understanding. But it's a place that, where Jesus is going to give us his life where it says, Lord, I give you my anger. Please give me your peace. Lord, I give you my bitterness. God, give me your forgiveness. Lord, I want, I give you all my unselfish, my selfishness. And Lord, give me your love. It's that kind of place where we live in that tension. Where God, I see what's rising up in my heart. And Lord, you've come and dwelt in me so that I can have a different heart. Where I can have a different response. I can live a different life. I can think with a different mind. And in 2 Kings 7, just a few verses, that road that leads to abundance is very succinctly told in the life of the people found in these chapters, in these verses. And the backdrop is that I spoke about last week. But it talks about when Samaria, the northern kingdom, was besieged by Syrian armies. And it was shut up straight. And that these armies had come in against this city, Samaria, dwelt by the Israelites in the northern kingdom. And basically, a people led by a leadership so far from belief and so far from the heart of God. And the enemies, the Syrians came and they surrounded the city so that no one could go in or out. And it was so bad there that the scripture tells us that the starvation set in and cannibalism started. And the leadership at that time in that city rose up and wanted to blame Elisha, the prophet, the man with God's word. And he wanted to blame them. And as we join this story now, Samaria is still in that siege. They are still starving within the walls. In 2 Kings 7, starting at verse 3, it says, And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate. And they said one to another, Why sit here until we die? If we say we will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city and we shall die there. And if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore, come and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live. And if they kill us, we shall but die. Now here's four lepers sitting outside the city gate and they are dying. And they know it. And a cry for some reason comes over them for life. A cry enters into their spirit because I believe that they are suddenly, they are living in touch, they are in touch with their reality. They said, Listen, we are living in a place of absolute death. And they said, Well, what are we going to do? This quickening, this sitting there and dying, all of a sudden it's forcing them to see what are our options because there's a cry for them for life and for hope. And they reviewed their options. And they said, Well, if we sit in the city, if we go back to the city, there's death there and we'll die there. If we go back to what's there, we're no better off than we are right now. We're not welcome anyway. We're lepers, we're cast out. And they understood that going back to the past, that certain death waited them there. They said, We'll die there. But they said, If we sit here and do nothing, watch each other fall apart, if we hide from the truth and the conviction, we're going to die here. Why should we sit here and die? But beloved, I think that's kind of a remarkable thought they had. Because most people in their situation won't look at themselves and their surroundings truthfully because it just seems to add more pain to a painful life. They're lepers and that's a type of sin. That's a type of a God-given life being eaten away by something. It's a type of an unbeliever who's not yet come into life with God, has not had their sins forgiven. It's a type of someone who is paralyzed by their unbelief and their doubt. Even knowing all the promises of God and can recite them, somehow something has gripped their spirit that says, Nothing is going to ever change. Why get my hopes up? Why I'll only be disappointed and perhaps I'll lose the little faith that I have. And yet a challenge to these thoughts are starting to arise in them. I believe the Spirit of God is starting to stir them. But yet the old strongholds of doubt are crying out. Why look at your life square in the face? Why look at this death? All you see is death. You're a leper. There's a famine. There's starvation. You're at war. Sit down and pretend. Sit down and get distracted. Sit down and turn away from the truth because you'll just get hurt more. But beloved, I believe in earmark that God is working in our life is when a determination to see starts to grip us. You see, God is truth. Jesus is truth. And that Spirit of truth that will come into the life of a believer somehow will not let us sit in darkness. It will not let us as those in Samaria shut up and unable to see and hear at this point. But these people are outside that gate and though they're leprous, they are sitting outside of a fortress and God is able to get a hold of them. And the Spirit of truth is saying, I want you to see something you need to see. And when they look initially that you could say, that's too painful. I don't want to look. That's about death. I want to run. But somehow the Spirit of God comes upon them and says, look. And they come to the conclusion. If we sit here, if we do nothing, we will die. And so a cry for life comes upon them. A cry for hope. It was given them. It was given to them. Beloved, why should a lepers want to hope? They have an incurable disease at that time. Why should lepers want to live? They'll only be forced to live apart from people, only be forced to cry out unclean. Why? Why are these four men? Why is something stirring upon them? Because truth was leading them, beloved. Because they decided not to hide from themselves or their situation. When we decide not to hide from ourselves or our situation, you know that you're in the grip of God. No matter how painful it is. No matter how much we don't want to see. God is saying, I've got something incredible for you. But you must not hide from yourself and what I'm trying to show you. And the Spirit of God stirred them, beloved, and they were being led. And it tells us where they were being led to. It says, now let's get up and walk into the enemy camp. What a strange path God would take them on. That's a road none of them would have chosen. That is something, a plan they never would have thought. We're four leprous men and we're going into the enemy camp. God, why are you doing that? Yet something came upon them and decided that was their only hope and help. And beloved, that was the Spirit of God beginning to lead them out. Beginning to lead them out of where if they stay there, there's death. If they go back to their past, it's death. It's God calling forward, saying, I'm going to lead you into something and you've got to not trust your own understanding. I'm going to lead you into a path that looks right down to slaughter, into the enemy camp, but you have no other options. And so the Spirit of God, the truth of God is gripping these men and they stand up and they go. And the Scripture tells us in verse 5, and they rose up in the twilight to go into the camp of the Syrians. And when they were come to the uttermost part of the camp of Syria, behold, there was no man there. For the Lord had made the host of 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 hath 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 donkeys, even the camp as it was, and fled for their life. God has caused eight leprous feet, eight leprous feet to sound like chariots and horses and an incredible host of armies, not just one, more than one. And here's these men walking down the road going, God, I don't know why we're doing this, but all we know is death. And it doesn't look like much hope, but we feel to move forward. We feel your spirit upon us to move forward. And as they began to tramp down that road, the scripture says that the spirit of God caused confusion in the enemy ranks, that God caused eight leprous feet that were falling apart and past feeling to sound like a mighty wind, a mighty chariots and mighty horses and a mighty army. And the scripture says that the whole enemies jumped up in confusion and they ran pell-mell for their lives. They left everything behind them, their food, their raiment, their clothing, their gold, their silver, everything. And they ran for their lives for the army that was coming against them. Beloved, why did God give such a tremendous rout and victory to these four lepers? Why did God give them such a spectacular victory to four leprous men with so very little faith? Because beloved, I believe they got up when they shouldn't have. I believe that they are a type of a Christian who said God goes before them and say, this is my heart and this is my mind and I go before you and I will spoil them. And then God begins to shut down every avenue where we might have that we might lean on our own understanding and go our own way. And then God comes and softens our heart and begins to send us truth and it begins to soften us and we begin to think thoughts we never would think. That I'll get up. That I won't sit here. That I won't die in my self-pity. I won't die in my circumstances. I won't die looking around at everybody around me losing hope. But God in His great mercy is such a picture of what God does for a believer who with very little trust will get up. God goes before us. God goes in us. God goes around us. God does an incredible thing. God gave them that incredible victory because they got up and they shouldn't have. There would have been so many who would have said their circumstances and lot in life have beaten them down. That the enemy of their souls had kept many down by painting a picture of hopelessness. But moved on by the Spirit of God they may first started to feel, God, that can't be you. I don't deserve it. God, this can't be you. I shouldn't have this. Because it's a picture of a type of a Christian who knowing truth will still sit under the condemnation and the weight of the enemy. It's a picture, oh beloved, that sometimes we get it in our hands. There's surely there's got to be more we have to do and we haven't done that more so God can't be for us. It's a picture, beloved, when God says it's about me revealing myself to those that will open their heart to what I have to say to them. And will be honest in it. I can do great and mighty things. Why such a tremendous abundance in their victory? Beloved, because the scripture says, verse 8, And when these lepers came to the uttermost 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 entered into another tent and carried then also, and went and hid it. God didn't just give them a tremendous victory that they walked into an empty enemy camp. But these leprous men walked into a camp that was theirs for the picking. It was theirs for the spoil. God gave them a tremendous abundance in their victory. Beloved, they got that because they could still hear truth and open their heart to it. And I say that you and I, that we can know victory. If we can hear, we can still be moved to victory. If we want to hear what God needs to tell us, we can still be moved to victory. Is there a cry for life in you? Is there a cry for life in me today? Are there places in our life that we have looked and in all our best efforts, we have tried and we want it so badly? But beloved, we're coming at it with the wrong understanding. And when we have the wrong understanding, we sit like the lepers at the gate. We sit there till the Spirit of God can grip us and say, why will you die? Because Lord, I don't deserve an abundance in my victory. Because Lord, I don't deserve a victory. Because Lord, I know who I am and I've seen places and areas in my life and it's known nothing but failure upon it. So God, I can't believe you for great and mighty things. God says, you have a wrong picture and you don't understand me. And as long as you have that picture of me, you'll sit at the gate and die because the enemy will be able to oppress you and I will not get the glory. You will not realize the incredible thing that I do. What is my salvation that it brings you? It's about me moving through you. It's about me going before you. It's about me being in you. It's about me stirring you up. It's about you having an open heart to it. It's about you facing the truth that I will show you in it. Because no matter what truth I have to show you, I am leading you into abundance. I am leading you into a victory with abundance. Beloved, he has to take us step by step into this pathway of victory because we truly believe that if we're not all generals of the army, we don't get the reward. Beloved, God has to take us step by step and begin to dismantle all the wrong ideas that we have about him and how his kingdom works. We need to get the right perspective of who we are. And I'm proud, not proud, but I declare today that as long as we're on this side of eternity, we are spiritual lepers. That we are in constant need of him. That no matter how he uses us and what he longs to do, that because we're in this place and this flesh and this tabernacle and there will be the seed of sin in us, we'll always be tempted to sin. And we can see a true picture of ourselves when we see that we're spiritual lepers. But beloved, the word to those lepers was, they said to themselves when the Spirit of God came on them, why do we sit here and die? Why when we have known failure, we know areas of sin and yet we hear a great and glorious gospel preached to us, why will we sit here and die? Why will we not get our eyes off ourselves and look to him who has promised us an incredible victory with abundance? Beloved, if there is a cry for life in us, there also has to be then a curse of the spirit of do nothing, sit in unbelief, sit uncondemned, sit focusing on ourselves. Beloved, there will be a reckoning. There will be a time when God will take us to task, but I tell you when the truth, when he begins to reveal that he brings it with such a compassion in his spirit, such a sense of hope, such a sense of purpose that we get up. That way his spirit truly begins to move on us and a true repentance comes upon us. It is a godly sorrow that moves us to hope. It is a godly sorrow that we hear his voice and we respond to it. We say, whatever you have to say, I will hear whatever you have to do. I will do, but God lead me now, lead me no matter where I think it, how ridiculous or how I can't understand it. God, I will not sit here at the gate of Samaria and die. I believe that your call for my life is abundant life. I believe that you, your words, when you say to me, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. And so Lord, though, so I sit here in death. I'm going to choose to open my heart to what you're stirring there. I'm going to open my heart to the word that you're speaking to me at this time. And so they got up. They did not starve and die with the disobedient and the unheeding in Samaria. The fact God knows our compromising hearts and feeble faith does not change his love for us or what he wants to be to us. But we must be led to this revelation. We can hear it preached so many times. And yet the goodness of God that leads us to repentance has to be repeated and repeated to our heart and spirit. It's almost too simple. It's almost too good to be true. But to be led down that path of the revelation of this glorious salvation, of this glorious abundant life that he's longing to give us and that we have. Beloved, we must be have to be willing to be led. Made willing, I think, is the more correct term. Scripture says, Lord, we will be made willing in the day of your power. There is a day of power that comes upon even the weakest among us. There is a day of power when God sees four leprous men sitting outside the gate of Samaria and he says, enough, I've sent my truth to them. And they begin to see that every other option they have is death. I'm sending my power to them. I'm going to give them the ability for this season. I'm going to send my Holy Spirit and I'm going to stir them. And all those that, like those lepers, will sit in a place that looks like death, where the devil will condemn us and tell us it's hopeless, where we do not deserve an abundant life and an abundant victory. The Holy Spirit, in the day of his choosing, in the day of his power, will come upon his people and we will be made willing. Because we're his people. And the scripture says, we will be made willing in the day of his power. God will raise the issues of our heart that keep us unwilling. I'll say that again. God will raise the issues in our heart that are keeping us unwilling. God will raise the issues that will have us consider moving to the left hand and moving to the right, which is only moving sideways in our death situation. God will close off all the paths till only his that goes right into the enemy camp. With the testimony of the abundance of Jesus in our life, God knows what it is that he has to remove in our heart, what he has to expose that keeps us unwilling. Because he says, we will be made willing in the day of his power. The lepers could have said, we'll just sit here till we die. They could have said that because, I'll tell you something, there are many that have said that. They could have said, God, you know, we'll sit here till we die. God, are you happy about that? Lord, I'm a leper. You could change that. Lord, I'm starving. You could change that. I'm dying. And you could change that. But Psalm 35, 22 says, keep not silent, O God. It's saying that because there's times that God answers accusations and words like that with silence. Because his ways are above our ways. And he knows that when these things that are deep seated in our heart and those things that make us unwilling to follow and make us unwilling to trust, make us unwilling to be led down a path we can't understand. God says, I'm committed to exposing it in your heart because you're going to be made willing in the day I move. And so God begins to expose. And many times he does it with silence, beloved. Because in our heart, if there's accusations forming and doubt and unbelief, if there are things there that are honest and they're raging, God's silence gets our attention if we're his. God's silence keeps the heart seeking because our questions keep the turmoil raging. Our questions keep us in a rage and a turmoil till we will long for rest. And then finally we'll be open. And we'll be open to his word. We'll be open to his answer. Till our accusations become a cry. Till he turns our accusations and our unbelief into an honest gut cry. And when God is doing that, then he says a broken spirit and a contrite heart. You will not despise, O God. Beloved, so many times he has been loving us in his silence. He has been working powerfully in his silence because he knows the area of heart that are unwilling to follow him into the abundant life he has for us. We say we want the abundant life. We say, Jesus, all of you and none of me. But the Lord God Almighty knows in reality what the heart is and what path it must be taken along. And what kind of leading and handling it must have to be made willing. Why sit here until we die? The Lord moves them down a mysterious road into the enemy camp and into abundance. And they did not only had abundance when they walked God's way. These lepers walked in, not just to abundance, but to joy, to revelation. They alone knew that the besieging army had fled. There's an army walled up over the hill that knows nothing but what they know. These men have been brought into a revelation. They see with their eyes what God had done with so very little that they had given him. All they did was respond. All they did was say, God, yes, I agree with your truth. I agree what you're showing me about me and my life. And God was able to do with so much with so little. And God brought them into the enemy camp. And now they see that their enemies are bred for them. They see that their enemies have departed. And their enemies have left them nothing but spoil, nothing but riches. God also delivered the lepers from the city of Samaria. And Samaria, beloved, is a place where truth is proclaimed. But there's no power to deliver in this truth. You know people, I know people who say, I know truth, I understand truth. But there is no deliverance, there's no transformation in the life. Beloved, if we're in that place where we say, I know truth, I understand truth. But we are without transformation. I know truth, but we're not in a place where God is able to squeeze us and to open our eyes to reality. If there's not something going on, beloved, we must say, what is the truth that I seemingly think I understand? And Samaria was this place where they had truth, but there was no deliverance. It was a city constantly under siege or starvation all the while saying, the Lord God, He is our God. It's a place with a history. It's a place, Samaria is a city and Samaria is a surrounding area. And the people who lived in it eventually be called Samaritans. And it was first founded by a man who set it on a high place. And there he built high places. He was an idolater. But its roots came in a man named Jeroboam who was given legitimately by God the ten northern kingdoms. But because they had to go to Jerusalem, the southern kingdom, he was afraid of them coming under the dominion of another king. And so he said, don't you worry about it. You don't have to go to Jerusalem to worship. He said, I'll build you altars just like in Jerusalem. I'll build you places to worship that look just like what happens in Jerusalem. I'll close the priests in the same clothes like they do where in Jerusalem. The same services and the rituals that they do in Jerusalem, we'll do it here. And we won't just have it in one place. We'll have it all over Samaria. We'll have all these high places of worship that you can come. And it looks just like what takes place in Jerusalem. And it looked, to the untrained eye, it could look like a mini-revival breaking out all over that land. But beloved, it was anything but. Because God, it's God's decree when He says, I am the one who choose how you worship me and where you worship me and with what you will worship me with. It was Jeroboam saying, I'll build you altars that you can come and worship at. But God was not at that altar. God was not in it. God was not with them. And so there never was deliverance in their truth. There never was a release. There never was the protection. There never was the comfort. There never was a shepherd as one looking after his sheep when they would go to these altars because God was not there. They were in the wrong place. But they could have recited the truths that those that went to Jerusalem, they would share the same common truth. But one people were a delivered people that believed it. And now we have another people that have truth, but they're sealed up in a wall, starving to death, surrounded by their enemies. But beloved, God loved them. He raised up Elijah and Elisha to try to draw people out of that northern kingdom, to draw people out of the Samaritans. And because they couldn't hear the word anymore, because they had unrighteous leadership over them, because they were being fed and they worshipped at a desecrated altar, at a rejected altar, and all their pleas and all their cries for worship would go unheeded, except for the cry for truth. And that's still today. Every other altar, every altar that God has not established and appointed, the only cry that God will hear from mankind is a cry for truth. And so this God still wants to reach out to these Samaritans and they can't hear him anymore. They feel we have truth. And it's not done us much good. We claim Jehovah is our God and we have no deliverance and we're starving. And so God can't speak to them by his word, so he speaks to them through events. So he speaks to them through events. And he brings one calamity after another, he's after their heart. Wars and sieges and starvation. But he took his four lepers and he took them outside of that gate of Samaria. He took them outside that city of Samaria, where they could hear. Beloved, sometimes we don't realize, but the most precious thing we have in our life is that God is still talking to us. That God is not giving up on us. That when we cry, he hears. That when we say, God, I give you my life, he takes it. When I say, God, lead me down the path, no matter how I go kicking or screaming, he says, okay, I love you, I'll take you there. Beloved, these lepers were outside the city of Samaria, a place that was shut up to idol worship and under the dominion of evil men, said lies to turn them against truth. These men were sitting outside of that and God could speak to them. Sometimes we don't understand what a blessed place we're in, where we're in a place where God can still speak to us. If we're in a place where it's a rebuke, a reproof, or a blessing, or an I love you, I am with you. I'll take you through this season. I'll take you through this next little while. I'll give you a testimony of abundance if you trust me, if you will not sit there and be condemned, if you will not sit there with your mouth shut, if you will not sit there and feel I don't deserve it. I am the God that saved you. I have an appointed place. Beloved, that appointed place, you know, that he chose for an altar was a cross. And that place where he said you will sacrifice to me was a place in Calvary. And his son, Jesus Christ, was the sacrifice. And today that's how we come. That's how we come to him saying, Lord, I want that abundant life. When we come to the Father through the Son, saying I'm coming to the appointed place, every other altar that I've created, saying it was truth, saying, God, this is how you act. And God, this is how you deal. I will tear it down. Or God, I'll ask you to demolish it by your spirit. And I ask you to bring me to the one place, oh God, that you hear and that you bless and that you save and that you deliver. Because God, when I will go through Jesus Christ and I'll ask him to lead me into the abundant life he's promised me, he will take me right into the camp of the enemies and he will give me an abundance not less than what the lepers had. The scripture says, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Today, if we come to Jesus Christ and we say, Jesus, live your life in me. He says, I will. Now follow me. Now follow me. And the assurance that you're saved, beloved, is that we can be led. The assurance that we're saved is that we can be led in life and we can be led into life. The leading in our lives, I have found, often goes the smoothest when we're the most dependent. Independence, really in a nutshell, is when our independence has been broken. Our, I'll, that urge in us will continually raise its head. Thank you, God, for what you've done. I'll carry on. Thank you, God, how you've delivered me. I'll carry on. Thank you, God, how you've given me patience and a forgiving spirit. But I'll carry on in case I get misused. Beloved, we have to learn to trust him the whole route. We have to release ourselves to him continuously. There will be this raising of his head that will want us to depend back on ourselves. We will receive the blessing of God, but we will stop halfway into that full, abundant life. We will have life, but it is his purpose that we have abundant life. Broad down a path we can't take ourselves. He has to lead us into it. In verse 8, it tells us about the lepers and how they took the treasure and they hid it. And that is such a lesson to us on learning how to, how God is going to be speaking to us to stay dependent on him after the blessing. How that we can say, God, I thank you that I trusted you in this, that I did not sit down in my condemnation or my death or my sin, but I got up as your spirit led me and you brought me into a victory. But now these, these lepers in verse 8, it says that they came into the camp and they did eat and drink and they carried the gold and the silver and the raiment and they went and they hid it. And then they went in another tent and they took all that they could carry out and they carried it and they went and they hid it. Beloved, that's such a picture of us. That God will bless us and bring us into abundance. But then we'll want to take it, anxious to keep the treasure as if we are been responsible for finding it. We're anxious now. We have something now. And they take it and they hide it. So finally, after they did that, they said in verse 9, we do not well. We do not well this day. It's, let's review now. We, we were nothing and God moved upon us. And by his grace, we responded and we were made willing and we walked down the road to the enemy camp and we found it empty. But we found it full and we took all the stuff and we've eaten and drank and now we're set for life. I have life. That's a picture of us. I have eternal life. God, I have a relationship with you, but now I take it and I hide it. Now I'm anxious about it. Now I've got this treasure. God says, you're not doing well. He says, I want, you cannot maintain this abundance through your efforts and your scheming. You can't eat all the food in this camp. You don't have the strength to bury all this treasure. You do not well. God's saying, did I leave you, did I lead you here to abundance? Then follow me again and I'll lead you back to a greater abundance. And the scripture says that they came back and they went back to that walled up siege, siege city to Samaria. And they said, they brought tidings that could barely be believed. They said, we have gone to the enemy camp. And beloved, I can imagine on the way back before they came, these good tidings, there would have been a struggle in their heart saying, why should we go back to a people who rejected us? Why should we go back to a people who say they know truth? Why, why should, why can't we just live where we've got it good? Why do we have to go back? God, I thank you for this life. I thank you for the abundance. I have all that I need and more now. Why do I have to go back? Why can't I just hide it? Why can't I just live the good life? God says, because I've come to give you abundant life, not the good life. He says, because I've given you life, but I want to have abundant life. Now you've got to keep following me. And I say, go back. And again, the spirit stirred then, yes, we do not well if we don't listen. We do not well if we'll not be led. We do not well if we don't heed our faithful God. Because when we obeyed him the first time, we were more than blessed. If we obey him again, he will not fail to bless us again. And so the scripture says, they go back with this testimony of mercy and goodness and abundance. They go back with a testimony that can scarcely be believed. And beloved, they go back and they tell the porter and they say, the enemy has fled. And they said that all that you could ever imagine, all that we need and more is sitting in the enemy's camp waiting for us to spoil it. And the scripture, it says in verse 12, when this report came to the king who ruled Samaria. He said, wait a minute. He said, I will now show you what the Syrians have done. They know that we are hungry and they've gone out before us and they're hiding. And when we all leave the city, they're going to rush in. They're going to massacre us. They're going to kill us. And beloved, this king, this scorner is now being threatened. His control over the people, his interest is being threatened. Faith, truth is being preached. And all that can come out of his heart is no, no, no. This is a trap. This is a scheme. But God will expose him as a leader who sees nothing. When lepers return with this incredible testimony, we have been led into abundance and we come in the name of the Lord to share it with you. And so they did. They shared the news and the word went through the city. And some men came to the king and said, could we not least see, send an embassy out to see if it is true. And the scripture says that they could only find two withered old horses for everything was being consumed that lived in Samaria. Everything that had a false concept of truth and how God acted and how God dealt with his people. Everything was being consumed under the lie that was calling itself truth. And the scripture says that they sent an embassy out on two withered horses and they found it to be true. And they found that not only was their loot left in the camp, but the enemy had ran so fast and so hard out of that camp by the sound of those leprous men's feet, that they left a trail all the way from Jordan to Egypt. Then they left things all along. There was an incredible spoil and there was an incredible bounty. Beloved, what a picture. Because the scripture says in verse 16, and the people went out and they spoiled the tents of the Syrians. And these lepers came back with the testimony of the abundance that they had found in God. They went back into a people that they thought would, had always rejected them. And they went back to a people who they didn't think wanted truth. But because of their bold testimony, the powers and principalities over that group of people was broken. God was saying, there is a hungry people. More than you know, more than you understand, waiting for a testimony. Waiting of a testimony of life. Waiting to hear something. Waiting to hear that God is real. That God will forgive through His Son, Jesus Christ, that God can deliver. Because all my life, I have paid homage to truth and a God that never delivered. God is putting upon His people, He wants to put upon you the testimony of abundance in Jesus Christ. Where you become who you never could be apart from Him. There's a richness in you. There is an ability to love. There's an ability to move in wisdom and walk in wisdom. There's an ability to have an abiding sense of the Spirit of God in you as we walk in His presence and the richness of Christ fills every hole that is in our life from our past. Fills every hole because we've given out to people and now we're empty. Fills every hole overfilling. There is an abundance, an abundant life in Christ when we walk His way. And when we will be led. And beloved, there is a multitude waiting to hear. Our testimony is going to be the abundance of Christ in us. But God will take us down that path to make sure it's a real testimony. If that's not true in our life, He is committed to showing us where we are unwilling to be led. What are we afraid of? What am I afraid of? God says that if you will be led by me, I will bring you into abundant life. I can't even imagine it sometimes because when I sit shut up in fear and shut up in wondering, God, will you be faithful? He says, remember who I am. Remember how I dealt with the lepers. Remember when I came and stirred them and brought them to an incredible victory. That's who you are. And that's who I'll be to you. Beloved, I believe God is creating, even at this moment, a great longing in many hearts here to trust Him. That you sit in a place of hopelessness some today. Or you sit in a place where despair can so easily overwhelm, knowing all the promises of God. But I believe today that God wants us by faith. He is stirring us by His Spirit. And He's getting us ready to be led into an abundant life because of the starving multitudes around us. Because we've got something to feed them if we let Jesus be our bread. Because we're going to bring in a very blackened and darkened world the only hope and life this world has to offer. Because God has a way when He puts His hand on a man or a woman's life to close down every avenue in people's lives. And in a split second show them it's death. But who will show them the path to life? Only those with life. You don't have to explain light. Light just is. That's what God wants us to be. Beloved, will you stand with me? God is creating a cry even here today. There's some that say, Lord, I want to respond fully to what I feel you are starting to plan in my heart. That's an abandonment to you. An abandonment. Some of you are counting the cost. But Jesus said, I will be with you to the end of the age. And I have come that you might have life and that you would have it more abundantly. If the Lord is moving upon you now and you want to respond, He's making you willing because there's a day of His power. And you want to respond to what He wants to put into your life as an abandonment, a trust, a growing trust like you've never had. You have some. But like most of us, we are so easily besetted by the sin that keeps us sitting and doing nothing. But beloved, we don't have to be condemned today. We just have to receive what the Spirit wants to put in our spirit and rise up and go forward and say, God, I'll be led. I will be led by you. I will be led by you. Wherever you lead, Lord, I will be led by you because I have confidence that it is into abundant life, not just for me, but for those around me and for those that my life will touch. Will you come now as we sing? For those of you that have come forward, this is just a time for you to raise your hearts and our hands to Him. I'm so grateful He accepts us just as we are. Fully seeing into our hearts and our lives. But there's the hope. He does see in our heart, Lord, I want my life to be totally yours. And that's why He extended such mercy to those lepers, because they were His. Beloved, that's why He's going to be so merciful and gracious to us. He's going to put us on our feet in spite of our weakness, in spite of all our past. He's going to put us on our feet. And every step we take on our leprous feet is going to be a testimony to Him. And beloved, when we lean on Him like that, we say, God, every step is yours. Every step is yours. It's your strength. It's your will in me to even want to do it. Beloved, I want you to hear your enemy fleeing. Every time we, by the grace of God and the strength of God, get up. When we say we shake ourselves and say, why do I sit here till I die? God has appointed me life. So I'm going to choose life by the grace of God. And I'm going to get up. And beloved, the enemy is so fearful of that because it's the feeble. And it's those that say I'm nothing, that I'm a leopard. It's those that shake the enemy because they shouldn't be getting up. The enemy is so used to oppressing them. He's so used to having them under his thumb. He's so used to having you and I obey him in areas where we've struggled before. But this time when we get up, we go in the strength of God. We go, I know you're giving me life. I know you're giving me life. I know you're giving me life. And beloved, when you get there, the enemy will flee and there will be a treasure. There will be an abundance for you. There'll be a blessing for you. There'll be a blessing for your family. There's going to be a blessing and abundance because our God is faithful. He doesn't just reward the generals. He rewards those, the lepers. And beloved, that's where his power resides. It's with the lepers. It's with those who know their only hope and their last hope is him. So they get up in that strength. Beloved, this is the hardest message I've ever prepared in my whole life. I agonized over this word. I can't tell you how. You want to know why? Because I don't like to be led. I don't. And there's a couple of witnesses here. But as much as I don't want to be led, I want to be led. And anyone who came in and responding in their heart, that's your heart cry too. God, ignore what the top of my heart is saying. I thank you. You see the bottom of my heart and I want to be led. And so he's gracious to our failings. He's gracious to our feebleness. He's gracious to our hesitancy because he's going to make us willing. He is going to make us willing and we're going to walk all the way. If God makes us willing, we will know nothing but victory. Let's praise and now let's raise our hands. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. This is the conclusion of the message.