In this sermon, the speaker begins by discussing Jesus' proclamation of preaching good news to the poor. He highlights the current need for this message, especially in times of natural disasters and poverty-related deaths. The speaker shares a personal experience of working with young individuals who have been neglected by society and emphasizes the importance of providing them with love and a sense of family. The sermon concludes with a story from the walled city, where the people in need of good news were the ones who ultimately delivered it to the city's gatekeepers and the king.

From 2 Kings 6 and you'll find that on page 338 of your pew Bible Sometime later King Ben-Hadad of Aram mustered his entire army He marched against Samaria and laid siege to it as the siege continued Famine in Samaria became so great that a donkey's head was sold for 80 shekels of silver and 1 fourth of a cab of doves dung for 5 shekels of silver Now as the king of Israel was walking on the city wall a woman cried out to him help my lord King He said no, let the Lord help you. How can I help you? from the threshing floor or from the winepress But then the king asked her what is your complaint? She answered this woman said to me give up your son. We will eat him today and we will eat my son tomorrow So we cooked my son and ate him The next day I said to her give up your son and we will eat him But she's hidden her son When the king heard the words of the woman he tore his clothes Now since he was walking on the city wall, the people could see that he had sackcloth on his body underneath and he said So may God do to me and more if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat stays on his shoulders today So he dispatched a man from his presence Now Elisha was sitting in his house and the elders were sitting with him Before the messenger arrived Elisha said to the elders. Are you aware that this murderer has sent someone to take off my head? When the messenger comes see that you shut the door and hold it closed against him Is not the sound of his master's feet behind him? While he was still speaking with them the king came down to him and said this trouble is from the Lord Why should I hope in the Lord any longer? But Elisha said hear the word of the Lord thus says the Lord Tomorrow about this time a measure of choice meal shall be sold for a shekel and Two measures of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God Even if the Lord were to make windows in the sky could such a thing happen But he said you shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat from it Now there were four leprous men outside the city gate who said to one another why should we sit here until we die? If we say let us enter the city the famine is in the city and we shall die there But if we sit here, we shall also die Therefore let us desert the Aramaean camp if they spare our lives we shall live and if they kill us we shall but die So they rose at twilight to go to the Aramaean camp But when they came to the edge of the Aramaean camp there was no one there at all For the Lord had caused the Aramaean army To hear the sound of chariots and of horses the sound of a great army so that they said to one another The king of Israel has hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to fight against us So they fled away in the twilight and abandoned their tents their horses and their donkeys Leaving the camp just as it was and fled for their lives When these leprous men had come to the edge of the camp they went into a tent ate and drank Carried off silver gold and clothing and went and hid them Then they came back entered another tent carried off things from it and went and hid them Then they said to one another What we are doing is wrong This is a day of good news if we are silent and wait until the morning light we'll be found guilty Therefore let us go and tell the king's household So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city and told them We went to the Aramaean camp But there was no one to be seen or heard there nothing but the horses tied the donkeys tied and the tents as they were Then the gatekeepers called out and proclaimed it to the king's household The king got up in the night and said to his servants. I will tell you what the Aramaeans have prepared against us They know that we are starving. So they've left the camp to hide themselves in the open country Thinking when they come out of the city, we should take them alive and get into the city One of the servants said let some men take five of the remaining horses Since those left here will suffer the fate of the whole multitude of Israel that have perished already Let us send and find out So they took two mounted men and the king sent them after the Aramaean army saying go and find out So they went after them as far as the Jordan the whole way was littered with garments and equipment that the Aramaeans had thrown away in their haste So the messengers returned and told the king this is the word of the Lord. I have some friends with me and they're going to they live with us and work with us and So some of them are going to share what they Feel God's saying to us I came that you might have life Use each alien or they have food or a moon job and that you might be satisfied and rich Fancy lady to eat out today Fancy lady to eat out it's a good easy to do it. You'll get to know why if you Use your own ways, it would come to decay But if you seek me You will have joy and life So don't be worried about the things you can see But be concerned about the things you cannot Because those things that you can see are but temporary But hope in me is forever So commit the things That you have to me because I'm walking before you And my glory will follow you And I will be with you 418 This is where Jesus began to speak and If you've got these Yeah He went into the synagogue. He'd just been baptized in water and This Holy Spirit had come upon him and he announced What he was on earth to do and he starts by saying The Spirit of the Lord is upon me Because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor and I have a question today And that is What is Good news For we're living in a time Where surely the poor need to hear it? Every time there's an earthquake Or a flood disaster and they've been many in the last few months and many in the last few years In God's mercy people are provoked as they are this day in Hong Kong to collect money or to wonder if they could Go with goods or go themselves Simultaneously Every year 10 million children die before the age of 5 25,000 children die daily Just because of poverty Nearly 2 million children die because of diarrhea and This is going on all the time 80% of the world lives under poverty and a third in this Wonderful place Hong Kong though. It's a little bit harder to see them these days but they're here and We wonder what is good news? Because surely good news is something they would like to hear It cannot be a gospel pill to be swallowed or God advice Good news is something that somebody hears and says. Oh good. I I Wanted to hear that and so here are we and I can hear as we worship this morning that most of you Love Jesus Therefore We've got everything have we not everything here and Even to be here those of us who are sitting here means We didn't have to go to work today or we had the money to get the bus or a taxi or Drive or we lived in a slightly better part of town so we could afford the rent and walk here Therefore here we are a people with very much We have hope of eternal life We have the love of Jesus. We're very rich and the Lord says That he came to preach good news to the poor and I want to talk about the poor and their needs in conjunction with this story we just read Which was a very long one, so I hope you sort of followed it It's about famine in besieged Samaria Now in Samaria there was the king of Israel. We're talking about the time of Elisha the king of Israel in Samaria was surrounded the Arameans the enemy were outside and Samaria was terrified and cut off and starving so much so that Two women came to the king and said help and he's so rude this King He's already seen God work through Elisha, and he says What can I do for you? So people start to blame the Lord in times of trouble as did the king Then they say well We were so poor we decided to eat our sons We ate my friend my son yesterday and today my friend hid hers and the king then swears at the Prophet it's his fault of course Now the point about this story is that the king Who should have known the Lord and there was a dear prophet? Who clearly made him known? the king Should have had all the resources That the people needed to be fed and yet they were in siege and poor Mentality Years ago. I was in the walled city. I got here in 66 and Was a series of adventures, but one of the No They're all great. I can't say which was the greatest but After longing and longing and longing to see people in that place Fed for this day and Fed for eternity I Had prayed For the power of the Spirit to preach good news to the poor by the way, that's what it's for strange that the church has Just got round to it when it was where Jesus started Holy Spirit to preach good news to the poor I had prayed this prayer Because the people I was with they happened to be gangsters or poor widows or beaten mothers In a city which was physically dark and terribly poor About in those days eighty to a hundred thousand people in five or six acres with no toilets or light and open sewers and more rats than people and Girls which I could see with my own eyes sold One of them was 13 or 14 and Used as a prostitute every 30 minutes because I watched And nothing to be able to do about it because the people running the racket Were the people who should have stopped it that was why I prayed for the power of the Spirit They had been moved those people that I'd spent time with them started a youth club they it started out with quite nice people ended up with gangsters and And They were moved about Jesus they said about me When you yes, so quite see seen then I choice. Oh, yes. Oh, she might go gay. Hope about Jesus She's cracked but apart from that. She's alright So I I was very pleased about that, but I didn't just want them to be moved. I I wanted them to be changed so I prayed for the power of the Spirit and That's another long story which which is written down to save me telling you today and When I received the power of the Spirit didn't feel very powerful, but I did on that occasion speak in a new language and after I learned that it was to pray in this language rather than to feel in I did start to see miracles and And when the power of the Spirit came on the people that I prayed with like the people I brought this morning And they received a new language They could get off drugs miraculously after having been on drugs 15 20 years No pain no medic and no medicine no withdrawal pains, so that was brilliant But one day two mothers came to me, and I'll never forget because they knelt down in front of me and Both of them said to me Once you dare that was my that was my Chinese name my son Take my son by this time The name of Jesus had got a bit famous Because as the Holy Spirit came on our guys You know God's so kind to be no respecter of persons to generously visit the lowest and those who are called the highest to if they will as This had happened the name of Jesus got famous people were coming to the wall city For the opposite reasons than they came before they used to come Because it was where you could commit a crime or sell a woman or hide From the police because you you couldn't arrest people inside, but once Jesus started to get famous they came Because that was where you found light wonderful opposite way around and These two ladies thought they just thought Perhaps points you dare only has room for one son in her house Because I'd started taking people in my house How Could you choose between two sons just recently one or two people here have visited us and We we have a very nice-looking place now on a very nice mountain It's beautiful we we we're housing between about 300 people over 200 in that place, but You know, we're a little bit afraid when people see our lovely place In case they think you need a lovely place to do this. No, you don't We've I've rented borrowed rooms Had people in my own home for for 20 years coming off drugs I've even rented brothels For the night they do look at you a bit strangely when you're coming in and out But you know, I just needed a room the reason I needed a room was that I didn't know people like you and We had women Kneeling before us saying take my son. How could you not? How could you not so we just took one more and then one more and then rented another place and then One more and The Lord was as kind to them as he had been when he died on the cross for me what a wonderful Savior Now in this story After the King is so mean and and decides that he'll have the Prophet killed We Appear in this story for lepers if we're sort of following the story for lepers and the lepers say well We're starving You know lepers are always outside the city Shall we go in? Well, there's nothing in there Well, then why not go to the camp of the enemy? Mostly boon no loss We might die anyway, so Let's go to the enemy camp years ago a Very tall and in those days not very good-looking man Thought is there hope anywhere? His mother worked as a cleaner in a church Which didn't seem to be very full of good news. I'm sorry to say and her son with a hair was a heroin addict and He heard that in the walled city there was hope and people talked about Jesus so he thought mostly fun No loss. I May as well go there and see if Jesus is true. He came And he said it was so wonderful The first time I came people Introduced me to Jesus and he was filled with the Holy Spirit and speak spoken tongues all our guys first time They meet Jesus. It's not that they're special it's just that Jesus is special and and you know the gifts of the Holy Spirit by the way for the needy not the sanctified and That man who said I may as well go where I've heard this life Later I married he was a thirsty man and he'd heard where to go The four lepers went into the enemy camp ate and drank and saw that the enemy had fled why the enemy had fled because they'd heard a noise and the Arameans thought oh maybe the people of Israel in Samaria Maybe they've got some enemy forces and so they ran away even leaving their donkeys and horses tied up So the lepers are having this great feast Gold and silver and they decide to hide some and then their conscience is smitten. Please don't take a photo Conscience is smitten and they say what we're doing is not right. This is what happened to us in walled city the power of the Spirit and the love of Jesus He forgives our sins. He heals our body. He sets us free from addictions Oh, we are feeding we are feeding We were the lepers and now we're the full ones and then we get a conscience and say what we're doing is not right We better not keep this to ourselves You see in this story the people of God should have been the ones in the city, but they were in siege mentality It was the lepers who had the good news and the lepers went to the city Of course, they're not allowed in and they shout to the gatekeepers good news The enemies fled the gatekeepers shout the news to the king This is what happened in our walled city. Just amazing story all over the world People came to the walled city because they were going to pull it down You know China didn't want to receive an eyesore and Britain didn't want to give one so They decided to dispose of the walled city and resettle the people I happen to be living there as they were beginning to clear it and Pull it down. But what happened was that reporters came from the whole world. We had National Geographic Australia Canada, thank God, none of them Christians all of them Secular press they tell the story better No, I mean that because they are reporting not with John 3 16 in mind and they all reported that we were in all those videos and They came into our little room. All we got was nothing like this. Just just a bare room with white walls with people there worshiping their hearts out meeting Jesus every week and Miracles of healing happened and we got to be on all those videos today I get Letters from Australia or Canada saying I watched your video. Well, I didn't make one And I put my hand on the TV and I got healed. Oh, I'd say oh, thank God. We got that one for free It's it's absolutely super. You know, we've spent years with the lowest in Hong Kong. We're not in Hong Kong's High Church circles or anything like that. We're just getting on with the unlovely whether they change or not Because they're worth it because Jesus died for them But when you do that somehow the news of Jesus goes to the ends of the earth So the gatekeeper shouted the news and the king said can't be sure this is true. It's probably a trick anyway Mosey boon It's just the same as the lepers we're not gonna lose anything so we'll send five horses which they hadn't yet eaten and We will go and see if it's true. And if they die, well, we're gonna die anyway This is the church today. It should be that the people of God. That's you Have the good news But strangely, it's the poor who are preaching it It's the poor who are shouting it it's the reporters who are announcing it and Then the people of God say well, maybe we could have some too And they go and find it's true and they went and they ate and They drank and So the the stock market just reversed overnight. Yes, it can if we will come out of siege mentality we do not need to guard what we have or Wonder which son could be saved for the Lord's heart is for them all and This is my prayer for you today That you will find the heart of Jesus For the people in this city, first of all, yes, you will respond to China's earthquakes The floods the hurricanes Yes, you will and I happen to know that the people in this city almost more than any other a generous This is a generous city in giving it's quite high So I'm not really talking about money. I'm talking about your lives because you see You are the ones who've got everything Everything Everything if you know Jesus, you've got hope for eternity. You've got his promise that he'll be with you and If you're going through slightly difficult things today, it's alright Because he says he'll go through them with you, but the rest of Hong Kong the rest of Asia Did you know that? most of the people in the world who've never heard that there's a kind God never heard a Physically poor and hungry It just happens to be that way around they're physically poor and hungry this day and They have no hope for eternity Just think next time you go to yum-cha For I know somebody who works in a Chinese restaurant The other day he left home to go to work at 7 He worked through he got two hours off in the afternoon, but there was nowhere to go So he had to sleep on the staircase then he worked through till one o'clock Gets home at two gets up at six to go to work again. This is seven days a week and If any customer breaks something in the restaurant he pays for it No guaranteed holiday and He dare not not obey his boss in case he loses his job. Of course, that means he can never come to anything like this So we send people to his staircase To read Bible and pray with him That's where our church is down the back staircase Or on the roof or in the walled city and there are people around you Who need reaching they may never get here And I'm going to pray that the the Lord will send his spirit and that you will receive his spirit to preach good news to the poor I've brought with me two young guys. They're called go-getters. We've got 70 Boys and girls somewhere else living with us. They're out of school. The schools don't want them They're even out of school by 12 and even though in Hong Kong they should be in school. No one wants them So they come and live with us and they meet Jesus very quickly and they find the love of God They find a family. That's what they want. They don't want a lecture They don't want a counseling course. They just want a family and you know our go-getters They're the ones that are going to the rest of the world. We've got high flyers to our high flyers 18s to mid 20s and they've all been on the drugs you're reading about in the papers Ketamine and heroin and these other drugs We've actually had people healed recently of The bladder disease, you know where they have to go to the toilet every five minutes. They've got healed We had somebody who came in urinating blood a month ago ago. It's he's clean now It's his heart changed his body changed and what they want to do now. What else? They all praying. I want to go to Asia. I want to go to Philippines. I want to go to China I want to go to Indonesia. I want to go to Vietnam. I want to go to India and we've got people in all those countries. I want to share good news with the poor because I've been poor They learn how to heal the sick We had a couple of teenagers not about this age go to Mongolia a few years ago and in Mongolia They didn't speak Mongolian, of course But they were asked to pray with a granny Now they were able to pray with the granny because our friends took goods We believe in feeding people now and for eternity. You can never choose one or the other not fair To choose one or the other though, you may swing from side to side Anyway, because of that they were they they said would you play for this granny? She's blind and She's got a bad knee Well our teenagers thought maybe we're not yet up to blind eyes So we'll just lay our hands on the leg They laid their hands on her leg and And said in the name of Jesus be healed and then she screamed and they asked the Interpreter what she's saying and she was saying I can see I can see Our teenagers have been loved by Jesus. They've been physically and emotionally healed by Jesus Some of them have got reconciled to the families Who couldn't manage them and then they go and bring good news to the poor That's what we're training our people for they learn how to mend roofs delights People feed their babies and pray for miracles and Share their food Would you like to be part? of bringing good news to the poor Please stand and I'll pray for you and then some of you will stay behind Perhaps specifically to pray about being part of God's heart For the physically poor. Yes. We know the rich poor need Jesus They do but they can read a book and they may get a day off our calling Must be as well Not instead but as well to those who are physically poor in time In living quarters in food and in hope so we ask you Lord and We say yes We were poor and you found us and we thank you for laying down your life That on the cross you broke the curse of poverty and We ask that you break this curse of poverty in our own lives That we'd be free to go to the poor and not shut up in our siege Mentality afraid that we've got nothing to give for you promised that we'd always have enough to be generous on every occasion to be rich So Lord we say sorry we haven't shared what we've got we thought we had to guard it And we say we are willing to share but pour out your spirit upon us That we really have good news for the poor in Whichever way they're poor