There's good news for the outsiders. Pastor Steven Furtick

I'm just going to say this right now.

I don't mean to offend you, but some of you

have way too many limits on what you will and

won't do to obey God. You have too many limits.

You have too many conditions. You don't want to look weird.

You don't want to be different. You don't want to

stand out. You don't want people to talk about you,

and so you're starving inside. But these men, they didn't

have the option to stay inside, and they couldn't stay

where they were. The Bible says that they eventually, after

many days of this, said to each other, Why stay here.

Until we die? What a question.

In other words, it is complacency that kills us. It

is our willingness to stay in places where we are

starving because we fear the repercussions of our obedience. And

so we don't join an e-group because we're scared of

being seen. So we stay in isolation and we die

outside because we won't let anybody in. But they didn't

have that option anymore. They did not have the luxury

to sit back and wait and see what God would do.

They no longer had the luxury of patience. So they

said to one another, we can't stay here. And if

we say, verse 4, we'll go into the city, the

famine is there, so we can't go there, and we

can't stay here, so we only have one thing left

to do.

Let's go. Somebody shout, let's go. You didn't shout it. Shout,

let's go. So let's go over to the enemy's camp

and surrender.

If they spare us, we live. If they kill us,

at least we die quick because I'm hungry.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. We can't stay.

Here and we can't go there because we're outside the gate.

Here's what I love. If you've ever felt like an outsider,

raise your hand right now. If you've ever felt like

an outsider, that surprises you, right? Because where are the

insiders if we all feel like outsiders? That was kind

of weird how more of us feel like outsiders.

Here's good news for the outsiders.

These men were on the outside of the city gate

because of their condition. But what I love is God

was using.

Their condition to position them in.

The place so that they would not be comfortable enough

to stay. Their condition … Here's what I love.

I love preaching to you. I'm going to preach this

whole point just to you.

Their condition positioned them to be God's secret weapon to

save a whole nation.

I am trying to say.

That sometimes the thing that you hate is the thing

that God will use. Sometimes the thing that makes people

not like you and reject you is the very.

Thing I'm about to fall off this.

Stage that will cause God to select you and choose

you and use you.

For a breakthrough. Does anybody believe? That the stone the

builders rejected. Why y'all leaving? I'm preaching good.

Somebody shout if you know God's youth and unlikely people. Yeah!

If they had been inside the camp, they would have died.

It was the fact that they were not allowed in

the camp that led to them.

Look what they did. This is so stupid what they did.

It makes no sense. It makes no sense.

Sometimes in order to see what God has spoken come

to pass, you can't be so focused on making sense.

Your senses are killing you. Living by what you see

is killing you. Living by what you feel is killing you.

Living by what you hear is.

killing you. And they had no choice.

These are not the people who come to church to

check it off a list because it's a nice thing

to do and their grandma would be proud if she

was still alive today. These are the people who come

to church because I need God to survive. These are

not people who come to church so they can get

a good parking.

Space, perhaps on Tuesday morning.

These are the people that come to church because I

can't make it. I live and I breathe and I move.

And I have my being in him and that dust.

Before the light came, they got up and went to

the camp of the Arameans. And when they reached the

edge of the camp, watch this. Nobody was there. God

had already displaced their enemies.

All they had to do was show up.

See, they went to surrender to the Enemy, but the

Enemy had already surrendered to them. When will we realize

that when we run from the devil, we are running from.

A defeated foe?

See, the Bible says that he is already under my feet.

So all I have to do to have the victory

in my life is to take another step. See, God

moves when you move. The devil runs when you take

your stand. When you put on your shield of faith,

the fiery darts of the wicked one will be quenched.

So when they got to the edge, somebody say, I'm moving,

I'm moving, I'm moving. I'm not dying here. I'm not

dying like this. I'm not living in this mess. I'm

not passing this on to my kids. I'm not going

out like this.

I'm not starving when my God owns.

The cattle on a thousand hills. Not like this. For

the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound

of chariots and horses. God caused the enemy to hear

an army that wasn't even there. When Elisha released the

word of God, when you make a declaration of faith,

it goes before you into your future.

Matter of fact, why not shout right now?

Because when we praise God, the devil gets.

A panic attack. And he has to turn loose our sword.

I feel like preaching. I'm real sorry if you don't

like it loud like this.

But somebody is starving in this church today. And it

wouldn't be so bad if you were starving and there

was no food. But when Christ died to give you life, and.

The thief came to kill, steal, and destroy.

I'm sorry, but I can't stand by silent while the

devil wipes out a generation. I can't stand by silent

while teen suicide is at an all-time high.

I can't stay silent. The gates of hell.

Won't... If we stay silent, we die. If we hide

our leprosy, it kills us. God used somebody who wasn't

even allowed in the city to save it.

God's going to use all of you who feel unworthy.

And all of you who feel not good enough and

all of you who have been ostracized and all of

you who feel limited. That's how God works, is through

your limitation. These men were so diseased that no one

was allowed to even touch them.

Come here. He couldn't even touch them. And that's who

God chose. So they went in the camp. Let me

show you this. They went in the camp.

And they saw that the enemy was already gone. Because

a lot of times what you're running scared from, God

has already dealt with. But the enemy has you under siege.

And he puts a spirit of fear on you. Because

if the spirit of fear ever lifts, you will find

out who you really are in Christ. But when they

got there, they saw that it was theirs for the taking.

So now the first thing.

They did wasn't to pray and give God their glory.

First thing they did was eat. And they went in

this tent.

And when they reached the edge of the camp, they

entered one of the tents and they ate and drank.

And then they start carrying away the spoils, the silver, gold, Clothes.

Vibranium. It's good. This is good. This is good. But

then they went off and hid them. Went off and

hid them.

Because that's what you do when you're a leper.

You hide.

That's what you do when you're ashamed.

You hide. That's what you do when you feel like

an outsider.

Remember the man in the parable that said, I was afraid,

so I took what you gave me and I hid it.

The enemy wants to keep you in hiding, and if

he can, he'll give you a condition that will cause

you to hide your gift.

You hear this word I'm trying to preach to you?

I wish I could sit down one-on-one with everybody in

the church and say, what are you hiding? Because here

they are. God has given them the victory, and they're

hiding it. And sometimes we hide because we are convinced

that we are not worthy. And sometimes we hide because

we are afraid of what might happen if we let

our light shine. But they had a revelation in verse 10,

I believe it is. No, it's verse 9. And they

said to each other, you know, this is not right.

Here we are.

We don't deserve to be here. This is a day

of good news. And we're keeping it to ourselves. Now,

if we wait till daylight, if we hold this in,

if we keep this to ourselves, punishment will overtake us.

What you hold inside, when you don't show your issues,

you die. When you don't share your gift, you die.

You are dying because of what you are hiding. If

we wait, if we sit on this, we die. If

we expose our sin, we can be healed. If we

hide it, we will die.

And here's the thing.

A lot of us are dying on the inside because

our issues are beneath our skin.

So we stay outside the camp. I'm not telling anybody.

I'm fine. I'm good.

I'm good.

I'm good.

We post and we pretend and we do our thing.

But they had a revelation. God is blessing us now.

And we have to share what the Lord has done.

Even though we're lepers. Even though I'm imperfect. You know

how preposterous it is for me to preach to you?

When I struggle like I struggle, I stand on this

stage before you each week by faith. See, but the

thing about it is, what if the reason God chose

the lepers to discover the treasure was because they knew

how to make an announcement? See, once they found the

goodness of God, they said, let's go at once and

report this in the royal palace.

And then look at verse 10.

So they went and called out because that's what lepers do.

Only this time they were not shouting, unclean, unclean. This time,

They were shouting, let's go. Let's go.

The only one who can really shout the victory is

the one that God has raised from the.

Ashes of defeat. Hey, thanks for watching. Make sure to

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