A Day of Good News

Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to 2 Kings chapter 6 for a time of study in the word. this morning. We're gonna be looking at a rather obscure story in the Old Testament. With some bizarre details in it.

but we're gonna be here this morning. because it will serve our purposes, well today, as Jonathan said, being our annual. vision meeting, Sunday, we actually see the words, this is a day of good news. In our passage today in 2 Kings chapter 7 verse 9.

And we see these words on the lips of some lepers. And what these lepers do on their day of good news, I think will be wonderfully instructive for us today. After all, this is a day of good news for us here at Cornerstone. We have much to rejoice in.

God has blessed us richly in Jesus Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, and he's blessed us as a church in numerous ways that we will be seeking to give expression to today, not only in the message this morning, but also in our meeting this afternoon. afternoon. Yet the good news of these blessings. imposes upon all of us as a congregation, a burden of responsibility that all of us should feel, along with an excitement over the opportunities that they present us with, and we see that burden as well as that excitement modeled for us today by 4 Samaritan lepers that we will meet in our passage today.

And I want us to learn from these lepers. this morning. The events of our passage today happened during the time of Elisha, the prophet, just to give you a little bit of perspective, Jehoram is king over Israel during this time, and he and the prophet Elisha, they don't get along very well. Jehoram is the son of Ahab and Jezebel, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to 2 Kings.

Because of Israel's sin. God allowed hardship to come upon Israel in the form of a military attack from the neighboring Aramaeans. And as a part of that attack, the Aramaeans besieged the capital city of Samaria, and in the siege, they cut off the food supply and the water supply to the city, eventually creating conditions of just absolutely awful famine inside the confines of the city of Samaria. You want to know how bad this famine was?

Look at what is described in verse 25. Say there was a great famine in Samaria, and behold, they besieged it until a donkey's head was sold for 80 shekels of silver and 1/4 of a cab of dove's dung for 5 shekels of silver. That's bad. A donkey was an unclean animal to the Israelites, so it wasn't even kosher and the head of a donkey would be the least desirable part of the donkey for eating, yet we learned that people We're paying the likely equivalent of several $1000 for.

A donkey's head. Imagine being so desperate for food that you would pay that much money for just the head of a donkey. And if you think that's bad, it looks like people were reduced to eating dove's dung. As well.

Some suggest that the Hebrew here was a slang expression for charib pods or seeds of some sort, but it's probably best to understand. The Hebrew text for what it says. People were willing to pay a few $100 for just a pint of pigeon droppings. That's how desperate.

Their hunger was in these conditions of famine. And if you have trouble believing that, look at what happens starting in verse 26, and this is not for the sensitive of heart. Verse 26, and as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, no doubt doing reconnaissance. A woman cried out to him, saying, Help my lord, O king.

No doubt the king had been hearing a lot of cries for help from people looking to the government for assistance during this famine. Observe his response in verse 27. He said, if the Lord does not help you, from where shall I help you? From the threshing floor or from the wine press?

The king obviously is in a foul mood because God has not delivered them from the famine and he's being sarcastic with this woman who's in great need. There is no grain on any threshing floor right now and no wine in any wine press. Which means that the king is completely unable to provide this woman anything to eat or drink and he's just sarcastically saying, what do you want? Something from the threshing floor or from the wine press?

It's like I used to say to my kids when they would want things that we did not, we could not afford, I'd say, well, let's go out in the backyard and pluck some money off the money tree. That's essentially what he's saying. Eventually, the king pities the woman and he speaks reasonably to her, verse 28, and the king said to her, what is the matter with you? Literally, what's with you?

Now listen to what this woman shares with the king. She points to another woman that she is having a conflict with. Verse 28, and she answered, this woman said to me, Give your son that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son and ate him, and I said to her on the next day, give your son that we may eat him, but she has hidden her son.

Imagine being a king. Over a people and having things be so bad under your rule that this is the case. That you're being asked to adjudicate. If Jehoram's goal was to make Samaria great again, He's failed How do you solve Or settle a matter like this, would you demand that the other woman keep her promise and surrender her son to be eaten?

Or would you let her off the hook when in fact the other woman had surrendered her son to be eaten the day before? Would you arrest both of them for conspiring to cannibalize their children? Or would you show them both mercy given the plight that they are in. This is an impossible situation for a king to render judgment upon, and it serves as an awful reminder to King Jehoram of how dire things are and the inhumane depths to which people's behavior had descended in their desperation for food.

So look at the king's response. And it came about when the king heard the words of the woman that he tore his clothes. Now he was passing by on the wall, and the people looked and behold, he had sackcloth beneath on his body. In other words, the king was already wearing.

sackcloth underneath his flashy royal garb as an act of private mourning, but now he throws off all pretense and he tears his outer garments revealing underneath the sackcloth that represented his mourning. No more brave public face for the king. He is now mourning publicly and rather than repenting of his evil ways, he directs his anger against the prophet Elisha. In verse 2031, he says, may God do so to me and more also if the head of Elisha, the son of Shaphat remains on him today.

The king knows that Elisha has amazing miracle powers and he's mad that Elisha has allowed the famine to happen and to become This severe. And this is how we begin the sermon. On annual Vision Sunday. My wife asked me on Wednesday this week, what are you preaching on Sunday for Vision Sunday?

And I said, well, it's from 2 Kings 6 and 7, and she's like, well, what's, what's in that? And so I started to tell her and I got this far. And she had this look of perplexity that came over her face. And she was like, wow, great call, Milton.

Great text for casting vision to the Cornerstone congregation. And I was like, no, hang on just a second, and then I finished and then she was excited. So This is why we set this stage this morning, skipping a few verses, we go to chapter 7, when the sun sets on this very day that the king has this encounter with this woman during the twilight of the evening. So the sun has set, there's still a little bit of light in the sky.

There are 4 lepers who are hanging around the entrance of the city of Samaria that's under siege, and they're along the outside of the wall. And guys, it's one thing to be an inhabitant of a city that is under this siege and famine conditions. It's another layer of low to be a leper in a city like this. I can assure you that none of these lepers had 80 shekels of silver to be buying a donkey's head for food.

Or even enough money to purchase. A pint of pigeon droppings. In fact, their situation is so desperate that they come up with a most desperate plan. Observe what happens in 2 Kings 7:3-4.

It says now there were 4 leprous men at the entrance of the gate. And they said to one another, why do we sit here until we die? If we say we will enter the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also.

Now therefore come and let us go over to the camp of the Aramaeans. If they spare us, we shall live and if they kill us, we shall but die. So their plan is to run out to the Aramaean army and surrender to them, which is normally the last thing that you would want to do if you're the inhabitant of a city that is under siege. They know that their chances of being spared.

By the Aramaean soldiers and being fed by them is probably about 1% of a chance. But to their way of thinking, a 1% chance at survival at the hand of the Aramaeans is better than a 0% chance at survival if they do nothing or go inside the city. So look at what they do, verse 5. So they arose at twilight to go.

To the camp of the Aramaeans, and when they came to the outskirts of the camp of the Aramaeans, behold, there was no one. There That's odd. Why is nobody at this huge encampment around the city? Look at verse 6, for the Lord had caused the army of the Aramaeans to hear a sound of chariots and a sound of horses, even the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, behold, the king of Israel has hired against us, the kings of the Hittites and the kings of the Egyptians to come upon us.

Therefore, they, the soldiers arose and fled in the twilight and left their tents and their horses and their donkeys, even the camp just as it was, and fled for their life. Turns out that these soldiers heard the noise of a great army at the very moment that these 4 lepers were heading towards them. The lepers had no idea that God was working on their behalf. As they were traveling to this encampment, they're oblivious to what God is doing.

But while they are heading out to the camp of the Aramaeans, God causes The Aramaeans to hear a sound that makes them think that two whole armies are coming against them. So they run for their lives and they leave their encampment behind. We learned later in the chapter. That as these Aramaean soldiers flee, they keep shedding their possessions and their clothing, getting rid of everything and anything that might slow them down the slightest bit to such an extent that verse 15.

Tells us that all the way was full of clothes and equipment which the Aramaeans had thrown away in their haste. Guys, these soldiers were literally scared out of their clothes. The lepers at this point have no idea what has caused. All of the Aramaeans to flee.

All they see is a completely abandoned encampment that featured various goods and clothing strewn along an outward moving path away from the encampment with thousands of tents. That are filled with food and drink, and money, and clothes and everything these lepers' hearts could ever desire. This is the incredible scene that now presents itself to these lepers. This is their day of good news.

And what we see next are 4 actions of these lepers in their day of good news, and we'll just briefly look at each of these 4 actions. The first thing that they do is they feast and stock up for themselves in their day of good news. They feast and they stock up. For themselves in their day of good news.

Look at what happens in verse 8. And when these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, they entered one tent and ate and drank and carried from there silver and gold and clothes and went and hid them. They were starving. Obviously, so eating and drinking was their first priority.

They eat and they drink to their heart's content. Then they take silver and gold and clothing, and they go off to some other location near no doubt where they dwelt and hid those items, hoarding them for later use. But they're not content. To have simply done that.

They want more. They're not like some of us who are content to enjoy only a tiny portion. of what God has blessed us with in Christ. In the second half of verse 8, it says, and they returned.

And entered another tent. And carried from there also and went and hid them. So it seems that they had organized to some degree their experience of the abundant blessing that God had provided them. They entered one tent and they feasted.

Then they carried away silver and golden clothing and went and hid them for a later day. Then they returned and entered into a second tent. They're not hungry anymore, so they just took food and other items from there and then went off and hid those items. For later use.

So consider now the contrast. Inside the city of Samaria, people are paying huge amounts of money to nourish themselves with donkey heads and dove droppings and eating their own children, at least on one occasion. And here are these lepers who are feasting on perfectly good food that God had miraculously and abundantly provided for them. The contrast could not be more stark.

And what these lepers are doing is totally fine, wonderful and commendable. This is God's provision for them, and they're doing right to feast and to stock up. But it's while stashing. The stuff from the 2nd tent.

That their conscience begins to bother them. And this leads us to the 2nd action of the 4 lepers on their day of good news. Number 2, they conclude that they are wrong to keep silent about their good news. Look at what happens in verse 9.

Then they said to one another, we are not doing right. This is a day of good news, but we are keeping silent. Notice what they say. They say we are not doing right.

This doesn't mean that they feel bad about raiding the tents of their enemies and eating and hoarding what God had provided for them. They're feeling bad about something else. Listen to what they say next. This is a day of good news.

But we are keeping silent. That's what they're feeling bad about. They feel bad about the fact that they are feasting. And enjoying this divinely given provision.

And saying nothing about it to their starving countrymen. who are going to die without this provision. It's now dawning on these lepers. That God has not simply brought them upon this abundant provision for their own benefit.

But also for the benefit of others that they now need to go and tell this good news. And they realize that the need is urgent. And can't wait another day. They say in verse 9, if we wait until morning light, in other words, if we wait until morning light to share this good news with others, punishment will overtake us.

The Hebrew word that is translated punishment is simply the Hebrew word for guilt. So it could be that they're just simply saying if we wait until morning light, guilt. will come upon us, and they don't want that guilt on them. In the thinking of these lepers, they know that it would be a sin for them to keep silent and not share good news with people who need to hear it and who will die without it.

So let's be clear. These lepers are doing right to feast. And enjoy and stock up for themselves, right? But they're realizing and admitting to one another.

That this is a day. Of good news. In the Greek Septuagint, the ancient translation of this passage, they're saying this is a day of gospel. This is a day of good news.

And they're admitting that they're doing wrong to stay silent and not share this good news with others. So look at what they do next, and this brings us to the 3rd action of these lepers in their day of good news. Number 3, they determined to tell their good news to those who need to hear it. Look at what happens in verse 9.

They say, now therefore come, let us go and tell the king's household. And saying the king's household. In all likelihood, they probably aren't talking simply about letting the king's immediate family know. All the inhabitants of the city of Samaria are viewed as the king's household.

His responsibility and these lepers want to get word to the people of Samaria. And certainly they want the king to know. So they speak to each other and decide to go together and declare this good news to the people. who are inside the city of Samaria.

Now, before we look at what they do next, let's just ponder for a few minutes. All of the excuses that they could have come up with. To not declare this good news to the inhabitants of Samaria. These lepers could have thought.

Hey, we're just unclean lepers. Who are we to declare such good news? They could have thought the people of Samaria have rejected us because of our leprosy and forced us to live outside, outside the city walls, so why would we want to bless them with this good news? These lepers could have thought, we have a medical condition that is horribly disfiguring and debilitating and viewed by people as contagious.

We're too diseased and too ugly to be bearers of this good news. Let God find someone else who's more healthy and more beautiful. To deliver this good news. On top of that, they could have thought, the people of Samaria, after all, are getting what they deserve.

They are in rebellion against God and they deserve God's judgment, so they don't deserve to hear this good news that we would have to share. In fact, if they were smart like us, they would have come out like we did. And found this miraculous provision from God. They also could have thought, Maybe we'll just casually go into the city and live our normal lives and wait for people to notice that there's something different about us.

And when they ask us, we will tell them. What's now different about us. But we'll wait for them to ask. They also could have thought this news that we have to deliver is too ridiculous for anybody to believe.

No one is going to believe us. A whole army encampment is sitting empty and the army is gone for no apparent reason, leaving everything behind. No one will believe this good news. The lepers could have thought of any of these excuses and stayed silent about the good news that they had.

To deliver, but they did not do that. This leads us to the final action of these lepers. In their day of good news, and that is they follow through and they tell their good news to those who needed to hear it. This is a point I think that's worth making because how many times do we determine to do something that we know we should do and then don't follow through and actually do what we had purposed to do.

But that's not what happens with these lepers. Observe what they do in verse 10. So they came. In other words, they came to the city.

And called to the gatekeepers of the city. And they told The This good news Long story short, we're skipping verses here. The gatekeepers passed the news along to the king. And initially the king does not believe this good news.

He assumes it's a trap being set by the Aramaeans. But then the king's advisor persuades him to at least send a delegation out to check things out and confirm that the good news of the lepers was actually true. And so the king relented and did that. And once that delegation went out and confirmed that the word of the lepers was true, The news spread like wildfire.

And look at what happens in verse 16. Just the first half of the verse, so the people went out and plundered. plundered the camp of the Arms. Prices came down, food was suddenly more plentiful.

The famine was officially over. Because God had miraculously delivered, he had miraculously provided, and because these four leprous men. were faithful to declare the good news of what they had found. With the people of Samaria.

Cool story, right? We haven't by any means covered every detail of this story this morning, but we've looked at certain parts of it for a reason. And one of those reasons is that the day of good news that the lepers found themselves in, in 2 Kings 7. Reminds us of the better day of good news that you and I find ourselves in today.

We have a savior, Jesus Christ, who left heaven and came to earth and died on a cross and was raised from the dead and who now sits at the right hand of God. We have a savior who won. An amazing victory and made spoil of the principalities and the powers who opposed him. The savior Jesus Christ gives salvation to all who call upon Him by faith, and he gives his gifts to those who belong to Him.

He's given to us His Holy Spirit. He has lavished upon us the riches of His grace, as Paul says in Ephesians. He's given us His Holy Word. He's given us constant access to his throne room of grace.

He's given us a church family of brothers and sisters, and he has given us the blessed privilege of walking with Him and abiding with Him. At all times. If you read First Peter chapter one, you learn that we Christians who are alive at this time in history, are the envy of Old Testament prophets who would have loved To have lived in our day. And we are the envy of angels too, who stoop low to look into these things that we enjoy in Christ.

And the only right response for us is first of all to feast. Just like the lepers did, and to be filled. We're living in a day of good news in Jesus Christ and we're actually commanded by God in Ephesians 5:18 to continuously be being filled by The Holy Spirit who is seeking to mediate these blessings of Christ to us. We are to stop getting drunk with wine, Paul says right before he gives us that command, because we don't need to do that anymore.

We have Christ. We don't need the donkey heads. And the pigeon droppings of this world to feast upon. We don't need to cannibalize and hurt other people in our quest for personal fulfillment because we can now feast and be filled with a wholesome bounty that God has provided for us in Christ.

Our good fortune is infinitely better than the good fortune that these lepers encountered. Yet my question to you is to what degree are we feasting and stocking up? And hoarding. As God desires.

How much time have you spent feasting upon Christ through His word this past week as Mike, Pastor Mike challenged us to do in a sermon last Sunday, or feasting upon God in prayer? Or feasting on the opportunities for fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ, or feasting on the opportunities that are available to you even here at Cornerstone. What have you been feasting on? Every one of you in this room, you've been feasting on something this past week.

What have you been feasting on? And have you been feasting on Christ? no church. is a perfect church.

Yet did that in Ephesians chapter one, Verses 22 and 23 that Paul describes the church as the fullness of Him who fills all in all. In other words, the church is the place where you can experience God's fullness and richest abundance. The church is the encampment where the spoils of Christ's victory over Satan are found in their richest abundance. We're told in Ephesians 4 that when Christ descended on high, He led captive, a host of captives, and he gave gifts from his victory to men.

And among those gifts are apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints to do the work of ministry, all to the building up of the church, the body of Christ. Are you feasting? And stocking up on the fullness that God provides for you in the church. Are you taking advantage of the resources and the gifts that he provides you here?

in terms of how we organize. The experience that is available to people here at Cornerstone, we lately have taken a liking to thinking of it in terms of touches, 4 touches in total. We would love for each member of Cornerstone to experience at least 3 of these. Touches from the body life of Cornerstone each week.

And the first touch is our corporate worship service here that we're having right now on a Sunday morning, which is the one event each week in which we come together as a whole body to sing and to pray and to hear what the word of God has to say to us as a church. And to celebrate the Lord's table together once a month. We encourage you to make this a prized part of your weekly routine. Get good rest on Saturday evening.

Read the passages that we will be preaching from in advance of Sunday and show up on Sunday mornings and be on time. So that you can not miss anything, so that you can experience everything from beginning to end that God has for you. The last few weeks, we've been sending out a Friday email to let what the sermon and the passage will be for the upcoming Sunday and giving you just a few things to think about and questions to be pondering as you read the passage. If you've not been receiving the Friday emails from me about the upcoming Sunday sermon, All you got to do is pull out the connection card, write your name on it, and your email address on it, and then just check the line.

That says I have decided to attend regularly. Just check that to where you're officially known as a regular attender at least. And if your name and email and that item is checked, then you will be added to the list and be receiving. That email from us so that you can be reading and marinating in the passage in advance of Sunday.

The second touch is our care group ministry. We presently have 16 care groups that are meeting weekly, providing a venue for us to come together in smaller groups, providing additional, greater opportunities for intimacy. One of Cornerstone's greatest assets is its people. And our care groups provide opportunities for you to experience our people up close and personal.

In a typical care group meeting, we just take time over the couple of hours of that meeting to worship God through song, to fellowship together around the preached word, processing the message from the Sunday morning sermon. We pray together and we celebrate the Lord's table together. There's also eating. And lots of fellowship.

What's not to love about that? Every care group is led by an elder or a deacon of Cornerstone, and it's through our care group ministry that the shepherding ministry of the elders gets carried out and extended to the people. Of this congregation. Everyone who is a member of Cornerstone is coveted.

To arrange themselves underneath the authority and the care of the elders of Cornerstone and to attend faithfully the stated services of the church and consistent With that covenant, the elders ask that all of our members participate in our Sunday morning services and to be involved in a care group. And to make those two touches a part of your weekly routine, if you can do nothing else. Each week in connection with Cornerstone, do these two things and feast. In addition to these two touches, We highly encourage you to take advantage of at least one other opportunity for weekly enrichment and feasting from any of our other weekly ministry forums that provide additional spiritual enrichment to the flock, and we call this our third touch.

And let me just run through these. I love this. for example, we have our Sunday school. Ministry for all ages that happens here on Sunday mornings in the 9 o'clock hour.

There's no way that our Sunday morning pulpit can carry the full load of delivering to you the deposit of truth that God has called us to deliver. Our Sunday school teachers help carry that load with diligence and with excellence, teaching through a curriculum that takes you through the whole Bible over the span of 4 years. In addition to that enrichment opportunity, we have a man forum that meets on Tuesday mornings at 6 in the morning from 6:00 to 7:05 in the morning in which we discuss matters and provide resources relevant.

To helping us as men to fulfill the calling that God has laid upon us.

We also have our men's leadership meetings on Tuesday evenings at 6 in the evening in which we're working through parts of the book of Romans in an effort to encourage our men in the gospel and to equip them to lead others in a way that is shaped and empowered by the gospel. In addition to that, we have Women's Bible studies that meet Tuesday evenings, Thursday mornings, and Thursday evenings. The ladies are right now working through First Peter, feasting upon God's word together and fellowshipping around what is taught in that epistle.

There's also weekly discipleship opportunities for those ladies that are interested.

If you want to be discipled or wanna learn how to disciple others. Our youth ministry meets on Wednesday evenings at the Kumamoto's house, providing an opportunity for our youth to worship and to fellowship and to be taught God's word by our youth leaders. Right now, they're working through material that has been produced by Sean McDowell and Ina, teaching our young people how to think Christianly. And to engage our culture for Christ.

Ourana ministry meets on Wednesday evenings, providing opportunities for you to serve and also providing opportunities for your children to be taught the word of God and right now they're going through the Book of Acts. And be encouraged to memorize and to stash, to hoard God's word in their hearts. Our college and career ministry meets on Friday. Evenings, providing a forum for our singles to worship God and the fellowship and to be taught the word of God.

I think it's this week, they're actually starting A few month long series on the subject of sanctification and holiness. In your Christian walk. You see the list on the screen behind me. We don't ask that you be involved in all of these.

We don't, ask that you be involved actually in more than just one of these opportunities. For additional enrichment each week, though it's totally fine if you do. At the very least, we would just encourage you to pick one of these. Ministries represented in what we call the Third touch and make that a part of your weekly routine and feast.

To your heart's content. I put these enrichment opportunities in front of you this morning so that that here at Cornerstone, there are plenty of tents to raid. There's plenty of food to eat here at Cornerstone. There's gold and there's silver, and there are many valuables for you to lay hold of and to stock up on to help you in your walk with Christ.

And in your ministry to other people, we encourage you to take advantage of these opportunities and experience at least 3 touches in total. Each week from what the Ministry of Cornerstone has to offer, our Sunday morning worship service, our care group, And any one of the other weekly ministries that provide Additional spiritual enrichment. We can learn that, I think, from the example of the lepers who feasted. And hoarded, stocked up for themselves.

But guys, if we learn anything from the example of these lepers in our story today, we also know that this is not our only responsibility. In addition to feasting and stocking up for ourselves like the lepers did, we should also be telling other people about what we are finding. In Christ and inviting them to come and join us in the feast. We call this the 4th touch, which is simply anything that we do as a church and anything that you do as an individual in order to touch the lives of the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You'll notice this afternoon in our meeting that I would encourage you, all of you are invited to join us for this meeting that will take place at 1:30 after our lunch, which you're also invited to join us for. You'll notice this afternoon in our meeting that our investment in emissions has increased by $10,000. This year we're adding to the monthly amount that we're putting in our mission vision fund. each month, bringing us closer to the point where we can send out yet another homegrown missionary who can take the gospel to others beyond our border.

We've also increased the amount of support that we're giving to some of our existing missionaries, adding a new missionary family to our support, and also increasing our investment in the Expositors Academy in the Philippines. This past year, all of our care groups pretty much have been involved in providing a meal at Path of Life Ministries once a month on a Friday evening, providing a meal for homeless families and using that time not just to feed them physical food, but also to present the gospel to those that are being fed.

And we want to continue that outreach this year and have taken steps to ensure That our care groups are financially supported. In this outreach to encourage them to dream even bigger.

As they seek to be a blessing to the homeless families. On these Friday evenings. This year, we're once again gonna be sending out 13,000 mailers to people in the surrounding community, both before Easter and before our festival of treats to get the word out that we are here and we stand ready to minister the love and the truth of Christ to those who come. On top of that and other things that we may do corporately as a church, we encourage you to keep reaching out to other people, as so many of you have been doing.

Keep declaring the good news, keep calling people to faith in Jesus Christ. Keep inviting them to join you in the feast that you are enjoying in Jesus. The truth is, here at Cornerstone, we're, we're really no better than anyone else. We're just a bunch of lepers.

who have found an amazing abundance in Jesus. We're learning to be done with the donkey heads of this world and the pigeon manure of this world. And to feast on what Christ has provided us and we are also learning of the responsibility that we have to tell the good news to others of what We are finding in Christ. We believe that if God can use lepers to be bringers of the good news in 2 Kings 7, Then he can use you and me.

We have better news to share with others than what the lepers had to share. And we have the Holy Spirit to empower our witness. Which means that we have more reason than the lepers did to actually feel convicted over keeping this good news to ourselves. Our good news is greater.

Then they're good news, and those around us today are in greater danger. Than the people of Samaria were in the day of these lepers. It was actually this sense of conscience in our feasting that drove us to move to this campus 3.5 years ago in pursuit of the goal of reaching considerably more people than we were able to reach. At our former facility on Linden Street and to enlarge our capacity to show the hospitality of Christ to a greater number of people than we were able to do before.

Since we've moved here to the Bournes campus, we've been reaching over 100 more people every week, but we still have room, a ton of room. With investments that we've made in the facility since we've arrived here, we're now set up to show the hospitality of Christ to as many as 900 people on a Sunday morning. If we're using room 103, which is set up to accommodate People, when we max out on this room here. That's almost 400 more people than We're reaching each week now.

Guys, we got the best news in the world to share. We have many amazing opportunities for spiritual enrichment here at Cornerstone, and we got plenty of room, plenty of room. This is a day of good news and it's not right for us to be silent. And a feast by ourselves when starving souls around us are dying without Christ.

And we must share the news of Christ with others. So stay vocal in your faith. Testify. To the world of what you have found in Jesus.

Tell the good news to those who need to hear it. Invite them to come to Jesus, invite them to come with you to church. Invite them to come and feast with you. As so many of you are already doing.

And guys, stand ready. For people to accept those invitations, stand ready to be on the cornerstone team, helping to minister to the broken people that God sends our way. You gotta think twice when you have a purpose statement that says helping people journey from brokenness to wholeness to the gospel of Jesus Christ. That invites broken people.

That makes broken people think, I think that might be the place for me. And when God does send broken people to us. We need to stand ready to open our hearts to them and to be an agent of Christ. Helping them in their journey from brokenness to wholeness through the gospel.

Invite those that God brings to us on a Sunday morning that you've never met before. Invite them to your care group. Welcome them into the body life of Cornerstone. Get involved if you're not already involved here in this church and helping to serve and make our ministries better than they are and be willing to embrace the discomforts and the challenges and the work.

That goes with opening your heart to others. And consider yourself a part of the team. of helpers that ministers to people that God brings our way. as God brings broken people to us.

We have to think about, are we ready as a congregation for that. We don't just want you to see a broken person and say, whoa, look at you. yeah, let me send you to Pastor Carlos so he can help you with your brokenness. That's totally fine, but Pastor Carlos can't Do that for everybody.

What we would want is for you to be in the word of God yourself, daily feasting, taking it upon yourself to grow in Christ and to grow in your ability to deliver biblical counsel to others to help them with their brokenness. And we wanna do our part as a church and helping to equip you to this end. And that's why we reviewed the items and opportunities for feasting that we offer here at Cornerstone. Three of our ministries this year have once again included funds in their 2018 budget to help people to attend the Summer Institute.

For biblical counseling and discipleship that will take place in June of this year, which will be addressing the topic of ministering to wayward souls. And we'll say more about this opportunity in the months to come, but we're wanting to encourage as many of our people as possible to take advantage of an opportunity like this to feast and to stock up. Making use of this resource to Grow in Christ, to help you with your own issues and also to equip you for serving. As a counselor to other people.

On top of that, during this past year and continuing into this year. We've been offering a counseling class during the Sunday school hour taught by Pastor Carlos Limpiaco in our effort to equip you to give the counsel of Christ. To other people. This class meets in room 103 during the 9 o'clock hour and we would encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to be trained by a seasoned counselor.

I've been with Pastor Carlos in the counseling office. I've watched him counsel. He may be Cornerstone's best counselor. And it's an incredible opportunity every Sunday morning that is provided for you in the 9 o'clock hour to Feast.

And be taught and equipped. To grow as someone who can bring the counsel of Christ to others. If we're gonna be a community of faith that helps people in their journey from brokenness to wholeness to the gospel of Jesus Christ, then we need to be a congregation that is full of people who are strong in the word of God and ready to provide the counsel of Christ to people that need the counsel of Christ to be brought to bear on their areas of brokenness. And we encourage you to feel the responsibility.

To get equipped and to grow, and to be a part of the team of those providing biblical help to people that God brings our way. Since moving to the Bournes campus, and I'll just share this in closing, our vision has been growing responsibly in the place of God's provision. Part of what this language implies is the fact that each one of us has a responsibility to be growing in Christ. Cornerstone will grow as a church, as it should only if each of us individually are growing as we should, not just surviving from week to week.

And living spiritually on a subsistence level, but growing and flourishing. Each one of us feasting and flourishing in that way. If we're doing that individually, Then we as a church will flourish and grow. And this growth will happen if we do what the lepers did, if we feast.

And stock up And make full use of the abundant provision that God has given to us in Christ. And if we embrace the responsibility to deliver this amazing good news. To people around us. Are you doing those things?

Will you do those things this year? I hope you would join us in saying yes. And that you will first and foremost commit to being a feaster. On the abundant provision that God has given to you in Christ and then a sharer of the good news.

In fact, what I love about these lepers is the fact that it was while feasting. And stocking up that their conscience was awakened and drove them to share the good news with other people. So feast on Christ, feast your heart away. And you will find while doing that, your conscience being awakened to the plight of those who don't have that feast because they've not heard the good news that someone told you.

And if you feast, And allow God to awaken your conscience to the need to share that good news with others. I'm sure a freight train could not stop you from delivering that good news. That's why we exist. As a church And I invite you to join us in trusting God in this and pressing on and fulfilling the whole purpose for which he's planted us here.

In this place At this time. Let's pray together. Open our eyes, Lord. That we might see.

Jesus as we've never seen him before. that we might see the abundant blessings that you've given to us in Christ. Lord, if any of us in this room who are a part of Cornerstone or walking around with a famished soul, That's on us. You've lavished so much upon us in Christ.

Teach us To come often to your table and to feast sumptuously. To take advantage of the opportunities that are provided here just in this local church body. And Lord, quicken our consciences as we feast. That we would realize we do not do well to keep this to ourselves.

There are people around us who are They They're eating donkey heads, pigeon droppings, and they're cannibalizing and hurting other people in their quest for finding fulfillment. And meanwhile, we sit here feasting. It is right for us to feast. But Lord, awaken us, awaken me.

To the need and the opportunity. That we have To tell the good news. To those who need to hear it. To invite others to this feast.

And then to stand ready, Lord, to be engaged and just Doing the work of Christ. Bearing fruit that will endure through all of eternity, doing things of eternal value in the way of ministry that will survive the fires of judgment Day when all else is gonna burn. Help us, Lord, to be done with lesser things. And to give ourselves To these things that we're talking about today.

You've been good. To us Help us, Lord. To do good With the good that you have done to us. We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity that we have at this time to give of our offerings to you to support this amazing work that you're doing in our midst and around the world through the missionaries that we support.

We give to you this morning and ask that you would bless. Everything that is given. And the service Of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And our Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray, and all God's people said,