We Cant Keep This To Ourselves

WE CAN’T KEEP THIS TO OURSELVES

2 Kings 7:3-9 (NIV) Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They
said to each other, “Why stay here until we die? 4 If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is
there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the
Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”
5 At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of
the camp, no one was there, 6 for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of
chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel
has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!” 7 So they got up and fled in the dusk and
abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for
their lives.
8 The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and
drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and
entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.
9 Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we
are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at
once and report this to the royal palace.”
Proverbs 3:27-28 (MSG) Never walk away from someone who deserves help; your hand
is God’s hand for that person. Don’t tell your neighbor “Maybe some other time” or “Try me
tomorrow” when the money’s right there in your pocket. Don’t figure ways of taking advantage of
your neighbor when he’s sitting there trusting and unsuspecting.

HOW TO INVITE MY CITY TO THE CELEBRATION:
1. Start with the RIGHT MINDSET.
 People want to be SAVED.
 Every person I know would live a vastly BETTER LIFE if God’s love, grace and
redemption were operating in their lives.

2. Sense the RIGHT MOMENT.
 In the midst of a crisis, we can completely miss the QUIET CRISIS happening all
around us.
Ecclesiastes 11:4 (TLB) If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get
anything done.
3. Share the RIGHT MESSAGE.
 I can have the right mindset and the right moment but share the WRONG
MESSAGE.

Colossians 4:5-6 (NIV) Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of
every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with
salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

4. Select the RIGHT METHOD…that fits you.
 The “DINNER with a SINNER”
 The “COME and SEE”
 The “STORYTELLER”.

2 Corinthians 2:1-5 (MSG) You’ll remember, friends, that when I first came to you to let you in
on God’s master stroke, I didn’t try to impress you with polished speeches and the latest
philosophy. I deliberately kept it plain and simple: first Jesus and who he is; then Jesus and
what he did—Jesus crucified.
I was unsure of how to go about this, and felt totally inadequate—I was scared to death, if you
want the truth of it—and so nothing I said could have impressed you or anyone else. But the
Message came through anyway. God’s Spirit and God’s power did it, which made it clear that
your life of faith is a response to God’s power, not to some fancy mental or emotional footwork
by me or anyone else.

NEXT STEPS
1. Embrace a BIGGER VISION for your life.
2. Don’t HIDE it, DIVIDE it.