Well, if you say, say amen. I have had a lot of things said and been introduced a lot of ways. I don't know that there's ever been a more honest introduction than what Brother Joey said earlier. Brother Kurt's going to come and mess everything up. But the good news is there's more preachers to come. And by the time we get done, y'all will be forgotten. By the time you get some beef tips and whatever's for lunch, you'll be forgot the mess I make. So it'll all be well. If you've got a Bible, 2 Kings chapter 7. It's good to be here. I'm thankful for this place. I appreciate what the Lord is doing. Appreciate what the Lord's doing in this area in this hour. And God has favored this area in putting a preacher here, and putting a church here. And anywhere God puts a preacher is a favored area. And not everywhere you go there's a real one. I'm thankful that we get to be in the presence of a real preacher. Amen. I appreciate the preaching last night. I see Brother Finney here. Thank you. I appreciate all that you encountered to be able to deliver the mail. And I don't see Brother Chisholm, but if he's here, thank you. He's a Zacchaeus kind of guy. He's probably hiding somewhere. Is he in here? There he is, right on the front, hiding over there. Thank you, Preacher. What a tremendous help. And thank you to all who have labored. 2 Kings chapter number 7. I want to read a few verses. If you're able and willing and want to, you can stand. And we'll read a few verses. We'll pray. And he did not give me a time limit. He did say there'd be three preachers. And based on the serving size of the water, I'm guessing he don't want a whole lot. We'll go by that. Amen. I'll do my best to be mindful of time and give you what the Lord's put in my heart. If you're in II Kings chapter 7, say Amen. Amen. Verse number 3. And there were four leprous men at the entering in of the gate. They said one to another, Why sit we 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. 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. And they rose up in the twilight to go unto the camp of the Syrians. 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 the noise of chariots, the 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 asses, even the camp as it was, and fled for their lives. When these lepers came to the uttermost part of the camp, they went into one tent, and did eat and drink, and carried thence silver and gold and raiment. and went and hid it, and came again, and entered into another tent, and carried thence also, and went and hid it. Lord God, my God, I want to thank You this morning, Lord, for the privilege to pray. Thank You, dear God, for the day that You've invested in us. Lord, I take this day as a testimony of Your faithfulness and Your goodness to us. Lord, we need you now in these hours that are ahead. I pray, O God, that you would take from us the ability to do anything. And Lord, then fill us with your ability I pray, O God, that you would empty me of myself and clear me of my surroundings. And Lord, immerse me in the Word of God. Help me today, Lord, to be sensitive to the Holy Ghost. I pray for wisdom. I pray for discernment. I pray, Lord, for great liberty in the Holy Ghost. I ask you, Lord, that you'd give us ears to hear and a heart to receive. Lord, help us today to be faithful to respond to the voice of God. Let preaching go forth this morning in the power and in the demonstration of the Spirit of God. Lord, may You increase and we decrease. Lord, may You say what You want said and do what You want done. Lord, I pray for just a little while You let preaching come easy. Empty us of everything carnal and wicked and ungodly and sanctify us, Lord, to the uttermost. Lord, for the purpose of hearing and receiving preaching. May you be glorified and honored and uplifted. Lord, may the church be helped. Lord, may you save sinners and serve saints. Revive us again. And Lord, for what you accomplish, we'll be careful not to put our hands on your glory. It's in the eternal, able name of Jesus that we pray. And all of God's people said. Amen, you can be seated. We break into the ministry of Elisha in chapter 7 of 2 Kings. His ministry is well underway and he is now the prophet of God. He's the man of God that God has sent to again prove to Israel and yes, to the world that there is a God in Israel. Elisha has now performed miracle after miracle after miracle. We come to chapter number seven and it's almost the verses that we've read without stepping way back and looking at the big picture. It's almost a parenthetical paragraph of scripture that God drops in our Bible. We're hearing about kings. We're hearing about prophets. We're hearing about nobility. We're hearing about the chosen of God. And all of a sudden, there's four men that interrupt the text. And these four men are outcasts. These four men. are men that have a skin disease. These men are now on the outside of the city. They're very dangerous. They're very contagious. They can't come near to anybody. And here they're dropped into our chapter. They come on the scene at a time that is much like our day. This is a time where society is in uproar. Society's in a mess. There's national contentions going on. There's wars and fighting and contentions. There's a day now of great moral decay. If you were to read, back up one chapter and read, you'll find out that things have gotten so serious that two women came together and one said, let's kill and boil and eat your boy today. and we'll kill and boil and eat my boy tomorrow, amen. As a matter of fact, that's what brings the king and Elisha together in our chapter, amen. This is a time of political rebellion. Oh, that's the day we're living in. Is everybody all right? I mean, the king of Israel's taking a stroll on the wall. He hears this woman down there weeping and crying. And the king that Elisha has helped, the king that Elisha has defended, hears from this woman and blames the man of God. Can I just sidestep right here and say, Isn't it amazing that those you do the most for are the ones that are the quickest to turn on you? Amen. Elisha's kept Israel safe. Elisha's heard what those Syrian kings said in their bedchamber. And Elisha has weaned. He's caused blindness to fall. and to lead them away from Israel, and has delivered Israel over and over. And now here's the king turning on the man of God. Amen. The more you do for a person, you better realize, the more you open yourself to an attack. It's political rebellion. It's spiritual rejection. Amen. The king wouldn't take a bit of blame. He blamed the man. He blamed God. He wasn't concerned about any blame being placed on him. But yet, he points to the preacher and says it's all his fault. He's the one to blame. And he makes a Jezebel statement. The Lord do so to me and more also. That's what he says. He's quoting Jezebel. And friend, he's not a very smart man. It didn't turn out well for Jezebel. And honey, it don't turn out well for him, amen. It never pays to rise up against the people of God. Amen. There is risings up from without, and there's risings up from within. Somebody help me. This is not an enemy king that said, we gotta kill Elisha. This is the king of Israel. This is the man that is to be leading the people of God. And from within, there's a mutiny that turns on the preacher. And then we break in on these lepers. And the first thing we hear them say is, this thing's getting serious. We're about to die. Are y'all all right? And we're hungry, we're needy, and here we sit, we're outside, and they look at one another, and one of them's bold enough to become the spokesman for the other three, and say, why do we sit here till we die? If the Holy Ghost will help me, I want to preach just a few minutes on I refuse to die here. I refuse to die. That's what they said to one another, wasn't it? Is everybody awake? Are y'all okay? If y'all ain't enjoying the preaching, if you'll amen. I'm so fat it'll wear me out fast and we'll be to another preacher in a minute. Alright? Amen. The first thing we hear and what they say is, there's no hope where we're sitting. We're not in a good place. Although they're in a good place, it's not a good place. Are you all following me? They're sitting at the gate. They're at a place, a legal place. They're in a common place. They're in a place where there could be help. But for them, they're sitting there and they are starving to death and dying. And one looks at another and says, I just ain't doing this no more. I ain't sitting here no longer. I refuse to die here. Let me give you three quick things and I'm out of the way. I want to say about this here, this place that they're sitting, this place that they're about to starve to death in, that here, as far as these lepers are concerned, y'all stay with me now, as far as these lepers are concerned, that is a place of emptiness. Amen. They're hungry. They don't have anything within. and they're about to starve to death. One says, you know, if we go in there, we're no better off. We're gonna die in there. We're gonna sit here, we're gonna die here as well. If we go down to the enemy, they very well may kill us, but we're gonna die anyhow. Let's do something and see if we can get rid of this emptiness that is within, amen. They're hungry. They're worse than hungry. They're hungry. That's a country word. They've made that word hangry in our day. There's a difference in hungry and hungry. They're starving to death. I don't see anybody that's in that condition this morning. Amen. Some of us are a lot further from it than others. Help me now. But God, hell, they're sitting there, they're absolutely empty. And one looks at another and says, you know, I refuse to die in a place of emptiness. Amen. Here we sit, friend, and there's nobody here with a skin disease. But friend, we're living housed in flesh that is under the curse, and it is bent toward sin. Our flesh is at enmity with God and if we don't get into Romans 8 and walk after the spirit and not the flesh, we'll find ourselves saved. But yet so empty and so hungry and so void, I've come by this morning to say you don't have to die in a place where you're empty, amen. Somebody said, well, I'm going to find me another church. I'm just not getting fed. You know what I ask them every time they say that? What'd you preach? I preached last Sunday, amen. And nine times out of 10, they can't tell you the problem. Just go ahead and get me a good amen ready. The problem's not with the feed, amen. I thank God we got a good word of God. It's right, it's forever, it's holy, it'll feed an empty soul. The problem's not with the preaching, it's what God has ordained. The problem is that we got so much sin intertwined in our being that it has exiled us from the nourishment of the word of God. Appreciate what the preacher said last night about being an independent Baptist. I'm an independent Baptist with a capital I. And I realize R.G. Lee was not an independent Baptist, but them other kind don't make him like him nowadays. And in the 60s and 70s, he said, probably 70% of the Baptist church is lost. It ain't no wonder we're so empty. Amen. It's not a skin disease we're suffering with. It's a sin disease. Amen. And it has become so contagious. Is everybody alright? It has become so contagious and so dangerous. I'm afraid that the Sunday after the rapture, that the entire churches meet together and nobody will be missing. You find yourself pillowing your head at night, yearning for something within. Oh, you may be saved, you may not, but yearning for something. Can I put it this way? Inside of every human being is a God-sized hole, and when you're born again, the Holy Ghost moves in. He's the only one that can fill that place. And the indwelling comes automatic at redemption. But friend, that being filled, it is a command of God. Be not drunk with wine wherein's excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Honey, we've come to a day where that crowd that's on the other side of the fence has caused Baptists to get a two-member trinity. God help us. What we need nowadays more than anything is the fullness of the Holy Ghost. There's way too much being done in the arm of the flesh. and we're empty. It's a place of emptiness, barrenness. It's no wonder we're losing our coming generations. Empty parents produce empty children. Empty preachers produce empty churches. Let me run this by you and see how you feel about it. Live preaching brings life. Dead preaching, it don't just pass on through. Help me right here. Dead preaching brings death. And there's a lot of places that have met together and in the words of the son of the prophet, there's death in the pot. emptiness. It's a place of emptiness. Number two, it's a place of uselessness. They're sitting there by the gate and it's not even been brought to their attention. They're completely unaware as far as we know, as far as we can tell. They are completely unaware that the man of God's head has a bounty on it. They're unaware that the king and the preacher have fell out. And all they're doing is trying to nourish themselves. And they rise up and they head out. And the only purpose they have is to be nourished. But what they didn't realize was that God was about to get involved and they were about to become useful in the hands of God. Amen. They're sitting there, Brother Cody, and if they die right there, they will have accomplished nothing. Nobody will be helped. Nobody will be made better. There'll be nothing done that can be attributed to their account that will have anything to do with God or with the man of God or with the people of God. And so they get up not even realizing what God's about to do and they move out and they head off into enemy territory. A child of God, let me tell you this morning, God may want to use you. And all you know is that you're going to take nourishment. All you know is that I'm about to be fed. But the God of heaven, he's so much bigger. He can take what's useless. He can take what's condemned. He can take what's doomed and thank God with a little motivation. He can make that person useful in the work of God. They become responsible for Elisha being saved. I know it's God. Y'all don't look at me funny. But they become the vessels of use that God uses. And here you sit today and you've come thinking, well, I've been before and God ain't done nothing. and I'm hungry and I'm empty. It could be if you'd just get up and you'd just make a step toward God, that there's somebody that's on the front lines, that God may help. Oh, not me, preacher. I'm a nobody. I'm an outsider. I'm no good. That's exactly what God used. I was a bunch of nobodies, a bunch of exiles, a bunch of outcasts. Friend, let me tell you this. We've come to a place in our day and y'all don't fall out with me. I understand that a man of God's worthy of double honor, but we've come to a place in our day where we have all but deified those that are on the platform and everybody else is a bunch of peasants. Can I remind us this morning that the ground is level at Calvary? Can I remind us this morning that you may have walked in here and you may be messed up and you may never take a pulpit You may never have a title, but God's got to work for every one of us. He didn't just save us to take us to heaven. He has a work for us to do. God, help me. I refuse to die in a place of emptiness. There's way too much available. There's way too much. that can be ours. I refuse to die in a place of emptiness. I refuse to die in a place of uselessness. By nature, I'm pretty useless. I mess things up. I mess everything up. I refuse. to go down without at least doing my dead level best. Is everybody hearing me? Doing my dead level best. Whether it be on a platform or it be with a broom in my hand, whether it be preaching or somewhere with an apron on, a friend, I plan to do something for the people of God and do something for God himself. It's a place of emptiness. It's a place of uselessness. Number three, and I'm out of here. And some good preachers will come. Number three, it's a place of hopelessness. If we sit here, we're going to die. If we go in there with a bunch of dead folks, we're going to die. If we go down there, at least the enemy has something to eat. We might live and we might die, but there's a chance. There's at least a glimmer of hope. There's at least a little bit of life down there. And I ain't dying right here, but there's absolutely no hope. Does anybody remember when you was lost without God and an alien to the things of God? empty of anything that God had and had tried. I realize there's some folk in here that's been church people their entire lives. And friend, let me just interject this right here. That ain't enough, amen. You can't just be a church person. We're not a bunch of Catholics. We weren't born the first time in. It took a second birth to get us in. Somebody holler amen. Oh, friend, there's a few that have been through the world. They have been through them hard places. They have been, thank you, preacher, for your honesty last night. Hey, I'm so sick of that crowd that wants everybody to think they've got it all together, and they always have, amen. I've just barely got anything together now, and I ain't always been a preacher, amen. God help. We had one kind of get sideways here the other day. I looked him right straight in the eyes. I said, you ain't going the way of the world. I ain't scared of prison, amen. I ain't scared of going that route. I ain't scared of getting whooped. I've been whooped before, amen. God help us. There's some that's been in the hell holes of the world. They've tried everything, but do you remember Remember that day when you got up from where you were and you said, I've tried everything else. I believe I'll go down there to the church. And unbeknownst to you, it was a divine appointment. Whoa, hallelujah. before you ever got there, before you ever arrived, the horsemen of heaven, the chariots of grace had already got there, and God had a big plan for you. They're helpless. They can't improve themselves. If you've never been born again in and of yourself, you'll never be born again. Until you're born from above, you'll never be born again. until the Holy Ghost gets involved and brings you to Jesus, you'll never be born again. You are as hopeless as these lepers. Your disease is not a skin disease, it is a sin disease. You are as unclean as a leper, and such were some of you, help me now, such were some of you, and friend God, in His mercy, has appointed a place where there is rations, where there is plenty. And thank God he got involved. And here you sit this morning. I think, well, I'll just go to church so somebody will leave me alone. I'll just go, cause that's my duty. I'll just come, cause they put meal on the sign. Let's just be honest, help me now. Amen, they some say focus only here for that last word. Help me, amen. How about a friend here you have, walked up in the Fundamental Baptist Church on a Tuesday morning, and there's a big old redheaded redneck from Georgia, that's a slobberin' and a spittin', but I come to tell you, I thank God you're in a good place and you have moved in the right direction and God has a work and he wants to take you out of a place of helplessness. If they were going to die somewhere other than where they were, they had to trust. They had to get up. They had to put one foot in front of the other. One man said, let's go down there. If they kill us, we will die. They didn't say, well, let's vote on this and see how it's going to turn out. Let's think about this thing. They're so hopeless that the enemy territory looks good to them. And here you have walked in, don't know God, unsaved. Sure you may be wrapped up in church clothes. Sure your name may be on a roll. And I'm doing my best to mind God this morning. This is what He put on me. But you've walked in here and you'll just as soon be somewhere in enemy territory. I'm glad to report to you this morning, before you ever awoke, before you was ever born, before this thing ever came into existence, as a lamb which had been slain from the foundation of the world, Jesus has already done absolutely everything that is required, and you gotta trust my faith and come to Him. Amen. I refuse to die here. We sit here, we're gonna die. We go in there, we're gonna die. But if by faith we'll get up, we'll trust, and we'll travel, There's something there for the taking. And they walked in. There was plenty to eat. There was gold, silver, and raiment. And they had to run to the place. It's almost as if this place was a prepared place. But God had gotten everything set in order. And it was like the Holy Ghost standing over by the tent saying, boys, come on in and make yourself at home. I remember when I was a stranger, I was an outcast, I didn't fit in. I still don't fit in a lot of places, y'all help me now. Josh was trying to borrow Brother Mike Powell's smart car for me and him. I told him if we went to get out, we'd both have to get out at the same time. If one got out, he'd turn over on the other. I don't fit in a lot of places. Can I tell you about where I've been made to fit? I may not check all your little boxes. I may not be what you expect me to be. And I know that because I'm not what I expect me to be. I may let you down and there ain't no doubt about that because it's on a daily basis I let me down. Oh, man. God's got a place. You don't have to...