James Merritt - Do the Right Thing
A few years ago, there was this really fascinating movie that came out called «A Quiet Place». How many of you have seen the movie «A Quiet Place»? Okay, some of you have. It’s a great movie. It’s really, it’s interesting. It’s a story of how these creatures come to earth, and they hunt humans, but the deal is they’re blind. They can’t see. You could stand right in front of one of these creatures and they won’t touch you. They hunt not by sight, they hunt by sound. They have incredible hearing. So there’s this family, and they’re trying to protect their children. And they know that even the slightest whisper or just one misguided footstep, and they’re all dead.
So what the movie is all about is how this family does everything they can to just keep everybody quiet. Don’t make a sound. So the movie is all about staying silent. So when I walked out of that movie with Theresa about two, three years ago and the sequel just came out, I just saw it. I looked at her and I said, «That’s what’s wrong with the church». Says, «What do you mean»? I said, «The church has become a quiet place». We come in here every week, and you hear the gospel every week, and you hear the word of God every week, and you hear the truth every week, and you hear about Jesus every week. And then most of us will walk out that door and here’s what we’ll do the rest of the week, we stay quiet. We keep silent. Because the vast majority of people who come to church and hear the central message of the church, they leave the church and they stay silent.
Every week we say our church exists. If you’ve heard our statement over and over, we exist to do what? Say it loud. Yeah. We exist to point people to Jesus. But most of us will walk out that door, and we will keep our pointers in our pocket. We don’t point anybody to anything. See, in the movie, silence is golden, because if you make a sound you die. But in the church, silence is deadly, because if you don’t make a sound about the gospel, people are going to die, and they’re gonna spend eternity separated from God. I was fascinated to learn this. You may not know it. Experts have done their study on 9/11, and they now know the number one reason why 9/11 happened. The number one reason why 3000 people died.
The number one reason why we were not prepared, we were not ready for that terrorist attack. You ready for this? The FBI knew certain things the CIA did not know. The CIA knew things that the FBI did not know. And there was the police in New York knew things that the other two didn’t know. But nobody shared what everybody knew with everybody else. And because nobody shared what everybody else knew, thousands of people died. Now, you may think I’m already exaggerating, but lemme just give you some statistics that breaks my heart. Gallup took a poll a year ago. They said, now listen to this, only 8% of Americans, eight, 8% talk about God, faith, religion, or spirituality, even once a week. Once a week. Only an additional 15% talk about spiritual matters even once a month.
The average American… this blows my mind. The average American. The average American. The American who lives in a country that has the motto, «In God we trust». The average American has, you ready for this? Only one spiritual conversation a year. Americans are talking about spiritual matters less and less and less, and the American church is right with them. So I want you to hear me clearly, Christianity is a gospel-centered religion. You take away the gospel, we don’t have Christianity. You take away the gospel, I don’t have a job. You take away the gospel, we don’t have a church. You take away the gospel, you are wasting your time. Christianity is a gospel-centered religion. And if you are a Christian or claim to be, you are to be a gospel-centered person. So I’ve said that to say this, the greatest act of selfishness is to keep the best news that the world has ever heard to yourself.
So with all of that in mind, I want you to take God’s word. Take your Bible, take your iPad, take your cell phone, whatever. I want you to turn to a book called 2 Kings. It’s in the Old Testament, right after 1 Kings. Go to Genesis, turn right, can’t miss it. I want you to go to 2 Kings 7. Lemme give you the backdrop of what’s going on. It’s a fascinating story. Give you the backdrop. Here’s a little history lesson. Solomon has died. The kingdom was united, but Solomon’s gone. Now the kingdom is divided. They have a civil war, and they break up into two parts. The northern kingdom of Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah.
This is a story about what’s going on in Israel. Israel is under siege by the Syrian army. Most powerful army around. The city’s been surrounded, all supplies have been cut off. People are desperate. They’re starving to death. There’s no way out. There’s no way of escape. They’re vastly outnumbered by the most powerful army in the world. There’s nothing they can do. Fight is out of the question, flight is impossible. And it looked like everything was lost, except for four lepers. And because of what four lepers did, the city was saved, lives were spared, and the Lord was glorified. So I love to give my sermon in a sentence. Here’s my sermon in a sentence. When it comes to the gospel, silence is sinful. When it comes to the gospel, silence is sinful.
Now, as we get into this story, I want you to keep one thing in mind. We are in this story. I’m in the story, you’re in the story. You say, who are we? We’re the lepers. You’ll see this in a minute. You are one of those four lepers that are in this story, because these lepers represent every one of us who say we’ve experienced the love of God. We’ve surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ. We’ve tasted the bread of life. We’ve drunk the living water. Now it’s time for us to go tell others what we know and what we have experienced.
Now, before I get into the message, lemme say one last thing. I’m not trying to put you on a guilt trip. Guilt trips don’t work. I can make a lot of you feel guilty and you’re going, yeah. Like you’d, let’s say you don’t tithe, and I make you feel guilty. You might give one tither or two, and you say, yeah, you know. Guilt doesn’t work, so I’m not trying to put you into guilt, I’m not trying to make you feel bad. That’s not my point. Here’s what I am asking God to do. God, would you take my message today? God, would you take your word today, and would you do what I cannot do, would you change hearts today? Would you give people who walked into this room and they don’t give a rip about lost people. They really don’t. They don’t care whether people go to hell or not, and they prove it every day, 'cause they never talk about Jesus. God, would you take that person and that person, and that person and that person, and change their hearts and give them a passion for people without Jesus.
Well, how that’s going to happen? Well, there’s three things that have to happen. We have to recognize three things. Ready? Number one, we have been blessed to see the grace of God. We have been blessed to see the grace of God. Now, to understand the story, you gotta go back and see how desperate the situation was. So we’re gonna go back to 2 Kings 6. Lemme tell you what’s going on. «Sometime later, Ben-Hadad king of Iran mobilized his entire army and marched up and laid siege to Samaria». Samaria is Israel. «There was a great famine in the city. The siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for 80 shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels».
Now the next time you think our economy is bad, go back and reread what I just said. Things are so bad, are you ready for this? They’re selling donkey head burgers for $50 a piece. And the only condiment that they’ve got to put on it is seed pods. Do you know what the Hebrew language means for seed pods? It means doves dung. In other words, that’s the only thing you could put. So just imagine, you go down to your local McDonald’s, and you pull out a $50 bill, and you say, I’d like a donkey head burger, but hold the dove manure. That’s how bad things were. I mean, things are really, really bad. Well, as if that were not bad enough, I hate to even tell you this part of the story. People are so desperate, and people are so hungry, and they are so, so just almost insane with hunger, they start eating their own children. They start cannibalizing their own children.
As a matter of fact, one woman even went to the king and asked for help. Well, what help did she need? Listen to what she said. «Then he asked her,» that’s the king, «'What’s the matter? ' She answered, 'This woman said to me, give up your son so we may eat him today, and tomorrow we’ll eat my son.'» Now you’re a mother here today, can you imagine talking to your next door neighbor and saying, «Tell you what, I know you’re hungry, I’m hungry. We’ll boil our baby today, and we’ll boil your baby tomorrow». You say, man, I can’t even imagine. That’s how bad things were. So this breaks my heart. «'So we cooked my son.'» That turns my stomach just to read those words. «'So we cooked my son and we ate him, and the next day I said to her, give up your son so we may eat him, but she had hidden him.'»
I’m not gonna stay there very long. I just wanna get that thought outta my mind. The thing I want you to understand is, these people had lost hope. They had lost heart. They saw no help. You could hear the despair in their voice. So we keep reading. «As the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried to him, 'Help me, my lord the king.' And the king replied, 'If the Lord does not help you, where can I get help for you. From the threshing floor? From the light winepress? '»
I want you to listen carefully. Smart king. Because even that king recognized there are some things even a king can’t solve. There are some problems even a president cannot solve. There are some problems Congress cannot solve. There are some problems the Senate cannot solve. There are some problems that government cannot solve. There are some problems that have no human solution, and great example. Think about this. Think about this situation that city was in. Money was no help, they didn’t have any. They couldn’t buy their way out. Influence was no help. They had no influence. The government was no help. Matter of fact, it was part of the problem, 'cause it was the government that had rebelled against the Syrians that caused them to invade the land to begin with. The king, he’s no help. He’s in the same boat as everybody else.
Well, the more the people learned, they wished the less they knew. They finally wake up and realize something that this country needs to wake up and realize, God is our only hope. That is true today. That will be true today when the new president’s elected, and that will be true after the new president takes office. God is our only hope. I’ve said this before, I’m gonna say it again. It’s not political, it’s just a fact. If you really think some party, or some candidate, or some president or some government can solve our problems, you don’t understand our problems. The king said, «I can’t do this. There’s nothing I can do».
So now we get in the meat of the story. You ready? Here’s the meat of the story. Outside these four walls are four lepers. You say, why are they outside the four walls? 'Cause there lepers. Leprosy was contagious. And if you got leprosy, you were ostracized. You were kicked out of the house. You were kicked out of the city. You were on your own, and nobody wanted anything to do with 'em. So these four lepers are sitting outside this wall and they surveyed the situation, and they realize just how bad things really are. And they say, you know what? We’ve only got three options. And here they were. «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? What’s our options? Well, if we say we’ll go into the city, the famine is there and we’ll die. If we stay here, we’ll 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.'»
Smart guys. Because think about it, here were their options. They said, look, this is not hard. If we don’t do anything and we just sit here, we’re going to die. If instead we go back into the city, we’re going to die. But at least if we go to the Syrians and surrender, maybe they’ll take us captive or we’ll still die. But option three seems like the best one. I think we’ll take what’s behind curtain number three. So they realize, our only hope, our only chance of living, our only chance of surviving. Let’s just take the risk. Let’s go. So you’re those four lepers. Can you just imagine, they’re walking into this Syrian camp, and they know deep down. We’re not even gonna get there. We won’t get within 50 yards of that thing. They’re gonna shoot arrows through us, they’re gonna come out. They are going to kill us. But they make this incredible discovery.
«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, for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses, and a great army. So they said to one another, 'Look, the king of Israel’s hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us.' 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 they ran for their lives».
Now here are those lepers. They could not believe their eyes. God had done something that neither of the lepers outside the city, nor the people inside the city could do for themselves. He sends this invisible angelic army. He causes the Syrian army to flee. They leave behind all the food, all the money, all the clothing, all the supplies that the city needed to live. It’s all theirs. Now I gotta ask you a question. What do you think those lepers did? Now, don’t look at me like you’re super holy, 'cause you know what they did? They did exactly what we would’ve done.
Listen. «The men had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, they 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 they hid them also». Why do you think he keeps saying they hid them? All of a sudden, everything has changed. You’re those lepers. You have struck the mother load. You have won the lottery. You can’t believe it. All the things you’ve never had in your life, you now have. You just became an instant millionaire just like that. You’ve gone from rags to riches. You’ve gone from leprosy to luxury. And now what are you gonna do with it? You did what you.
You know what you’re gonna do? They start filling their hungry stomachs with food, their parched throats with water. They exchange rags for robes. They put brand new sandals on their worn out blistered feet. They are having the time of their life. They’re probably looking at each other and say, «Man, this is the way a king lives. This is the kind life that a king enjoys». They’re stuffing their bellies full of food. They’re stuffing their pockets full of gold, while everybody else back in the city, they’re still eating the donkey head burgers, with the dove manure on top, with nothing to drink. But not these guys. They’re enjoy filet mignon, and apple pie and mashed potatoes, and I’m getting hungry.
So one thing you gotta remember. I’m gonna ask you a pop quiz question, see if you’ve been listening. What had these lepers done to deserve all of that? Nothing. They hadn’t done anything. They’d not done one thing to deserve it. Every bit of food they ate, every piece of jewelry they put on, every piece of gold they put in their pocket, all of it had been provided by the grace of God, all of it. They hadn’t fought one battle. They hadn’t shot one arrow. They hadn’t killed one soldier. They had not wielded one sword. They had not paid one dime. They had not given one piece of gold. They had nothing to offer. Everything they were enjoying was because of the grace of God.
Let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen. Everything you are right now and everything you have right now, it’s all by the grace of God. Every single bit of it is by the grace of God. Every morning when you get up, can I tell you what you’re looking at when you get up every morning? You’re not just seeing the sunrise, you’re not just hearing the birds sing. Every morning when you get up, you are seeing the grace of God in your life. You are in this chair, in this building, listen to me right now, because of the grace of God. We have been blessed to see the grace of God. So if you’ve got eternal life today, if you’ve been saved today, if you’ve been forgiven of your sins today, if you’ve got a home in heaven today, you have been blessed by the grace of God. That’s why I tell everybody I know, the most blessed person on this planet is a follower of Jesus, who knows the Lord.
Now I hope that makes you feel good. I hope that puts joy in your heart. But now that being said, we’ve gotta do the title of my message, 'cause I didn’t tell you what it was. The title of my message is, «Do The Right Thing». Just do the right thing. Well, what is the right thing? You ready? If you would be one of those people that would admit to me today, pastor, I have seen the grace of God. That’s you. If you’ve been blessed to see the grace of God, we are bound to speak the gospel of God. We are bound to speak the gospel of God. Now you think about these lepers, they’re living it up. But then they start thinking about, what about all those people in that city? What about these people who’ve not seen what we’ve seen? They haven’t heard what we’ve heard. They haven’t experienced what we’ve experienced. They don’t know what we know. They’ve not been blessed the way we’ve been blessed.
And all of a sudden they hear babies crying because they have no milk. And in their mind’s eye, they begin to see the children who are freezing because they have no clothing. And they begin to think about all their friends and neighbors who are dying for lack of food. And here they are, they’ve got more to eat. They’ve got more to spend. They’ve got more to wear. They’ve got more to drink than they could ever have in 10 lifetimes. And once you realize, as those lepers did, that you’re hoarding God’s blessings. Once you realize that, once you wake up and you realize, «I’ve got what other people don’t have. I know what other people don’t know, I’ve experienced what other people have not experienced». You will do one of two things. You will. You will sit on what you have and say nothing, and be quiet and stay silent and keep it to yourself. Or you will go tell others the good news, that they can enjoy God’s blessings too.
So what do these lepers decide to do? Are you ready? «Then they said to each other. Then they said to each other. And then they said to each other, 'What we’re doing is not right.'» It’s not right that you’re going to heaven, and not trying to take anybody with you. It’s not right. It’s not right for you to come in here every week and hear the truth of the word of God, and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, and walk out that room and say nothing to nobody. It’s not right. It’s not right for you to have the attitude, well, I got mine, everybody else is on their own. It’s not right. And they were right. «'What we’re doing is not right.' This is a day of good news.'» That’s what the gospel means. «'And we’re keeping it to ourselves. If we waited until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.'»
What we’re doing is not right. Well wait a minute, let’s be honest, let’s think a minute. What were they doing that was so bad? I mean, let’s call it like it is. I mean, they were just enjoying the spoils of victory. They were just placating their hunger and their thirst. They weren’t breaking any laws. They weren’t robbing any banks. They weren’t committing any felonies. So what were they doing that was not right? It’s real easy. It is not right to know the greatest story in the history of the world that other people need to hear and stay silent. It’s not right. It is not right for you to keep Jesus to yourself. It’s not right. It is not right for you to know how you got saved but not tell somebody else how they can get saved. It’s not right. It is not right for you to have the joy of knowing eternal life, of knowing Jesus as your Lord and savior, of knowing your sins have been forgiven, and tell nobody else they can have that you’ve got. It’s not right.
So just imagine, let just think about it. I want you to imagine if those lepers had never said a word to anybody. So I want you to imagine that two weeks later or so, you’re a parent, and you find out what happened. And I want you to imagine you had two children who starved to death, because they had no food. And later you find out that these lepers had more than enough food for everybody, more than enough water for everybody, more than enough clothing for everybody. But they didn’t share it with anybody, and because of that, your child died. You’re a parent, how would you feel? What would you wanna do to those lepers?
Alright, let’s turn it around. You’re one of those lepers, and you just choose to sit on the story and not tell anybody. Not tell anybody anything about what you’ve discovered. And then you find out later, these two precious children died. How would you feel? Unless you have a heart of stone, how would you feel? How much do you have to hate somebody that needs eternal life, and refuse to share how they can have it? That’s a lot of hate. My next door neighbor’s lost. You ever share the gospel with him? No. You really hate that guy that much? My father-in-law, my mother-in-law, my cousin, my best friend from high school, they’re lost. You ever shared the gospel with him? No. Do you hate him that much?
The late great British preacher Charles Spurgeon, was once asked by one of his students a question. It’s probably been one of the two biggest questions I’ve been asked as a pastor in all my ministry. And the question was asked was they said, «Well, pastor, what about all those people who have never heard about Jesus? What about them»? And Spurgeon admitted to them and he told the truth. He said, «Look, it’s a very difficult question,» and it is. «It’s a very troubling question,» and it is. But then he said this. He said, «Even more troubling, is whether those of us who know the gospel and do nothing to bring it to the lost, could we be saved»? So here’s the way he put it. «If Jesus is precious to you,» lemme just stop right there. I’m not looking for an amen, I’m not looking for a yes or no. I’m asking just a question. But just get gut level honest with yourself and don’t lie to yourself, 'cause God knows the truth anyway. Is Jesus precious to you?
Listen to me. Don’t you sit there and kid yourself, and don’t sit there and try to fool me. and tell me Jesus is precious to you, but you never tell anybody about him. Cut it out. I don’t witness. I don’t tell my. I don’t lead that lady to the Lord. I’m gonna tell you in a minute about an atheist I led to Christ two weeks ago. I don’t tell people about Jesus 'cause you pay me to do it, 'cause you can’t pay me to do that. I don’t tell people about Jesus, 'cause I feel guilty if I don’t, though I do. I tell people about Jesus because Jesus is precious to me.
I was on a plane flying back not too long ago, and I can tell you, 'cause you’ll never know who it is. But this guy drove me nuts showing me pictures of his grandkids. I’m okay with 30 seconds, but don’t go five minutes, enough. But you know why he went on and on? Those grandkids are precious to him. He said, «If Jesus is precious to you, you’ll not be able to keep your good news to yourself. You’ll be whispering it in your child’s ear. You’ll be telling it to your husband. You’ll be earnestly imparting it to your friend, without the charms of eloquence, you’ll be more than eloquent. Your heart will speak and your eyes will flash as you talk of his sweet love. Every Christian here is either a missionary, or an imposter».
I told you we’re gonna draw a line in the dirt today. I told you. You see, you know what a witness is? It’s just somebody who gets up on a stand and he just says, this is what I know. This is what I’ve seen. This is what I’ve heard. This is what I’ve experienced. Now, I can’t prove this, but I believe one of the biggest reasons that a lot of so-called Christians don’t witness, and they’re not a witness, is because really and truly they’ve never seen really, they’ve never really seen, they’ve never really heard, they’ve never experienced the grace of God. Because if you have seen the grace of God, you are bound to speak the gospel.
Now, if you’re bound to speak the gospel, then you’ll know one last thing is true as well. That also means then we must be burdened to share the goodness of God. If we’ve been blessed to see the grace of God. Have you been blessed to see the grace of God? Have you? If you’ve been blessed to see the grace of God, you’re bound to speak the gospel of God. And if you’re bound to speak the gospel of God, we must be burdened to share the goodness of God. Now, part of this story, the best part of this story is yet to come. They didn’t see it. They didn’t stay silent. They got up, here’s what they did. «So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers, and told them, 'We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there. Not a sound of anyone. Only tethered horses and donkeys. And the tents left just as they were.' The gatekeepers shouted the news. And it was reported within the palace».
They go to the city, they tell the gatekeepers, and the gatekeepers go over there. They shout the news, they go everywhere, telling everybody, «Hey, great news, the impossible has happened. We don’t have to die. We’re not going to die. Help has come. Hope has come back. We don’t have to starve to death». And when the king got the news, he did the right thing. He said, I wanna make sure this is right. So he sent some officers out to reckon order and make sure that, you know, what these guys said are true. They found out that it was, so now we come to the climax of the story, and here’s the full picture of what happened.
«So they selected two chariots with their horses, and the king sent them after the Aramean army. He commanded the drivers, 'Go and find out what has happened.' They followed them as far as the Jordan, and they found the whole road strewn with the clothing and equipment the Arameans had thrown away in their headlong flight. So the messengers returned and reported to the king. Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel as the Lord had said».
Boy, what a great ending. One day these people are starving behind the wall, and the next day they’re shopping in a mall. Now, you ought say amen, that was pretty good. Babies are being fed. Naked people are being clothed, closets are being replenished. There is no more fear. They had gone from famine to feast. The lepers had gone from zeroes to heroes. Listen, lemme ask you a question. Now, you remember, we’re the lepers. Can you imagine the joy in the hearts of those lepers when they saw how their friends, and their neighbors and yes, even the people who one time shunned them, now love them and we’re being blessed by them. Can you just imagine the unbelievable feeling that these lepers said, «This is how God used me. This is what God has done through me».
I’m gonna tell you something I’ve told you before. Most of you will not get it. Most of you’ll not understand it. Some of you won’t even believe it, because you not experienced what I’ve experienced. When I got saved as a 9-year-old boy, Virgil, that message that memory is as fresh as it happened yesterday. Changed my life so much. When I gave my life to Christ as a 9-year-old boy in that theater in Gainesville, Georgia, and he so changed my life. I didn’t understand it all, I’m not saying I really felt anything, but I wanna tell you, I walked outta there knowing I was a different kid. I walked outta there knowing, man, I’m right with God. I walked out there knowing I’ve got eternal life. But lemme just say this, I got more joy. I got more joy out of leading that Catholic mother to Jesus in my green room 10, 15 minutes ago, than I got when I got saved. I get more joy. There’s no joy like seeing somebody come to Jesus.
My pastor friend, David Platt, has said it this way, «Every saved person this side of heaven owes the gospel to every unsaved person this side of hell». One of these days you’re gonna stand before Jesus, who gave you the gospel to share, and who saved you by that gospel. So when he says to you, «So tell me, is there anybody here that you brought to me»? Do you really wanna have to say, no? Jesus says, «Is there anybody here that you even tried to bring to me»? You’re gonna say, no.
So I’ll tell you this last story and I’ll be finished. Everybody know what a monastery is? I was gonna say, if you don’t, just in case you don’t know, a monastery, and I don’t like them, but it’s where men go to become what they call monks. And you know what you do in a monastery for the most part? You keep your mouth shut. You go to meditate, you go to read your Bible, you go to pray. You don’t talk to each other very much, and you just live this solitary, very silent life. I don’t believe in 'em, I don’t like 'em, but that’s what they do. Well, there was this monastery and they had a different monk that had to preach in chapel every week. That’s about the only time they got to talk.
Well, there was this young man that joined the monastery and the reason he joined the monastery was he didn’t like to talk to anybody. He was super shy, and he wanted to go to a place where he never had to talk to anybody again. Rick, you’re gonna love this story. He didn’t wanna talk to anybody. I’m gonna join this monastery, I don’t wanna talk to anybody. But the time came, it was his turn to preach. So the Abbott, who heads up the monastery, he walked into this young man’s room and the dreaded day had come. He knew it. He said, «Son, it’s your time to preach, so tomorrow you be ready to preach». He walked out. Young man couldn’t sleep a wink, sick as a dog. So nervous, so afraid.
Well, the next morning he got up before all these other monks. He’s shaking like a leaf. And he began by asking this question, he said, «Do any of you know what I’m going to say»? And they all shook their head, no. He said, «Well, neither do I. Go in peace. Amen». He said that. Well, the Abbott was furious. He walked up to that man and he said, «I don’t know what you think you’re doing, I want you to hear me, you’re going to come back tomorrow, you’re going to preach, and I’m gonna tell you right now, you better have a sermon ready. Do you understand me»? He shook his head. Well, the next morning he gets up, still in fear and trembling, shaking like a leaf. He asked the same question. He said, «Do any of you know what I’m going to say»?
Well, this time they thought they’d be encouraging. So they didn’t shake their head no, they nodded their head yes. When they all nodded their head yes, he said, «Well, since all of you know what I’m going to say, there’s no need for me to say it. Go in peace. Amen». He sat down. Well this time the Abbott is beyond nuclear. I mean, he’s about to strangle this guy. So he sits down and gets right in his face, «Lemme tell you something, this is your last chance, you understand me? You better have a sermon ready tomorrow, or you’re gonna suffer the consequences? Do you hear me»? He said, «Yes, sir». So the next day came, and the monk gets up, and he’s shaking like a leaf. And he says, same question, «Does anybody here know what I’m going to say»?
Well, this time they thought they’d trap him. So half the monks shook their head no. Half the monks nodded their head yes. And the monk replied, «Wonderful. For those of you who do know what I’m going to say, would you please tell those who don’t. Go in peace». I’m asking those of you who know what you need to say, who know what you know, who know what you’ve heard, who know what you’ve experienced, who know what you’ve seen, who know how Christ can change your life, go tell those who have not. Do the right thing. I’m gonna walk outta here, and I’m not gonna do what you told me. What you’re doing is not right. I’m gonna walk out here and stay in my little comfort zone. I’m not telling anybody anything.
What you’re doing is not right. I’m going to heaven and that’s all I care about. I’m not ever, ever gonna share nothing. What you’re doing is not right. You’re gonna know how to do it, 'cause I’m gonna teach you how to do it. And oh, by the way, here’s the best news of all. I am really not even asking you to do it. I’m asking you to let the Holy Spirit that lives in you do it through you. That’s all. That’s all. That’s all. So, for those of us who know, God’s grace is available to all of us. We know that God loves all of us. We know that God gave his only Son to die for all of us. We know that Christ rose from the grave. We know eternal life is a gift. We know anybody can have it. We know that. Do the right thing, go and tell those who don’t.
So you’re watching online right now, you’re in this room, and you’ve never accepted Jesus Christ into your life. The thing about salvation is, salvation and soul winning really have something in common. They’re not hard. Salvation’s not hard. It’s impossible without Jesus, it’s easy with Jesus. When you realize you’re a sinner, just like that lady, that Catholic lady who had never heard the gospel till I shared it with her just a while ago, never heard it. When I said to her, «All you gotta do is realize you’re a sinner. Repent of your sin. Receive Jesus Christ as your savior». «You know what she looked at me and said? Where do I sign up»? Not hard. Telling people about Jesus is not hard. You’re just a witness.
I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth. I’m just gonna tell what I know and say what I heard. You can do that. But if you’ve never been saved, if you’ve never trusted Jesus, I’m so full of this, that little sweet mother. She said, «You know what»? She said, «I grew up,» and I’m not slamming Catholics. I tell you what she told me. «I grew up in the Catholic church. I was born a Catholic, raised a Catholic, been a Catholic all my life. I have never understood that Christianity is not a religion, it’s a relationship with Jesus Christ. I’ve never understood that till today». That’s all it is. So if you’ve never been saved, you can right now, you could just in your own words, ask Jesus to come into your heart. Just tell Jesus, Lord, I’m a sinner. I need a savior. I believe you died for my sins, and I believe God raised you from the dead. I wanna give you my life. I wanna give you my heart, and I want you to save me today.