God is always in this. Seems to be in this habit of saving the very
best for right now. And, guys, there's urine for a
treat today. Not because she's so wonderful, which she is, but because the
God inside her is wonderful. Pastor Barbie is going to bring the Word this morning.
Would you welcome Pastor Barbie?
Before we jump into the Word today, I have been studying
with you guys about Elijah and Elisha, and I've just been
carrying that in my spirit. And so this week, as I was
studying it out and I was thinking about. No spoiler here,
but Elijah gets carried away in a chariot of fire.
Yeah, he does. And I was thinking about this
relationship between Elijah and Elisha, and I was thinking about
this discipling thing that takes place as we walk in the
kingdom and we do what God has called us to do. And I got to
thinking about, man, how many of y' all had a mama that served the Lord
or a grandparent that served the Lord? And now
you're sitting in this room with a purpose, for a reason,
because of a faith that was a legacy. And
I have that mama. I had that mom and dad that served the Lord.
And one of the things that they used to do, they used to sing
this song called Ain't no Grave. Now,
see, it used to be that you told stories to
give histories. It used to be that you sung a song to tell
the histories. And my mom and daddy would sing this song, ain't
no Grave. Now, now, I wish you could have known when my mama was
a shouter and my dad was a holder on to her,
and he'd be like, okay, Barbara, we're
gonna find your shoes. After church today.
The last time I heard my mom and daddy sing this song, they were
standing on a porch in the middle of downtown Alver Springs.
And my daddy was playing the guitar, and my mom was singing, and he was
trying to keep her on that platform because she was
sharing what she knew to be true. She was sharing a story
that told about a God who loved her, about a battle
between Satan and the angel armies, the battle that would take
place and the victories that would be won. She was sharing the histories.
Now, my mama sang it. Now my daughter's gonna sing it.
Because, guys, if we do this thing, if we really believe
what we say, we believe. What she handed down to me
is what I need to hand down to Katie and to Erin and what Erin
and Katie need to hand down to Rowan and Nora and Alyssa
and Bo and Parker. Because if we really believe
this, it doesn't stop Here. The kingdom didn't begin with
us, and it will not end with us unless he comes.
Amen. Amen. So since I
absolutely cannot hit any of these notes, we are
gonna stand up, and they are gonna share ain't no grave. And let me tell
you something. Here's what I want in your spirit during this time. We're
gonna worship with them as they tell the history and they tell the
story. I want you to grab hold of yours, and I want you to grab
hold of the fact that you are passing down something that you truly
believe to those sitting next to you, to those that you're raising in your
household, because let me tell you something. Believe in the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. I believe it. My life is built on it. It's why
I'm here today. There ain't no grave
gonna hold his body down. It didn't hold his down, and it will not hold
yours down. So let's stand and let's go there.
Bless you, Lord. Bless you, Lord. I believe it.
I believe it. My mom believes it. I'm
standing over there thinking, yeah, Daddy, I had to chase her down a few times.
She would have been so proud. I tell you what she'd been like, girl,
testify. And that's what we do. We
testify of the goodness of the Lord. He is
faithful. I feel a little bit like Nate Bergatzi when he's
talking about, you know, his daughter or he's talking about
his sister and everything. And then all of a sudden, he goes, oh, yeah, we
got another brother. Anyway, I have another son.
Matthew and Rachel are doing a phenomenal job with their four
babies, too. I was then looking over there, that's such
a thing to do to a middle child. You know?
I love you, John Matthew. He probably will not watch this, but just in case.
I really love you. And
God is so good, is he not good, guys? Do you believe
that? Do you believe that it doesn't stop here.
Do you believe that there is more to the story? I tell you what, I
wouldn't be sitting here if I didn't believe it. I wouldn't be standing here. I
wouldn't have taught it to my children if I didn't believe it. This is
just. We get to be a part of a
long chain of sharing the stories and
the testimonies of Christ. And that's what I want to do with you this morning
as we jump into a teaching on Elijah and
Elisha. Wow. Could I have gotten a better assignment?
I don't think so. Thank you for that, Pastor Kevin. This
Is this one? I, I, I, I.
It's just good. Okay. So last week, Pastor Kevin left
us with these words he was talking about. Elijah had had a pretty bad
week. Elijah had been
chased by Jezebel, had threatened his life, hadn't gone
well for him. It says he took off to the mountain. Is it
Horeb, the mountain of the Lord. And there he
hid in the cave. And one of Pastor Kevin's last
questions were the words that
God spoke to Elijah at the mouth of the cave. Why
are you here? Why are you here?
Why are you here? And it was a heart check, and it was a question
to go, why are you ordering your life the way that you're
ordering it? I mean, for me, I'm going, why did you come here
this morning? Why are you reading the
Bible? Why are you teaching your kids about faith? Why,
if it's something that you carry and it's so strong, why? And if you
do believe this the way that you believe this, there is so much
to grab onto. And I believe the Lord gives us teachings
through his Word that give us encouragement in how to do that.
Now, when he actually closed the service last week,
Elijah had come out of the cave. The Lord had spoken to him, asked
him, why are you here? You know, I'm pretty sure the
Lord knew why he was there. He was just making sure Elijah knew why he
was there. And sometimes that's what the Lord doing with us. And the second
thing that he asked him or the second thing he told him was, go back
the way you came. Go back the way you
came. And that's where Pastor Kevin left us with the words
last week. And the passage of Scripture that comes next is where we
are going to start. It's going to be our jumping off point. And
so Elijah has come out of the cave. The Lord has said, what
do you think you're doing? I'm paraphrasing. And. And
then he goes, okay, here's what we're going to do. Here are your next instructions.
You're coming out of the cave, and this is what you're going to do. So
if you would stand with me, we're going to read First Kings 19, 16,
21. Actually, we're going to jump around a little bit in it so you don't
have to read the whole passages. We're just going to get into this particular
part and we'll see what the instructions of the Lord were to Elijah when he
came out of the cave. Let's read it, as Pastor
Kevin says, with gusto. When you get there, anoint
Hazael king over Aram. Also anoint
Jehu son of Nimshi, king over
Israel. And anoint Elisha son of
Shaphat from the Abel Mehloa.
Okay, let's read that last part. Anoint Elisha
son of Shaphat from Abel Meholoah
to succeed you as prophet. And
so Elijah went from there and found Elisha
son of Shaphat. He was plowing with 12 yoke
of oxen, and he himself was driving the 12th
pair. Elijah went up to him and threw
his cloak around him. Elisha then left his
oxen and ran after Elijah. Let
me kiss my father and mother goodbye, he said, and
then I will come with you. Elisha left him,
went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered
them. He burned the plow, cooked the meat, and
gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out
to follow Elijah and became his servant. Father
God, I thank you so much for your word, Lord. Thank you for
letting me share what you've shown me. Thank you, Lord, that
you will get it exactly where it needs to go. I pray, Father God, that
our hearts would be taught of you today, Lord, not taught of me. But
Lord, I pray that my stuff would fall and yours would stand. We're
gonna lean in and listen for your voice this morning, in Jesus name,
Amen. Amen. Now let me tell
you something. When I got into that passage of scripture,
there's a part of that that grabbed me. We actually read
it twice when it said, go and anoint Elisha
as your successor as prophet.
What? I'm just thinking what my response
might have been of going, what?
I know I had a bad week. I
know I've been hiding in this cave for a while, but now I'm
getting replaced. You know, that might be what
Insecure Barbie would say. Hey, you know what? Mattel never
created that one.
I'm gonna have to call them because I think it would be a big seller
anyway. Insecure Barbie,
she's like, should I wear this or should I
woo, come back. Anyway, I
was thinking about that. And I was thinking about, you know, if you did that
today. Actually, our elder board did that to us
a few years ago, and it was absolutely the right thing to do.
They begin to go, okay, what's next? Who's
are you training? The person behind you. And we're like,
are we done? You know, the insecure side of you goes, but what?
But the spiritual God kingdom side of you should go,
absolutely, absolutely, Lord. Because if you tarry
it doesn't end here. So, Lord, where should I sow and
where should I go? And I felt like when I was studying
this, the Lord gave me this phrase, every transition requires an
evolution. We evolve into and
out of transition. Okay, this
is really important. And I'm. We don't like change.
We don't like change, especially if it affects us or feels like
it takes something out of our hands. Change is hard.
Change is hard. I mean, even the good things, it's hard. And
to evolve means to move slowly into a
more advanced position and sometimes
or more advanced state, sometimes we have to
allow ourselves time to evolve into a
more kingdom advanced state
when the Lord gives us a word. And see, that's the kicker.
Elijah received a word from the Lord
God. Transition requires a God word, a God
word. We don't get there. It's so as hard as our flesh tries to stick
and stay and do, it's so hard for us to let
go unless we have a word from the Lord.
Nowhere in this passage of scripture, when the Lord tells
Elijah, I want you to go anoint your successor, nowhere do
I see Elijah going, but God.
Now, maybe he did internally, I don't know. But it obviously wasn't worthy of
the page anyway. But God,
I still got a lot of good years left in me. That's not the point.
The point is Elijah knew God voice. And
when you know God's voice, when you know
God's voice, what you going to do with that? When the Lord speaks, here's what
you got to do. A God word requires a kingdom response.
And sometimes we have to sit on it for just a minute
before we can give a kingdom response to something that's
affecting our flesh. What's the right
thing, Lord? Am I thinking about me or am I thinking about
them? Am I thinking about advancing the kingdom
or promoting myself? What is
the kingdom response in this? Now, remember I
said this is because you believe what you say. You believe
that you are part of a long lineage of people leading toward him,
leaning toward him. And how do we advance the
kingdom? And I'm not talking about grow in the kingdom. There's a
difference. Cause you can fill a room and you can make it really
big, full of people and make no progress forward in the
kingdom. And the best thing we can do the way that we do this,
guys, it's generational exchange.
If I love Beau Oliver, then my job
is to disciple him in such a
way that that whenever I leave, my
ceiling becomes his floor. And if I take all of the
secrets of the kingdom, all of the things the Lord has shown me how
to do. And I hold them close because I don't want to teach anybody about
this. Because if I teach them about it, they might be better at it than
I am. Let them be better. Let them
be better and see. So, Bo, aren't you so glad you're on the front row,
buddy? Yeah.
If I do what I'm called to do, and I do it correctly and
unselfishly, then my stopping point should be
his launch pad. But, guys, if
we don't do that, they have to go back and relay foundations that we
were supposed to lay a long time ago. Because in our
insecurity, we don't give it all to them. We gotta start
giving it all to them. Ay yai yai.
Anyway, God word requires a kingdom response.
And that's what we get here with Elijah and Elisha.
One of the things that impressed me about Elisha
was Elisha was a
servant by choice, not by station. Now,
let's talk about this one for a minute. How do we know this? It does
not. There's not a, you know, habascus 4 that says
Elisha was a servant by choice, not by station. But the Lord shows us things
in his Word that we can glean from. And we just read in a
passage of Scripture that Elijah, when he went to find
Elisha, Elisha was
plowing in a field with 12 yoke of oxen.
And he himself, according to Scripture, was driving the 12th pair.
Driving the 12th pair. Why does that matter? Because
I come from a farming family. Shouting and farming
family. You know, I'm sorry I said that. And if you were gonna
plow a field, you staggered the
oxen. You would send a plow an oxen, and
that person would go and let them get just a little bit down the
row. Then you would send the next plow and the next oxen.
And so eventually it's just like this, the side of a V,
and you're staggering the plows for a couple of reasons. You stagger them
because if you put the oxen up next to each other, they're distracted and they'll
go toward one another. And so they would be sent not only
the field tilled better because what the first one plowed, the second
one replowed the side of it. And so eventually you're getting a double
plow anyway. Why does that matter? Well, it matters because
Elisha was driving the 12th pair, and
the 12th pair of oxen was the last to go. That
meant that person ate the dust of the first 11.
Okay? And it was usually the lowest man on the
totem pole that got that 12th plow. Now, so that could lead us to believe.
Okay, well, maybe. Maybe Elisha was just the lowest one. Nope. Au
contraire, mon frere. Anyway,
I also speak pig Latin. Anyway.
No, because what we see in the passage of Scripture is that when Elijah tells
him we are going, you know, when he calls him and anoints him,
it says that Elijah,
Elisha went back. What did he do? He burned
the yoke. He killed the oxen.
He distributed the meat to the people. Do you think a
laborer in a field would have the right to go and burn the man's
property? Seriously? No.
If he had the ownership. Now, whether he owned the field or whether his
parents did whatever it did, there was a level of ownership and
authority enough in him that he went back and he burned it
all and he offered it to the people. Now, there's so much
prophetic in that, guys. There's so much prophetic in that. Not only
did he tell his mother and father his past and all that he had known
goodbye, he also burned the plow. His
mode of making a living, his mode of taking care
of things, and he distributed the meat to me, which was
a. What he was going to actually be doing the rest of his life is
distributing to the people what he had. And
if you don't have the authority to do that, how could you
go and do that? So that tells me something about Elisha. It tells
me he was a servant. He chose the 12th
yoke. Guys, sometimes we need to be mindful
of choosing the 12th yoke. Sometimes we're so
quick to want to grab hold of that front thing that we
lose the power of walking in the 12th place.
That's a whole other teaching. But anyway, and
Elijah goes toward Elisha, and Elisha knew
him. I mean, everything that I read in Scripture tells
me this. Our mantles often define us.
When Elisha. When
Elijah there was a king and he had fallen through the
window, he had fallen through the latticework at his house, and he
wanted somebody to tell him if he was going to live or die.
And. And so he sends a guy, and the
guy comes back and he says, I want you to go and treat of Beelzebub.
I want you to go and treat. And I want you to find out if
I'm going to die. And the guy comes back, says, you going to die?
And he said, who told you that? And he said, well, there was a man,
and he had this Cloak. He had this cloak. And he begins
to describe this cloak of Elijah. It's called an
Atarath, and it is a cloak that is doubly wide. The
prophet's cloak was doubly wide. I think it's really interesting, though,
because we're going to jump back to Elisha in a minute. So that king
didn't like the answer, so he sent 50 men to go back and
inquire. Well, you remember that story about the fire
and stuff that Kevin. Well, okay, they went through, like, three sets of
50 men. And every time Elijah would send back, yes,
he was going to die, but there were no men to carry the word back
anyway. And finally, the third group goes.
And the leader falls on his face before Elijah and says, don't kill
us. Don't kill us. But the
king wants to know, and he's like, you're going to die anyway. So they go
back and tell the king, and he goes, what did he look like, this man?
He said, well, he had this cloak, and he had a leather belt in it.
And the king goes, oh, that was Elijah.
Did you know sometimes we're known by the mantles we wear, the
mantles we carry. That's why when you're with somebody and they go, oh, you
know, it's, you know, Chelsea. It's Chelsea. You know, she's the one who
sings here. She's the one who carries this. She's the one. And you begin to
describe the mantle that she carries. And a lot of times,
that's what we're known by. Right? That's why it's so hard to let it go.
Anyway, so here we see
Elisha in the field and Elijah coming toward him,
which, by my way of thinking, if kings knew
what Elijah was wearing, chances are the people in the field knew
as well. Oh, I love this. I want to be on a tin roof porch
right now.
And so what we see Elijah do with this cloak
that he has, it's not the picture. It's not the picture of him going
out into the field, grabbing Elisha, taking
his cloak off, and throwing it over him. This prophet's
atarath, it had a leather belt around the prophet's waist,
and there was a wing. It was doubly wide. And the
picture that this paints is that he would go and he would throw
that mantle around. Elisha didn't
say he gave it to him, because if he'd already given it to him, what
would be the point of him dropping it when he was. Anyway, we're just not
going to go there. Anyway, he throws it around him. And there's
a something about that. Knowing who Elijah was, knowing
what he carried, knowing that Elisha had to know that. It's.
It sparked all of these things in me. Because. Can I tell you something? When
you get close to somebody who carries a similar anointing, don't you feel it?
Don't you feel it? You don't even like it sometimes. It's
like when I was running from the Lord, like, really
intensely running from the Lord. I really hated to be around
teachers who taught the Word. It
was wonderful. And it was just because let me tell you,
Scripture tells us that eternity is written on the hearts of men.
Right? That's what Scripture says. So if you are a
teacher and you're running from the Lord and
you get around a good teacher, I feel like God just goes,
let's touch the eternity on her heart for a minute. Let's just
mess with this for a minute. And. And you walk around going,
oh, God. Because he
stirs us up. And I believe that when
Elisha felt that covering
of Elijah the prophet come around him, I believe there was something in
him that just quickened and went, ah, I know what this
means. I know what it means. And see,
God will give us glimpses of our calling through the mantles worn by others.
Have you ever. Have you seen that? Have you experienced that?
Oh, I really. I just. Ugh, the way that he does
that. That's why we have to share what the
Lord has done. And sometimes, guys, in order to chase and in order to
go do what God is calling us to do, sometimes we just gotta burn the
yoke. Sometimes we just gotta burn the yoke and go, okay,
this is what I expected to do the rest of my life. This is
what I thought I was supposed to do, and it was a good thing. But,
Lord, I have received a word from. From you. And I want to order my
life according to the word that I have received, not according to what I
assumed. I don't want to live my life based
on an assumption. I want to live my life based
on a word from the Lord. And so Elisha
lays it all down and goes to follow Elijah.
Now, see, there's a different kind of relationship that takes place
here. To me, discipleship is not a casual
relationship. It is intentional in purpose and
deliberate in focus. I have messed up some
relationships in my life by not allowing God to
define them. Sometimes.
Sometimes I have wanted a friend so bad that
I've cultivated a friendship that had nothing to do with discipling
and that's all well and good if that's what God has called you to be
in their life as their best friend. Man, I need. I've got a wonderful
bestie, but I have
blown it at times because someone that I was
called to disciple and speak into their life and lead toward the Lord,
I led toward me and lost the authority to speak
into their lives. And I know, I mean, people may
feel differently about this, but I believe consecration lives looks different
for people who step into teaching roles. That's why
I didn't want to do it anyway.
But I believe consecration and being set apart for a purpose and a
goal is important. And I believe as a leader, it's
extremely important that you allow the Lord to
define the role of the relationships in your life. Because we
can do much harm and we can do much good. And I
want to do good in those relationships anyway.
In our desire to create and accommodate friendships, we have the potential to lose
disciples. That could just be for me.
That could just be for me. Because I know of one particular instance in my
life that God had called me to pour into a person, and I
loved this person as a friend instead of
leading them more toward the Lord and lost a level of
authority with them. So I'm just going to leave that with you guys to deal
with. And it's not just guys. It's not
just, oh, well, I'm not a pastor. I'm not a this or that. What about
at your work? What about at your work? Are you
creating relationships where you have no authority to speak into their
life because the life you live in front of them is not necessarily in
keeping with the life that you live here? Are
you pouring into the lives of the people that are around
you? Here was the kicker. Elijah
discipled and Elisha served and was known for it. You know
what's so funny to me is the minute that that cloak
went around Elisha, the minute that he.
It went around him, you know, that he knew that he had
just been called into office of a
prophet, but he hadn't yet received the anointing
of a prophet. And so now, knowing that he's a
prophet, he went and he held his first prophetic
conference.
Happens every day. No, you know what he
did? It said he went and he became an attendant for
Elijah. He went and he served because that's what he
did to the point that that's what he's known for. And you're like, oh, what
did. Did he serve? Like, you know, six months of an
apprenticeship? Oh, no. What about a Year. Maybe
a year. No. Two years. Three
years, Four years. Nope.
He served almost a decade. Just following,
you know, just following and learning the lessons of
the mantle. Learning what God and being allowed.
And see, he could have gone, oh, yeah, I
am basically tonto to
Elijah. You know, I am his right hand. But that wasn't what he was
known for. It wasn't what he was known for. Here's the. Look at this. Look
at this right here. Jehoshaphat
asked, is there a prophet of the Lord here that we may inquire of the
Lord through him? An officer of the king of Israel answered, elisha,
son of Shaphat is here. He used to pour water
on the hands of Elijah. Jehoshaphat
said, the word of the Lord is with him now. You
want to know what's really interesting about this is that
Elisha had already parted the rivers. He
had already parted the waters. He had already
healed the waters of Jericho. And so when this man
was asked, you know, is there someone we can inquire of? Oh, well, yeah, there's
this guy. And he parted the waters, and he healed all the waters of
Jericho. No, because that's not what the Lord wanted him
to be known for. He was known for the way that he
served. He poured water on the
hands of Elijah. You know, one of the things my mommy used to do all
the time, she'd say, take him a cup of water. Take him a cup of
water. If we had guest speakers or if we had guest singers, take him a
cup of water. And I knew why she made me do that. Cause she didn't
want to. No, I'm kidding. She made me do
that because she knew that Scripture said, if you give a prophet
so much as a cup of water, you receive a prophet's
reward. What if you serve
one for 10 years? What if you just get in there and
serve? Not with the goal of, oh, eventually they're going to quit and I'm going
to get their position. You might, but you might not.
But 10 years of a prophet's reward,
and it wasn't a big thing. If you will go and do this, and you
will do this, and you will do this. Give them a cup of water.
Give them a cup of water. Guys, we are losing the
ability to teach our children to drive the 12th set of
plows. We are losing it. There's something
in us that you know. A reward for everything.
Now, this could get a little bit messy, so I'm gonna talk
to Bo. Anyway, listen,
I believe in giving kids an allowance so they Got some, as my
mama would call it. They need some walking around money anyway, so she'd slide a
dollar into their pocket. But we shouldn't have to pay our
kids to do chores at our house. They live there.
That's your food they're eating. That's your bed they're sleeping in.
Yes, bless them. Give them some money. Walking around money to do
something, but don't pay them because they live in your house
and you want them to put their own cup in the dishwasher.
Jesus, help me, oh, Lord. Now let's
take that one step forward. Love, big
live truth. Healthy family.
Family. This is your house. This is your
house. We need your help. We
need your help. If we had the opportunity, man,
we would give you everything that we have, but we just need your
help as family. Find a place to serve.
It will do you so much good. It will do us
so much good. Because I know what comes
from serving. I know the benefits we get
from serving. We have that opportunity
to just serve. Just serve. And
guys, listen, if you serve in close proximity to someone learning
long enough, you learn the secrets of the mantle. I
guarantee you that Sue Cole could do my job in a heartbeat.
She would hate it, but she would do it.
She knows what I do day to day. She knows what
has to be done, and she does it so
faithfully. And Keith is like, okay, we're doing that today. And I'm like,
I'm so grateful for their role in my life.
It wasn't an intentional thing. God just brought her along. And her
heart has always been to serve. To
serve. But let me tell you something. She's not serving me. She's serving
him. She's serving him.
Serving in close proximity reveals the responsibility and requirements of the
mantle. You can stand afar off for a long time and never
understand what's going on here. You know, you hear people go, oh, I want to
be a. I think I want to be a. A youth pastor. I want to
be a youth pastor. Do they, James?
Do they, Dana? Until you've walked
in there, she's not a mile, eight,
ten years. Then you might get a glimpse. I want to be a
children's pastor. Really?
I'm tired just saying her name.
I tell you what, the way that Sherry served these
kids this week, and it wasn't just one thing. The whole
team just knocked it out of the park.
And they are. Notice I said, they are tireless.
I just stood off and going, bless them, Jesus. You know,
Woo. Go. Until you walk
beside the mantle for an extended period of Time. You have no idea what
you're asking for. And see, here, here's the thing. You gotta
stay. You gotta stay. Nowhere in Scripture
do I see Elijah going. Has anybody seen Elisha?
He was supposed to be here today. I don't know. Something going on with
his family. No, he was there. He was there
because God was doing something. Elijah and Elisha had a
word from the Lord, and they were not going to stop until it was
fulfilled, until Elijah was completed. What word are you standing
on? What has God told you? Are you going to see
it out to the end?
Comes toward the end. And the prophets tell Elisha,
God's going to take your master away today.
And Elijah. Elisha says, I know, I know. And
Elijah says, stay here. I'm going to go over here.
And Elisha says, nope,
nope, I'm not going. As surely as the
Lord lives and you live, I will not leave you. I
will not leave you. Does that not sound like Naomi and Ruth? For just a
minute there, I will not leave you. And the prophets come again. And they say,
God's going to take your master away from you. And he's like, I know, I
know. Stay here, Elisha. No, I'm
going with you. Three times. Three times. And
finally, the last time, the prophecy. He's going to take your master away today. And
Elisha says, I know, but be
quiet, be quiet.
Because his heart had come to trust in this man of God that God had
put over him. And he was on this journey through to the end with
him. And so
Elijah asked him, what do you want? What do you want? What
can I give you? And Elisha says, I want a double portion of what you
have. I want a double portion of your spirit. Let me tell you something. It
wasn't because Elisha wanted to do twice the miracles. It
wasn't because he wanted to be more greatly known than Elijah. It was
because he loved what he saw of God in
this man of God. And he's like, let me continue it. Let me take
it forward. Let me take it down this field. And I prayed that
I could do doubly because of what you've
lain here. Take it on. And then we see
the sweetest thing happen as they
were walking along. I want you to see this in your spirit. They were walking
along and talking together. Suddenly, a chariot of fire and
horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them.
And Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind.
Elisha saw this and cried out, my father.
My father. And Elijah saw him no more.
Then he took hold of his own garment and
he tore it in two. He tore it in two.
And he picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah at that moment.
Elisha tore his cloak. He tore it in
mourning. He tore it to go. Things will never be the
same. Who I was in that moment no longer exists. It's
irreparable, this thing that has happened. And in that
moment, I believe he laid aside the
cloak of a servant, minister,
apprentice, and he picked up the
mantle of the prophet. It he
served and did. And guys, listen.
Kingdom transition should advance the kingdom until he returns.
And he is going to return. We're supposed to continue
what he has done. And we're getting ready to sing this song again
because of this.
This is what I believe.
First Corinthians 15. Listen very
carefully. I tell you a mystery, a secret truth
decreed by God and previously hidden. We will not
all sleep in death, but we shall all be
changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at
the sound of the last trumpet call. For a trumpet will sound and the
dead in Christ, Christ will rise. Then it says right here, therefore,
Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be
steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work
of the Lord. Always doing your best and doing more. Being
continually aware, continually aware
that your labor in the Lord is not futile
or wasted. It is never without purpose.
My prayer for you is that you
would soar. That you would soar
one day, that you would go to be with him,
to go and join those that have gone on before the
lineage. Guys, if it isn't true, if it
isn't true, my mother and your mother and
Pastor Harvey and Pastor Margaret and
Simon, Peter, Andrew, James, Philip, Thomas,
Matthew, Bartholomew, all of them.
All of them. Was it wasted?
Was it futile? Or did they pass that baton to us and
ask us, will you carry it forward? Will you carry it
forward? Because I tell you this and you can stand.
If he walked out of the grave. We're walking too.
We're walking too. And that's what we're going to sing here for a minute, I'm
going to offer you a blessing. And then we are going to make a declaration
here at the end. And guys,
grab hold of it in your spirit. Let's continue
the legacy. Let's continue the charge. Let's make the
disciples. Let's complete the work. Let's pass the
baton and walk out. Can I offer you a blessing? Blessing. May the God
and Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ continue
to remind you that the story does not end here. May
he continue to give you the upward draw that lets you know
that eternity awaits. And Father, may we
anticipate all that you have in Jesus name.
Amen. Amen. Let's go. We're going to sing. Just for a minute.