Elijah and Elisha

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.