Standing On the Mantle

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I'm gonna ask Pastor Joe to come out here since we're talking about upward.

And I wanted to just share with you and encourage before you.

The system that goes on here is much bigger than Sunday morning, and being able to uh reach out to people who come and then push them towards a spore and just continue connecting with folks is important.

So I wanted y'all to know, and Joe, I'm so proud of you, you did a great job.

And uh today, actually, today, yesterday, Pastor Joe turned 30.

Love you.

He likes hugs, but he likes dollars better.

Just I'm not kidding.

Uh Adam West had a birthday this week, so if you see him around here, make sure that you wish him a happy birthday.

And uh anyways, it's been a good week here and uh glad to have our team back.

I I didn't know last Sunday that just a few of them were here, but Deidra Brown and the team that went to Honduras are all back, and I saw some great pictures of the ministry that they had there through prescription for a hurting world.

And uh anyway, thank you guys for your service.

I know the Greater Family and the Dennis, there was a bunch of people out there, and uh they built several pews for a church and dug in and did some great ministry.

So glad to have you guys back and thank you for serving.

If you're interested in missions, uh stay tuned.

Uh Deidra, I think she told me of four other trips going on to get ready to go to Romania.

And we know we got the mission serve coming up this summer.

So a lot going on around here at CCW.

Take your Bible to 2 Kings chapter 2, and we're gonna be looking at just what Pastor Dave shared.

2 Kings 2 · chapter mention

Let me even read the verse for that.

2 Kings 2, verse 14.

2 Kings 2:14

Just a part of that verse that says, Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him.

That is, Elisha took the mantle that had fallen from Elijah.

A mantle, what is that?

It's a cloak made of fine material, sometimes fur, and then it's worn for protection.

Uh the Hebrew word is adarath, and that's interesting.

The Hebrew word means glory or magnificence.

Symbolically, in 1 Kings, it's the passing or empowering of an important assignment, a glorious assignment.

And so Elijah is passing down to Elisha this physical mantle, but it's a picture of much more than that.

I got thinking about that.

My daughter Callie is a runner, and she runs in a race.

You might see some pictures come up of her.

I might get in trouble, I'm not sure.

And uh, Callie runs in a race called the 4x100 in uh one of the specialties.

And last year, in fact, in this area, came second to only Hoover in that race.

Hoover, which has 3,000 students, Chelsea, which has 1,300 students.

It's an incredible thing that they did last year in running that race.

But in that race, if I'm right, there's a baton that's passed from runner to runner throughout the race.

And I want you to understand that in that race, you can go, I mean, as fast as possible.

But if that baton is dropped, it messes up everything.

And in that race, you have your part, and you've got to do your part, and you run your part.

But if you don't pass off the baton, it can end right then and there.

It is so important in that race that that part is done.

And you can watch, you can Google, I did some this week.

Some Olympic level athletes that made it to the final part, going towards the gold, have dropped the baton, ending that race.

And it ended right there.

What I want today is you to understand, everyone here, it cannot end with you and I.

Will you pray with me?

Father, we love you.

We thank you for the opportunity.

God, that we have to gather here in your name, under your word, and we ask, God, for your Holy Spirit's breath to fall on us.

God, as Elisha sought for that spirit, God, so do we.

God, we pray that you would visit with us today and teach us from your book.

God, there's somebody here, God, who's already counted it out.

And God, I know that, Lord, you can do a work, you can pierce through that heart.

God, and I just pray that you would move us to being changed.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Second Kings, we'll start at uh chapter 2, verse 1 through 6.

And I want you to see the first point this morning is walk with men of God.

And it came to pass when the Lord was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.

Then Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel.

But Elisha said, As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

So they went down to Bethel.

Now the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, Do you not know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today?

And he said, Yes, I know.

Keep silent.

Then Elijah said to him, Elisha, stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Jericho.

But he said, As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

So they came to Jericho.

Now the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came to Elijah and said, Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today?

And he answered, Yes, I know.

Keep silent.

Then Elijah said to him, Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Jordan.

And I wanted you to see that progression of walking.

Now I thought this week, of the godly men that God has placed in my life.

And they got me thinking all the way back to my very first church, and and I'm not saying that all these men mentored me, but God allowed me the influence of them in my life.

The very first church I went to was Pastor Persinger's church, and it was under that ministry that I came to know the Lord as Savior.

And the next ministry was both my church and my Christian school, and it was founded by a man named E.

L.

Britton.

E.L.

Britton wrote The Providence of God and died at 101 years of age, 70 years that he was in the same ministry that was built by he and his wife's hand in their garage.

And that was the influence that God gave me by that ministry.

Dr.

Lee Robertson was the president of Tennessee Temple University, has written a book and Faith of the Family Journal, there he's pictured.

And you'll hear this famous quote everything rises and falls on leadership.

That's a Dr.

Lee Roberts quote.

And for many years in their heyday, Tennessee Temple was the largest Christian university in the United States.

And God allowed us the opportunity, Heather and I to hear him preach in his 90s while we were on that university campus.

And after that, um, I came home to Delaware after that and was shepherded for the first time that I remember seeing a shepherd's eyes.

I don't know if you experienced something like this, but Pastor Ed Lasco loved in such a way that you felt it in every conversation.

He would always say to me, Hello, Rick Wright.

And he would talk to everyone that way.

He said their full name and he would look in my eyes, and he was so loving and caring.

It was such an important time of the Moday.

And it was in that church that God called me into ministry through the working and internship.

I fell in love with it.

And so we went to that church, and from there we went to Calvary Baptist Church, where God allowed me to serve along Pastor John Reynolds.

I've got a picture here that is the 60 years of this church, and it goes through the history and lots of godly men and heritage in that church and just uh a special time in our life, and God called us from there to the church at Chelsea Wester.

I don't know if you know, Pastor Danny Lovett wrote a book called The Rod of the Spirit, wrote a couple of other uh good books, and I read this before I ever really knew him.

And God has allowed me to rub elbows with some really important people, some shepherds and godly influences.

And I want you to know this, whether it's that person or Heather and I sat with a 90 or an almost 80-year-old pastor, I'm sorry, on Friday night, and I cried two times at the table because of the influence of this man.

He had no idea.

These people just pouring in an hour and a half of their time.

And I want you to know you have influence, and you need to walk with godly people.

The thing about all those people, I want to be near godliness.

Every month I text or call two pastors that are peers of mine and check on them.

Two older pastors pray for me every week.

Every week I get a text from a pastor on Sunday morning.

I get a text every day checking on my biblical accountability.

And so I desire to walk with men of God.

Do you desire to walk with godly people?

Letter A is that walk with people.

In verse, I want you to go back in 1 Kings and I want you to see something in 1 Kings chapter 19.

1 Kings 19 · chapter mention

Where this all started, if you recall, Elijah was crying because of his life and his situation, and he was afraid from Jezebel, and he went running.

In verse 14 of 1 Kings 19, it says, And he said, I've been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken your covenant, tore down your altars, and killed your prophets with a sword.

I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.

Then the Lord said to him, Go return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, anoint Hezeel, and also you should anoint Jehu and Elisha.

Important, you can underline that, Elisha.

In verse 19, it says, So he departed from there and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was the twelve.

And then Elijah, listen to this, passed by him and threw his mantle on him.

Elijah and Elisha found each other at an important time in their ministry and life.

Elijah, we go back, remember, we're going to get somewhere.

Elijah, his name means God is Jehovah.

God is God.

And he was crying.

He says, I am alone in this mission, and God sends help.

Interesting, the name Elisha, Eli Shua, is God's salvation.

Somebody needs help.

God says, I will send you help.

If you break down the name Elisha, salvation in the Hebrew is to help.

He says, I need help, and God sent him help.

And he threw the mantle on him.

And from go, Elisha was fully in.

He followed.

There are people today, I want you to know, they're waiting to be walked with.

How many in this room are under 40?

Raise your hand.

Take a look around.

I'm under 42, so I count.

I'm 42, so I count.

Keep your hand up.

I need everybody to look around and see.

If you're older than them, you have something to offer by way of life and experience.

It's many hands in this room.

That's what I expected.

Everyone needs somebody.

And discipleship is walking with someone through scriptures and then life.

I have not parented teenagers before this time of my life.

I need an expert.

Is there any in the house?

Yes, I understand a lot of God's word, but I don't understand a lot of that.

Man, I don't know how to fix a lot of things.

There's some experts out here.

Listen, I need you.

We need each other.

Discipleship is walking with people.

Ephesians 4 16 says this about the whole body and everybody's gifts.

The whole body joined and held together.

Listen, by every joint according to the effective work by which everyone does, and it causes growth for the entire body and encourages.

It edifies everyone taking their part.

I've said before from this pulpit, every 80-year-old, listen, every 80-year-old needs to be invested in every 60-year-old.

And every 60-year-old needs to be invested in a 40-year-old, and a 40-year-old into the 20-year-old, into the 15-year-old, all the way down.

We all need this investment in our life.

Jesus was asked the greatest commands, and he said, number one, love the Lord your God.

And the second, he says, love your neighbor like yourself.

That means walking with people.

You can't love people if you're not going to walk with people.

The mission of CCW is love God, love people.

Serving at home and abroad.

You say, but Pastor, I love my job, but I just can't deal with people.

How many times have we heard this?

I got bad news.

If you're going to navigate planet Earth, you're going to have a hard time with the 7 billion people.

We're in the people business if you're breathing.

So walking with people.

Well, let's see how that walk went about.

They walked with progress.

Elisha and Elijah.

Elijah was coming to the end of his life on earth and they walked through a stage of things that mean something.

They went to some places.

The first place you see is Gilgal.

Gilgal is a picture of a place of new beginnings.

Do you remember when you started somewhere new?

There's some brand new visitors here today.

When you start somewhere new, you need new friends to walk with, to do life with.

When I went to Tennessee Temple University, I remember being brand new.

I had two people that I knew on that campus, and I walked into registration.

And listen, immediately I saw a guy over there, his name was Heath, and he was good looking, and he had a six-pack, and I did not like him from the gate.

I was like, this is not gonna be a good experience.

There's already people way better than me.

But I found out quickly, my circle of friendships changed immediately.

I made new friends at a new place.

You know, when I started living for God, my friendships begin to change.

There's a new place.

If you have not gotten any closer to God, it might be because God wanted you to go to Gilgal, a new place, but you stayed over here trying to graduate fifth grade level, and you would not move from this place when God had something new for you, new friendships, new.

He makes all things new.

And you did not want to graduate.

In fact, when I was a youth pastor, there was a student in youth ministry for almost a year that came in and sat with the other students, and I finally was awkward, but I had to take him out to lunch and have a talk with him because the college students had moved on, but this one had not.

And I'm like, hey man, listen, we're all awkward talking.

We have this college and career class, this awesome opportunity.

Like, it'd be different if he was coming to the youth group and he was helping, but he was just sitting and it was kind of awkward and a little creepy, okay?

I'm like, no, you graduated.

It's time to move on.

But he wasn't having it.

And I think for some of us, God calls us to progress, but we hadn't graduated, we hadn't heard the call.

There's people in their 50s and 60s, and you should be mentoring, you should be counseling with others, but you've kept in the same place.

There's some people here that you needed to graduate and you've kept on sinning.

Listen, stop.

We need you with that mantle.

Stop, sir.

Stop, ma'am.

Be the one to carry us to the next place.

Well, the next place they went on their journey was Bethel.

Bethel is a place where God has met with you.

Elijah and Elisha traveled to Bethel.

Do you remember the places that you got close to people because you were together in an experience?

When I think of Bethel, I think of camp experiences.

For 17 years, God allowed me and Heather to work with students and have these camp experiences.

And then I thought about there's things that Heather and I have went through together, and God spoke to us in the same place at the same time.

And we were closer to one another because we have experienced spiritual things that way.

Have you ever gone home and you discussed the sermon and you said, man, God was speaking to me.

So yeah, me too.

Same thing.

And it was a place of progress.

Bethel was a reminder, God was in this place.

Well, they go from Bethel to Jericho.

Elijah and Elisha, Jericho is the place of great victories.

You might call this place being in a circle and together seeing someone come to Christ.

Might call this the prayer meeting group that meet together and see, you know, the connect group that meets together and sees God answer these requests, or it might be the mission trip team that went together and did something.

Their faith became action, and together they bonded over the mission of Jesus Christ.

By the way, when I think about Jericho and getting to that point, the road there comes with a lot of losses.

Lots of practice, lots of mistakes.

And as friendship goes walking with people, hear me today.

You're no friend if your friend upsets you and you cut them off and you're done with them.

If your friend hurts you and you don't get it right because we're human and humans fail, and as you walk this life together, some of that's gonna happen.

Friends forgive.

In marriage, if you don't do that, it's called divorce.

In the job, they call you a deadbeat.

Right?

You're a quitter.

Friends fall, but we help each other get up.

Why?

For progress together.

Ecclesiastes 3 names off a time and a season for all kinds of things.

28 things, in fact, that it says there's a time and season for this.

But there's not one time or one season for quitting.

We continue running that race.

Jericho happens, that victory happens when you don't quit.

Success is when you get up one more time than you failed and you keep on with one another.

And that unity.

Hear me, church.

Falling is not failing.

Staying if you've fallen is failing.

There are people who have decided to quit on a friend, and I want you to think on that today.

A secret to the success of CCW is keeping that fire of unity, being united in the bond of Jesus Christ, being and deciding to be that friend.

And hear me, crossing the aisle.

Listen, we're not about a church being in a circle and that's it.

Us four and no more.

We're about a church that's a body, a family, a fellowship.

Look, meander a little bit.

We're not closing things down after church.

You don't have to get.

I know you're hungry.

Save somebody else that seat, too.

If we're gonna walk together, I believe at some point, because of that, we'll see the walls start to tumble down.

And we'll get to the place of victory.

Jordan, where they went to last, is the finish line.

And we see we they walked together.

The second thing I want you to notice this morning is a want to minister to God's people.

A want to minister.

Look there at verse 2.

It's interesting.

2, the second part of 2, 4, and 6 we're gonna look at.

It doesn't always happen like this in the Bible when something repeats itself over and over, take notice.

The second part of two, it says, But as Elisha said, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

So they went to Bethel.

Four, same thing.

As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

So they came to Jericho.

Six, but as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

See, he had a want and a desire to minister, Elisha did right there with his friend.

Letter A is this training a devoted replacement.

Hear me.

Are you training a devoted replacement?

The easy way is to just do the work.

How many parents say, Amen?

Have you ever had to get your kid to clean their room?

It is definitely easier and better if you do it.

You will do it better.

You will do it right.

You have never let you down in that progress.

It is harder to train someone than it is to just do the work.

Because you can always count on you.

You always have.

You don't have to follow up with you.

You don't have to argue with you.

You have always worked for you.

When you train someone, it's hard work.

Hear me, church.

Hard things are good things.

And I gotta tell you, this has been eating my lunch all week long.

I'm confessing, I understand this.

It's hard, though.

It's hard.

But the Bible says, train up a child in the way he should go.

When he is old, he will not depart from it.

I thought about my training.

For nine years, I was trained at the Calvary Baptist Church.

Y'all, one time, Pastor John, and hear me, I didn't go to school to become a pastor.

God started working through all those doors later, so my training on how to do some things was just like in the school of hard knocks.

But I did, God developed in me this desire to preach pretty early.

And I know it was garbage at first.

It's by the grace of God, anything that happens today that's good is him.

But I know that it was really bad at one point.

Okay?

But I started asking John, can I preach?

John at first, listen, he would not let me introduce a guest speaker.

He videoed himself introducing a guest speaker while he was gone.

And showed, I'm like, I can't even say this is so-and-so.

He comes on and his office had plants and stuff in the background that was never there.

I was like, what is going on?

This man brought in a TV station.

I couldn't even hold a mic.

And so after a while, one time in particular, John called me, and uh, I was already at church.

It was eight something.

I was getting ready to start Sunday school.

He said, Rick, I'm sick.

I'm gonna need you to preach this morning.

I'm like, so I'm almost about to start Sunday school.

I I get a replacement to do my class, and I'm that took some work.

I get that taken care of.

I get up to my office.

There's like 45 minutes, and I'm like, Lord, bring it, whatever it is.

And I get in and I'm like, two points in, and it's just God is throwing it to me.

And I get a phone call and I look down, I'm like, oh, okay.

This is I said, hello?

He said, This is John Rick.

I've been healed.

I'm gonna preach.

And I'm like, no, I'm so glad you're feeling better, Pastor.

Y'all was really sad.

About two weeks ago, I called Dave and I was feeling really bad, and I was trying not to call him.

But Heather said, You better call him.

It ain't fair not to give somebody notice.

And I said, but it might it might get better.

It might get all day, five o'clock, Sunday's the next day.

I'm like, that's that's time.

So I call him and I'm like, give me an hour.

And the first day was like, oh man, I don't really want to do it, I want you to do it.

And then 15 or 20 minutes went and he said, Rick, this is awesome.

Should I go ahead and do it?

And I was like, give me a few more, just let me.

And I'm telling you, in that time space, the headache that I had had all day started to dissipate, and I'm like, no, I feel like garbage.

And I had to call him back.

I said, Dave, I'm I'm good.

And I was I know he was like, that's great.

But I really know what he was feeling.

I went through nine years of training, right?

And then I was thinking about some of the things I learned at that church.

I went to seminary, and listen, there were some things that they never taught you about being a pastor.

At Calvary Baptist Church, they never, listen, in seminary, they never taught you about being a bodyguard.

John was squirrely, but he would always bring in the muscle.

And I know some of you are laughing at that.

But we had nine rental properties for that church, and so nobody tells you about pastoral landlording, right?

And we would have to go and collect money from shady people who were renting church properties.

And so John came one day in particular, he said, I need you to come with me, so I go there.

And I'm just I'm sitting there like Donovan.

I'm be I'm just gonna try to be the muscle.

And the guy, the guy's, the guy is lit.

He is drunk at 11 o'clock.

Okay, so I don't know what breakfast was like, but he's just he starts staring at me.

And he looks at me and he says, What are you looking at?

I couldn't lie.

I said, I'm looking at you.

And he said, You're not even a real pastor, you're a fake pastor.

Why are you here?

And I was like, bless God, I'm about to have to knock somebody out in the name of Jesus.

John, all kinds of crazy things that happened in church that listen, there's no training, but for nine years I was there.

For six more years, God called us here, and I youth pastored.

Hear me, 15 years at 40, I was like, Rudy.

Y'all seen the movie Rudy?

Just let me in, coach.

Pastor Danny would be like, hey, Rick, and I'd be like, hey Rick, do you want me to preach?

Like, I'm ready to let loose.

How many of you have trained 15 years for your job?

Anybody?

Like, let me in.

And so y'all notice I haven't had a lot of guest speakers.

I got a lot.

I got a lot.

But these two, Elijah and Elisha, I want you to see this.

Look at verse 8 and 9.

It says something important together.

Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, struck the water, and it was divided this way and that, so that the two, hear that, the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

Verse 9.

So it was when they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, ask what I may do for you.

The two of them, together, they crossed over.

It was together.

Your first call, church, hear me.

If you've got children, that's your first call in passing this mantle.

Together, you pass that.

If you got grandkids, hear me today.

Your grandkids, if you got nieces and nephews, who is going to pass the mantle onto them?

God gave us built-in training centers.

Matthew 28, 19 says, go make disciples of all people, baptizing them and listen, teaching them in everything.

We're called to that.

It's not a question.

That is the great commission for every person.

If you're in here and you're a lawyer, if you're a plumber, you're a doctor, whatever it is, that is our call.

Are you passing that baton?

Are you working with that?

Commentators describe this interaction between Elijah and Elisha as one of two things.

Either Elijah was unsure of God's will for Elisha, if it should continue, or it was a test from teacher to pupil.

Stop here, as the Lord lives, I'm not going to stop.

Stop here as the Lord lives, I'm going with you.

Stop here.

He continued with him.

He said, I'm not leaving you.

I told Heather once, if she ever leaves me, just pack me a bag because I'm coming too.

If she's disgusted with me, you can guarantee I'm disgusted with me and I'm coming.

Teaching someone to walk with God.

And hear me, y'all have a gift.

If your gift ends with you, then it ends.

Do you understand that?

God's given you a gift to this life and to this world.

It's not just about a job or a paycheck.

God's given you something.

If it ends with you, it ends.

Elisha didn't want to miss one God thing.

And he knew this: that the Spirit of God was with his mentor, and he said, If you're going, I'm going.

If there's a God work, I want to be there.

Are you like that today?

If God's at work, do you want to be with it?

There's a whole lot of things we'll go and follow.

If there's this at work over here, I go and do that.

If there's this over here, I'm real interested in that thing.

But if God's at work, well, that was the training letter B.

We see treating with deserved respect.

Don't you look back at verse 3 and 5 for a moment?

Treating with deserved respect.

You'd miss this if you just passed by it.

Verse 3, it says, Now the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elijah and said to him, Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?

Listen to this.

He said, Yes, I know.

Keep silent.

Again, it happens again in verse 5.

This repeating, do you know the Lord will take away your master?

He said, Yes, I know.

Keep silent.

Elisha knew that this was a special moment for his teacher.

And twice he says, Yes, I know.

Silent.

That word is hasa in the Hebrew, and it sounds like hush up to me.

And in fact, it means hush, where we get the word hush, hasa.

He said, silent.

He had a reverence for the one who taught him.

He had a reverence for the spirit of God moving.

I once kicked an adult out of a youth group because they wouldn't hush up.

I kicked the, they kept, they kept distracting the teenagers.

And by the way, y'all, I'm gonna help Joe out and anyone else that's running something in these buildings.

If your conversation is so important when someone else is talking that you have to talk, take it out somewhere.

We all think magically it goes away and people can't hear you.

Like it's this person's in the back and they begin to color and talk with other teenagers.

I said, You're probably gonna do better in kids' ministry, I bet.

And so they left.

He said, Hush up.

His respect for his teacher.

He had respect.

A part of walking and wanting to minister to God's people has to do with our respect.

Philippians 2, 3, listen, it says, let every man esteem others better.

Hear that, mark that, if you're in Philippians 2.3, better than himself.

Because the golden rule says we want to treat others as we would want to be treated.

But Paul said, Oh, wait up.

Respect others better than even what you want.

We're told in Romans, Paul said this way, outdo one another in showing honor.

Are you living in that way?

He said, respect.

Psalms 8.4 reminds us, David said, Who is man that thou art mindful of him?

How could God, in all of his brilliance, in all of his creation, want to be mindful or think on the things of man?

Everyone here, church, is created by God who never once made a mistake.

And he's mindful of you and I.

And James said this.

He said, The same tongue do we bless God and curse man his creation with.

That's not respect.

Be understanding, not demanding.

When people, listen to me, when people are rude, respond politely.

The Bible says, repay no man evil for evil.

Ephesians 4.29, it was our family verse for a year, it says, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is used to the edification or building others up.

If you're going to open up your mouth, build somebody, it says.

The power of words are really important when it comes to treating with respect and wanting to minister to God's people.

I want you to think on this.

The power of words.

You have the power to speak life to somebody, but yet many people here hold your words hostage.

Why would you withhold words of encouragement when you have the power of life in your words?

You have power to speak into somebody.

And the people that you say you love.

You've got this one chance to make the most of this life, and yet you keep inside you that what could bless somebody.

If Heather doesn't hear 10 million times that she's beautiful, it's my fault.

If Heather doesn't get told 10 million times that you're really good at that, even though she heard it 9,750, it's my fault.

If she doesn't hear 10 million times, I love you.

Why am I withholding what God's given me?

If my kids don't hear, you're really good at that.

Oh, they'll hear the bad stuff, won't they?

If I don't encourage, who is going to encourage?

If it's not me, then it's my fault.

Listen, I need you to do something.

I need everybody to stand up, okay?

Go ahead, go ahead, stand up.

I know this is church.

We're not supposed to do all this.

Some of you guys that are rebellious won't want to do it because the pastor said so.

I get that.

That's okay.

You can deal with God in a little bit.

I want you to walk around for the next two minutes, and I want you to encourage five people.

Go.

Just encourage.

Go! Don't stay.

Stay, don't get it done.

You got one minute if you were thinking about somebody, it's time.

Don't stay with that same person.

Five.

Thirty seconds.

Don't look around waiting.

Five, four, three, two, one.

Now come back to your seats.

Love you.

Love you.

If y'all could see the smiles in this room.

Now, for some of you, this is this is amazing.

The roar in here was pretty amazing.

I tried that at a business once, and about five people moved around.

I was like, I already know everybody's problem in this business.

The roar in here was awesome.

If you could not do that, by the way, you there's probably a struggle.

If you can't find a way to encourage people, there might be a struggle.

Hear me, the call for us to love God and love people means find people to love.

Care for God's people, call on God's people, bless God's people, pray for God's people.

And if you want to be overboard in any sense in your life, this is one way to be overboard.

Be a fanatic at encouraging.

I've said this before.

I've never sat across from a husband and wife, and the and the and a wife go, My husband, Pastor, he just encourages too much.

I'm done with all these kind words.

Sick of it.

It's amazing.

I seek out people that make me smile.

Many of you shook a hand on the way in today.

That man makes people smile.

Do you?

Point number three this morning.

Wear the mantle of godliness.

Verse 9 and 10 we saw.

It says, and so it was when they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, Ask what I may do for you before I'm taken away from you.

Elijah said, Please let me have a double portion of your spirit.

So he said, You have asked a hard thing.

Nevertheless, if you see me when I'm taken from you, it shall be so for you.

But if not, it shall not be so.

Letter A, Elijah saw a double measure.

He just saw it.

He stayed with his mentor, he walked with his mentor, he'd seen the works of God, and he saw letter A double meant a double measure.

I was thinking this week, uh, cool hand Luke, Luke Roper, is my uh he's my go-to on all things football.

So I texted Luke the other day.

I said, Luke, I need you to tell me something about the Packers.

He's a Packers fan.

I said, I need you to talk to me about Mike Holmgren.

We got a picture of Mike Holmgren's gonna come up with Andy Reed.

But Luke, Luke was my go-to on this.

And if you look at these guys, it's kind of funny.

It's like Mike Holgren, the guy on, well, I don't know which side he is for you.

He's on the on the far right.

He picked a guy to assist him that was his twin.

Right?

It's like, I like the way you look.

You're gonna work with me.

Seven seasons they worked together, and here's what's interesting: they won a Super Bowl together.

The assistant, Andy Reid, when he left the coach that he was working with, went on to win three more Super Bowl titles.

Isn't that interesting?

The mentorship, what he learned there.

Isn't that interesting?

He took that mantle and continued with it.

Thanks, Luke, by the way.

I was thinking about this week, and uh there's some texts I want you to see.

Every Sunday morning for the past almost two years, I get some texts.

And uh, here's what those texts often look like.

But recently, this is what it's been saying, so I thought you need to see it.

Rick, I'm praying that God gives you a double portion of his spirit as you preach.

Go to the next one.

Rick, praying that God gives you a double portion of his spirit.

Rick, praying for you this morning as you preach that God gives you a double portion of his spirit.

Pastor Danny's been preaching me unbeknownst of all that's going on in this Elijah series.

He's watched some, but he's saying, I pray that God would give you a double portion.

Elijah, with respect to his mentee, Elisha, and due to his persistence of coming with him, says, All right, ask anything, son.

Ask anything, and I will see what I can do.

It made me think one time, Elisha's response is funny.

He says, I need a double, right?

I went in one time, I was so nervous, but I worked for Delaware Moving and Storage, and I felt like I was being overlooked financially.

And so I, as much as my 23-year-old self could muster the courage to go into the owners of this company, I was the dispatch manager for them, they owned it, and they were brothers.

It was like a brotherhood circle of people.

There were five of them that worked in that office.

And so I went to JD, the nicest.

And I was like, I need to have a meeting with you, JD.

I want to talk to you.

And uh he said, okay, what time?

We set up the meeting.

I go into the meeting, and what I definitely didn't want was any of the other brothers there.

And most of all, I didn't want his brother Jim to be there.

I walked in, there's JD and Jim sitting behind a desk.

Jim is like six foot five, hardly ever talks to anybody, just kind of looks at you.

You don't ever know if he likes you or likes the work.

I'm like, okay.

So I go in and I'm ready and I'm nervous and I'm shaking.

I'm like, I like to work for this company.

And uh, but this is, you know, I've been working here for seven years, and I'm just fumbling over words, and finally I spit out, I want more money.

And they look at me, and I'm telling you, the look that was on their faces reveals the same thought I think that Elijah had.

You ask a hard thing.

And I thought maybe I would walk out of that office with JD with like a check that you've seen on the price is right, a big old check.

We love you, Rick.

And when I saw Jim and as that conversation went, I'm like, oh man.

They said they said this with the worst possible words.

We'll get back to you on that.

And in one week's time, they got back to me and they said, Rick, we have decided, had it all written out, we have decided to up your pay by 50 cents an hour.

Woo! I made my way through two quarters per hour.

Thank you, Ina.

Are you impressed?

Six months later, God called us to Indiana for ministry, so there you go.

Elijah was an audacious dreamer.

And he asked God for a double spirit, a double rua is the Hebrew word for spirit.

That is breath of heaven.

He said, I need a double.

Have you ever been to a fast food restaurant and they go through your whole, you go through your whole order, and they say, Let me repeat that back to you?

Listen, I hate that.

I don't got time for that.

I just went through it once.

I'm counting on you to get it.

I don't need you to now say what I just said.

I just said it.

Duh.

And so this is what this is what I feel like.

It doesn't say it in the scripture this way, but I feel like Elijah was sitting there.

Elisha said what he wanted, and he said, Okay.

Let me repeat that back to you, Elisha.

God sent me to the king's face and told the king that there was going to be a drought, and there was going to be three and a half years, there was no rain and lane.

And then God sent me to a place called Karah, the brook that was cut off.

And when I went to Karah, I sat down and ravens came day and night and brought me meat and bread.

And I was in Careth, and I saw the miracles of God happen in that place.

And then God called me to a place called Zarephath.

And Zarephath, I went, and a widow picked me up, and I went to her house.

And as I went to the widow's house, God provided a never-ending jar of oil and cake.

We had cake day and night for weeks and weeks, and it never ran out.

And then you wouldn't believe it, her son died.

Her son died, but it wasn't for long because I prayed over him and God heard my prayer and then God resurrected.

The first time in the history of history, God resurrected the boy back to life.

And then I called out the prophets of Baal for a fire competition from their God or my God.

And God brought down fire and he licked up the altar and the stones and the dirt and the water and the oxen.

He licked up everything.

And then after that, listen to me, is this your and then after that, I called on God and I prayed and asked him to revive the land and give us rain again.

And you wouldn't believe it.

A mighty rush started coming out from a cloud, and we saw it.

And man, did it pour Elisha?

It poured.

And then we took off.

And you won't believe this.

When we took off running from it, God touched me and I ran 35 miles an hour down that hill.

And God, just to boot what just happened, we saw my mantle.

It split the water and we were able to cross it.

Does it sound like I got your order correct, sir?

He said, Yes, supersize it and make it a double.

Elijah said, You ask for a hard thing.

But if you see me taken away, it'll be granted.

If you see me, it'll be granted.

Well, letter B is this.

Elijah continued on because he served Elijah's master.

Look at verse 14 and 15.

So then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah?

And we had also struck the water, it was divided this way and that, and Elisha crossed over.

Now, when the sons of the prophets who were with him from Jericho saw, they said, The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.

And they came to meet him and bowed to the ground before him.

You see, Elisha watched as a chariot took his mentor up to heaven.

And that spirit of God fell.

Church, I thought about this.

We look forward often.

We're looking forward to the next thing often.

And I think we need to in ways.

But I want you to know God is at work right now.

God is at work at CCW right now.

And has been.

You can miss him.

You can look to problems that are going on and miss him.

You can look to the what-ifs and miss him.

You can look to the what was and miss him.

You can look to the what should be and miss him.

And he says, This I am.

I am the existing one right now.

Elisha said, I'm not going to miss one God thing.

I'm going with you.

And when he had his opportunity, he said, I want more of that God.

He's here right now, church.

He's been working in this church.

You can be filled with so many different things, so distracted.

Elisha would not.

He said, I'm with you.

I'm with you.

Wherever God's at, that's where I'm going to be at.

It doesn't matter all these other things.

He doesn't say in his scripture, if you seek me later, one day you're going to be old enough, students, and then you can seek me.

He says, if you seek me with your whole heart, I would submit that most people today are seeking some things with their whole heart.

Is it God?

Have you ever done a puzzle and you finished 999 pieces?

And yet you were looking for one more.

So this puzzle is not complete.

It's missing something.

And I want you to know Jesus is the peace.

P E A C E of life.

But listen, hear me.

He's not the final piece missing.

He's piece one, piece two, piece three, piece four hundred, piece seven hundred.

He is the puzzle.

John 14, 6, he doesn't say I'm a piece of life.

He says I am the way, the truth, the life.

What are we looking to for life?

He's all of it.

He said, When you seek me with your whole heart, you'll find me.

Sunday at 10 o'clock is not the whole heart.

It is a peace.

He's the whole deal.

For now and eternity past us.

The gospel in ten words, I was trained.

Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead.

That is for us.

John 3 16, you all know, but hear it again: for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believed in him would not perish but have what?

Everlasting life.

The whole deal.

For Elisha, this was both a heartbreaking and exciting day.

And the same day, Elisha had to let go of his friend, his mentor in the ministry, the person in the flesh that was a rock to him.

Anybody had people like that?

You lost someone that was a rock, and it was hard, and you had to make a choice.

Either I'm going to persevere on in that spirit, in that way, or it ends with them right there.

I lost a grandfather at 62 that was as spiritual at that point in his life as he had ever been.

There's some people here that I'm close to that lost people way young.

There's some people that have lost a rock in their life, and I have this question for you as you consider that.

Will anyone ever consider you the rock?

Will you be the mentor?

Will you be the one?

The best thing you can do in their name, in that legacy, is to carry that spirit forward.

Elisha said, I got it.

I'm gonna carry the best of Elijah and I'm gonna go and try my best to do even more.

You carry there, God.

Elisha received that Elijah's spirit, but what it really meant was he received the hand of God to walk him and continue in his life.

The best things, church, that my kids can ever do is to carry the Spirit of God continually through your life.

I thought about this.

Teenagers, hear me.

Someone here has to become a pastor, someone has to, someone has to be a missionary, students, young twenties, somebody has to teach Sunday schools and connect groups.

Someone has to do it.

If you don't do it, it ends here, and it cannot end, it has to move forward.

We need you.

So, church, I want you to bow your heads.

The race is set.

You're on your lap right now.

You're on your lap, and you can run it as fast and hard as you can, and we need you to.

We need you to run your lap so good, so well, that we're the one we're chasing for you.

You need to be chase worthy.

Run that lap.

But the baton is in your hand, and as you are racing, are you ready to pass the baton?

Are you reaching up to somebody you can chase after?

Are you reaching down to somebody that can be passed on to?

Growing is giving and growing and giving and growing and giving.

Every Elijah needs his Elisha, needs his Elijah.

Heather and I heard from Rick Burgess Friday.

We've got this one shot.

Hear me on that.

Don't miss that.

We've got this one shot.

And he read from Acts 2024 in 2024.

And here's what Acts 2024 says I do not account my life of any value nor precious at all.

If only I may finish my race and the ministry that has been set before me.

Finish with all you got, looking to someone godlier than you and ready to pass on to somebody that can come up and take that baton.

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