Get Ready To Be Equipped
I Kings 19:15-21 1 Kings 2:1-15 Bridge City Church 2/4/2024
Have you ever been put in a situation in which you felt you were not equipped to do what was expected of you. I was in seminary, working a part time job at a fast food restaurant. I went in for my training, and my job was to fry the fish fillets.
I was confident and ready to do it and looking forward to it the next day. I arrived at work just before everything got hectic at lunch time. Just as I was going over to my fryer, the manager told me, someone had called off, and I would have to handle the grill preparing the hamburgers.
I knew I was not ready to do this especially with a lot of orders coming in. I tried flipping my first burger, and it landed on top of another one. The same thing happened again and again and I couldn’t separate the burgers.
The manager came out and started yelling at me about my poor performance. I kept my cool, took off my hat and apron, handed them to her and walked out the door. Because I wasn’t equipped, I gave up and quit. You see I had one expectation, when I went to work, but my expectation was different from the reality I faced.
Sometimes when we make the decision to follow Christ, our expectations of what we think we’re entering into, do no match the life we are about to face. In our church’s discipleship wheel, one of our focus areas is equip. If we are to grow in Christ we need to be equipped with the word of God and with the experiences of others so that we can do the ministry God has called us to do. You see not only are we called to do ministry, we are called to be ready to equip others to take our place.
In our Scripture reading this morning we were introduced to Elijah and Elisha. These were two great prophets in Israel. Elijah was the prophet who multiplied a widow’s flour and oil in the midst of a famine. He called for a drought on the land lasting several years. He had food brought to him by ravens. He raised a woman’s son back to life.
He challenged and won the fight against the 400 prophets of Baal. He took on the battle with Ahab and Jezebel. He was only one of two people who is seen alive in both the Old and New Testament when he appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. When Jesus asked the question, “Who do people say that I am?”, some answered that he was Elijah.
Elijah’s ministry was coming to an end, and God wanted him to equip a successor. Before God calls us, God already has somebody in mind to help train us for our mission and our ministry. The question is, “will our pride cause us to believe that we do not need a training or equipping process.”
It’s funny how almost everyone believes they know how to have a great marriage, until they get married. Studies have shown, that if you as a couple attend one marriage retreat together, your odds of getting a divorce drop dramatically. Yet people often will insist, “I don’t need anyone telling me how to be married.”
God told Elijah, go and anoint Elisha, to succeed you as a prophet. When he finds Elisha, Elisha has a pretty comfortable life. The fact that he has twelve yoke of oxen, means he had some money in the bank. He was plowing the field with the 12th pair of oxen, and that means he had some employees working the other 11 pairs and quite a bit of land.
Elisha had no idea that his life was about to make a dramatic change. He obviously had heard about Elijah because he was the number one prophet of the time. He would have been the preacher on Facebook that everyone was posting comments about.
Elijah goes up to Elisha and then throws his cloak around him. Throwing his cloak around him was symbolic of the reality that he was being called to the office and position of a prophet. His business days and farming empire were coming to an end. Elijah throws his cloak on Elisha and turns and walks away.
Elisha has a decision to make. As he looks over his property, his land, his business, and his status, He has to ask himself “Do I want to leave all this behind and go follow Elijah to who knows where?
The workers who are plowing with the other oxen are looking at him to see what he’s going to do. They know the meaning of the cloak. God has chosen Elisha, but now the issue becomes will Elisha choose God’s plan for his life.
Jesus once told his disciples in John’s gospel, you have not chosen me, but I chose you and ordained you that you might bear fruit. Do you realize that Jesus chooses you each day for something?
Jesus is expecting the opportunity to shape our lives to be more like him each day. Jesus said on one occasion, “many are called, but few are chosen.” Are you willing to be among the chosen, who will say yes Lord, regardless of the cost.
Elisha looks at the stuff, but then he looks at Elijah walking further and further away. He knows he can’t keep putting off his decision. Have any of you ever missed out on something, because you waited to long to make up your mind? Elijah has done what God sent him to do, which was to anoint Elisha for the next step in his life. But Elijah knew he could not take the step for Elisha.
When it comes to following Jesus Christ, nobody can make us do it. Nobody can drag us into it. Nobody can keep us from doing it. Nobody can pick us up and carry us into it. But Jesus gives us the power to say, “No I won’t do it.” Jesus loves us too much to take away our freedom to offer Him our love.
Elisha makes up his mind not to blow his chance, he leaves his oxen and he runs up after Elijah, “Elijah, Elijah, wait a minute. Hold on. Just let me go back to the house to kiss my father and mother goodbye, and then I will come follow you.”
Elijah said, “Go Back, “What have I done to you.” The phrase literally means, do as you please. I can’t do anything to determine whether or not you accept your calling as a prophet.”
My friend is there anything that keeps holding you back from accepting what God is calling you to do. Something that is delaying your yes to God. It can be something good. There was nothing wrong with Elisha wanting to say goodbye.
But once he did he gives himself completely to his calling. He decides to throw a huge going away party for everyone around him. He slaughters his oxen, use the plows for wood to cook the meat, and he freely gives it to the people. There is no turning back to the life he once knew.
The Scriptures said that he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant. Elisha didn’t set out to become famous. He became a servant. We learn in another passage of Scripture that he was known for the fact that he used to pour water on the hands of Elijah.
He had left all he had to become a servant. He realized he was becoming equipped by watching how Elijah did things, observing how he handled situations, and soaking in whatever he was teaching at the moment at the school of the prophets. His goal was to become more like Elijah. The most effective way to do that was to be in the role of a servant. Not challenging Elijah, but submitting to him in the humblest of ways.
Like Elisha, our goal should be to become more like our master Jesus. Not challenging his authority over our lives, but humbling submitting ourselves to whatever tasks he calls us to do.
In the 1600’s, there was a monk by the name of Brother Lawrence. His writings were collected in a book called, “Practicing The Presence of God.” He had the humble and lowly job of washing dishes. He then discovered that he could enjoy the dish washing if he did it out of his love for God. He brought the presence of God into those daily parts of his life, by doing things simply out of his love for God.
Sometimes as a servant of God, we will be called to do things that we would not rather do. Could you be willing to do them out of your love for God? Could you allow the Holy Spirit the chance to fill you with His presence, so that its no longer you doing them, but rather God’s Spirit working inside of you and offering the situation as a sacrifice to God. It’s not easy to become more and more like Christ, but the reward is worth it both for you and for those around you.
As time begins to pass, Elijah is wrapping up his job of equipping Elisha. The next step is going to be whether or not Elisha will be willing to take a break from his training or is he committed to going the distance. Elijah knew God was up to something in his own life and that a change was going to take place.
He and Elisha, were on their way from Gilgal, and Elijah told his apprentice, “Stay here, the Lord has sent me to Bethel.” That was a seven mile trip and they did not have Uber or Lift, so it would take some time and energy to getting there.
But Elisha had watched close enough to know that this might be his mentor’s last day on earth. He also knew that before someone died, the person would pronounce a blessing on those present and he didn’t want to miss out on being there when Elijah left.
So he told him, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.” So, the two of them walked on down to Bethel. They ran into a group of prophets who took Elisha by the side and said, “Don’t you know the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?
Elisha said, “yes I know so be quiet.” There are going to be well meaning people who will try to discourage you with some news they are bringing. You have got to keep your eyes on Jesus and follow what you know is true.
Then Elijah said to Elisha again, “look it’s been a long trip here to Bethel, but you can stay here, the Lord has sent me to Jericho.” It was an even longer trip to Jericho. So, Elijah is kind of pushing the limits.
Elisha gives the same response. No way am I staying here. If it’s, Jericho let’s go to Jericho. The company of prophets in Jericho come to Elisha on the side, with those some discomforting words. “Don’t you know the Lord is going to take your master away from you today?”
Once again Elisha puts the focus, not on the fact that Elijah will be taken away, but rather on his commitment to be with his master until the very end. So he tells this group “Yes I do know this, so be quiet, I got this.”
Then Elijah tells him again, stay here in Jericho. The Lord has sent me to the Jordan. Now the Jordan River was a much shorter trip than the first two had been. It’s possible that if Elisha took a break, he could still catch up with him. No doubt Elisha was tired of traveling.
He probably didn’t understand why his master couldn’t just take a break. But if his master was going, he was going along with him. There’s a gospel song that says, “I believe I will run on, and see what the end is going to be.” That’s what Elisha was doing. “There is no way I’m going to leave you today. To the Jordan it is.”
When they got to the Jordan River, there were a group of 50 prophets there looking at them from a distance. Elijah took his cloak off, rolled it up like a stick and struck the water with it. Just like with the Red Sea under Moses, the water divided to the right and to the left and Elijah and Elisha crossed from one bank to the other on dry land. Once on the other side of the river bank, the river started flowing again.
Finally, Elijah looks at his young apprentice, who is not so young anymore and basically says, “Look, I know you’re not going to leave me no matter how difficult I make it. Tell me, what’s the last thing you want for me to do for you, before I am taken away.”
Elisha didn’t even have to pray about it to give an answer. He quickly said, “Let me have a double portion of your spirit.” Elisha is not asking to be twice as powerful and twice as well known as Elijah. He is referring to Deuteronomy 21:17 with the rights of the firstborn son.
That passage gave the first-born son, double what the others received from the father. Elijah had started the school of the prophets, so Elisha is asking Elijah to move him from the position of a servant, to the place as his first-born son among the prophets with all the privileges that go along with it.
Jesus did a similar thing for us when he told the disciples, “I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. I have called you friends for everything that I have learned from my Father, I have made known to you. (John 15:15) The whole time Jesus was with the disciples, he was equipping them so that they could move into a deeper relationship with him.
Elijah responded to him, “You have asked a difficult thing. Yet if you see me when I am taken away from you, it will be yours—otherwise it will not.
Elijah knew it was not up to him to determine his successor. He also knew he did not know at what time he was going to leave the earth. So he left the matter up to God. He says, “Look if you see me, when I’m taken away from you, it will be yours, otherwise it will not.”
In other words, if God lets you see the moment I’m taken away from you, then your request has been granted by God. I think Elijah wanted to make sure Elisha knew his call was from God and not from another person. We all need to know our call is from God.
As they walked along talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses appeared and separated the two of them and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elisha called out, “My Father, My Father. The chariots and horsemen of Israel.” By calling him my father, Elisha is recognizing that he has received the rights of a first born son and will have his double portion.
Elijah went up in the whirlwind to heaven, but before he did, his cloak had fell off of him. Elisha took the cloak. Rolled it up like he had watched Elijah do earlier, and struck the water with it while saying “Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah” and when he did, the waters parted to the right and to the left and he crossed over on dry land. Everybody knew the spirit of Elijah was now resting upon Elisha, and that Elisha was now equipped for the ministry God had for him to do.
Jesus called you, and Bridge City Church is here to equip you for the ministry God has for you to do and to help you become more and more like Jesus in the process.
