WEBVTT 00:00.240 --> 00:05.760 Man second Kings chapter number 13 the Bible reads in verse number one in the three and twentieth year of Joe 00:05.760 --> 00:07.980 Ash the son of Aziah king of Judah 00:08.520 --> 00:12.580 Jehovah has the son of Jehu began to reign over Israel in 00:12.580 --> 00:18.560 Samaria and reigns 17 years and he did that which was evil in the side of the Lord and 00:18.560 --> 00:24.620 Followed the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat which made Israel descend he departed not there from now 00:24.620 --> 00:25.180 Of course 00:25.180 --> 00:32.140 this is a massive theme in the books of the kings and chronicles the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and 00:32.140 --> 00:38.660 This is when the kingdom had first split into that northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah if you remember 00:39.380 --> 00:42.720 Jeroboam set up a place of worship in 00:42.720 --> 00:49.940 Bethel and in Dan instead of Jerusalem because he was afraid that if the Israelites of the northern kingdom would go down to 00:49.940 --> 00:53.240 Jerusalem to worship at the temple where they're supposed to worship 00:53.240 --> 00:59.140 Then he was afraid that they'd go there and their heart would kind of be connected with Judah 00:59.140 --> 01:04.220 And they'd want to reunify the kingdom under the Davidic monarchy, right? 01:04.280 --> 01:07.220 Because the son of David is the one that's ruling down in Judah 01:07.220 --> 01:13.340 So he decided it's a better idea to just make sure that the people of the northern kingdom don't go down there 01:13.340 --> 01:19.800 So he set up a place of worship in Bethel and in Dan that involves a golden calf, right? 01:19.800 --> 01:23.780 So it's an idol of an animal and it you know 01:23.780 --> 01:27.340 It's supposedly that they're worshiping still Jehovah God 01:27.340 --> 01:30.140 So it has all the right words and the right names 01:30.140 --> 01:36.680 But it's a religion based upon idolatry of worshiping a golden calf and there were two different locations 01:36.680 --> 01:40.380 One in Dan because that was already just a hub of idolatry 01:40.380 --> 01:48.240 Since the very founding of the nation of Israel up in the northern part of Israel and then down in the southern part 01:48.240 --> 01:54.420 Bethel is the name literally means house of God and this place had a lot of history 01:54.420 --> 02:01.520 That's where Jacob slept on the stone and saw the ladder with the angels ascending and descending and he said 02:01.520 --> 02:05.920 This is like a gateway to heaven. This is the house of God 02:05.920 --> 02:10.100 So basically because it has it in the name house of God 02:10.100 --> 02:17.540 He figured this will be an easy sell to people. Hey, it's not Jerusalem. It's Bethel. It's right there in the name house of God 02:17.540 --> 02:23.560 Of course, the Lord had chosen the place to put his name there and that is Jerusalem 02:23.560 --> 02:25.500 That's where they're supposed to worship 02:26.020 --> 02:31.740 Jesus had this conversation with the woman at the well where she said our father's worship God in this mountain 02:31.740 --> 02:33.180 Mount Garai's him 02:33.180 --> 02:39.300 But you say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship and of course Jesus explains to her 02:39.300 --> 02:40.540 Yeah, it's Jerusalem 02:41.060 --> 02:42.040 Salvation of the Jews 02:42.040 --> 02:49.560 But he says the time is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem our man going to worship God because you know 02:49.560 --> 02:53.440 God just wants people worshiping him and spirit in a truth and in the New Testament 02:53.440 --> 02:59.460 We don't have a physical location. So Jerusalem doesn't matter. No physical location matters 02:59.460 --> 03:04.680 It's just wherever two or three are gathered together in Christ's name. There he is in the midst 03:04.680 --> 03:10.480 Okay, so that's a little bit of background here of what this means when it says that jihu 03:11.100 --> 03:12.840 continued in the sons of 03:13.520 --> 03:18.860 Excuse me in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat and now his son is also 03:18.860 --> 03:25.700 Continuing with that sin the sin is idolatry. Right? That is the big sin. It's idolatry 03:25.700 --> 03:31.640 It's a twisted form of religion that is in the name of Jehovah God 03:31.640 --> 03:38.040 But it ends up twisting things and having this gross sin of idolatry, which is a violation of God's word 03:38.920 --> 03:42.200 So as a result of this idolatry it says in verse 3 03:42.200 --> 03:47.580 The anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he delivered them into the hand of Haseel 03:47.580 --> 03:54.020 King of Syria and into the hand of Ben-Hadad the son of Haseel all their days and 03:54.020 --> 03:56.980 Jehovah has besought the Lord and the Lord 03:56.980 --> 04:04.160 Harkened unto him for he saw the oppression of Israel because the king of Syria oppressed them and the Lord gave Israel a 04:04.160 --> 04:10.380 Savior so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as 04:10.960 --> 04:16.780 Before time so notice here that even in the midst of sin even in the midst of idolatry 04:17.400 --> 04:20.800 Even though they're screwing up the religion, you know 04:20.800 --> 04:26.960 they cry out to the Lord and God is merciful anyway and God actually helps them out a little bit and 04:26.980 --> 04:29.360 What you'll see is that there's a pattern in scripture 04:29.360 --> 04:33.880 Where people will just kind of take one step toward God, you know 04:33.880 --> 04:36.420 and he'll kind of help them out and throw them a bone and 04:37.400 --> 04:42.180 Hopefully the idea is that maybe when they see God deliver them a little bit 04:42.180 --> 04:47.160 That maybe they'll decide to go all the way and serve God and get right with God 04:47.160 --> 04:53.700 But unfortunately, that's not what ends up happening here. So he cries out to God and God helps him out 04:54.680 --> 05:00.140 But yet in spite of that it doesn't fix it because in verse 6 it says 05:00.140 --> 05:05.000 Nevertheless, they departed not from the sins of Jeroboam who made Israel sin 05:05.000 --> 05:07.980 But walked there in and they remained the grove also in Samaria 05:07.980 --> 05:11.120 and then it just goes on to talk about how much of 05:11.120 --> 05:18.120 Failure and how weak the kingdom is as a result of not going all the way and getting the sin out of their lives and 05:18.120 --> 05:20.860 Actually serving God the right way 05:20.860 --> 05:27.120 So there are a whole bunch of lessons just to take from these first several verses that I think are so critical 05:27.120 --> 05:34.720 For us as Christians today and one of those lessons is that a lot of people when they feel like they're not right with God 05:34.720 --> 05:39.480 Because they're involved in serious sin. Obviously, they're right. They're not right with God 05:39.480 --> 05:44.640 But they sometimes will get this attitude up. Well, I'm not right with God anyway 05:44.640 --> 05:50.380 So what's the use of even trying? You know, I might as well just go all the way off the cliff 05:50.380 --> 05:55.080 And just in for a penny in for a pound and this is such a stupid attitude 05:55.080 --> 05:58.520 And I feel like I spend my entire life and my entire ministry 05:58.520 --> 06:03.660 Trying to explain to people how stupid this is and how many sermons I've gone through this over and over again 06:03.660 --> 06:06.580 Because it seems like so many people think this way 06:07.440 --> 06:10.620 They think like oh, I screwed up. I might as well just go all the way 06:11.320 --> 06:17.380 It's so dumb because here's the thing even if you've screwed up. Don't throw good money after bad 06:17.380 --> 06:19.840 You know, you can always course-correct 06:19.840 --> 06:24.500 Repent get right and yeah, there's gonna be some damage that's already done 06:24.500 --> 06:29.920 But at least you can mitigate the damage and not just go all the way off the cliff, right? 06:30.240 --> 06:36.780 And of course the classic example of this is the girl who goes out and commits fornication and lose their virginity 06:36.780 --> 06:41.860 And then just says ah there there goes my virginity. My as well just become a total whore 06:41.860 --> 06:43.600 That doesn't make any sense 06:44.050 --> 06:45.980 If you committed that sin 06:46.940 --> 06:54.620 Affornication then you just confess it and forsake it get right with God move on and be pure from here on out 06:54.620 --> 06:59.560 Be clean from here on out. Don't just have this attitude of oh, it's too late. I already screwed up 06:59.560 --> 07:06.680 It's over for me. Same thing with people who are drunkards. Okay, you know, they will be sober for X amount of time 07:06.680 --> 07:10.640 They'll take one drink up screwed it up. There goes my sobriety 07:10.640 --> 07:16.060 There goes six months of sobriety there goes two years of sobriety and then they just go on a bender 07:16.540 --> 07:20.060 Just go absolutely crazy folks. That doesn't make any sense 07:20.820 --> 07:25.660 You know, and I think that we all deal with this in a smaller scale on just dumb little things in our life 07:25.660 --> 07:31.520 Like you screw up your diet, you know, it's like you eat one little ice cream cone. Oh, there goes the diet 07:31.520 --> 07:33.400 All right, let's go whole pizza 07:34.120 --> 07:36.520 You know, you don't have to go all the way off the cliff 07:37.120 --> 07:40.540 Because even if you just screwed up your diet on that one thing, you know 07:40.540 --> 07:46.000 Confess it and forsake it and move on and keep going and it's not even that many calories 07:46.000 --> 07:51.700 It's not even a big deal. It's not even going to change things except for the mentality of all I screwed up 07:51.700 --> 07:52.580 It's over for me now 07:53.420 --> 07:58.380 Now look, these people are involved in grievous sin of idolatry 07:58.380 --> 08:05.740 These people are messed up. These people quote are doing evil in the sight of the Lord 08:05.740 --> 08:12.340 I mean when God just gives an overview. He's like these people are doing evil in the sight of the Lord yet when they cry out to God 08:12.340 --> 08:16.920 He still does something for them, you know, it shows you the mercy of God 08:16.920 --> 08:20.120 It shows you that even when you are screwed up 08:20.120 --> 08:23.280 It makes sense to at least try to seek after God 08:23.280 --> 08:30.140 Try to get things right try to do something good try to get back on track and don't just completely 08:30.140 --> 08:37.220 Despair and give up because you know who knows maybe God will help you out and then you keep going now at the same time 08:37.220 --> 08:44.260 We don't want to be like Jehovah has here where we just cry out to God get a little help and then just keep on living that 08:44.260 --> 08:50.200 Life of sin obviously the smart thing to do is to go all the way and get right with God all the way 08:50.200 --> 08:53.720 Take a little step toward God. He throws you a bone 08:53.720 --> 08:58.560 You take another little step toward God and you just keep going keep growing keep getting better 08:58.560 --> 09:05.300 Keep getting closer to God keep getting more sin out of your life. Keep getting better on track with your walk with God 09:05.300 --> 09:08.620 Okay, obviously you want to keep going and not stop short 09:09.500 --> 09:12.460 Because he stopped short and he ends up still being a failure 09:13.620 --> 09:20.460 But the good lesson also to draw from this is even if you're involved in serious sin, you can still get right with God 09:21.260 --> 09:25.760 You know, I don't care if you've been a drunk. You've been a fornicator. You've been an idolater 09:25.760 --> 09:28.820 You've been involved in whatever, you know what just 09:28.820 --> 09:34.840 Confess and forsake it and look as long as you are breathing air as a saved Christian 09:34.840 --> 09:36.920 You can always get right with God 09:38.200 --> 09:44.160 Right anybody who's saved it's never too late for anybody who's saved to get right with God 09:44.820 --> 09:48.640 And here's the thing if you're just like no God's through with me. I'm trash 09:48.640 --> 09:51.360 Well, here's the thing about that if God were through with you 09:51.360 --> 09:57.860 He'd just bring you home to be with him in heaven because guess what people that he through Lee truly throws in the trash can they die 09:57.860 --> 10:02.600 It's like when he was just totally done with King Saul. He just says alright, Saul 10:02.600 --> 10:07.700 You're so screwed up tomorrow. You and your sons are gonna come be with me. You guys are toast 10:08.300 --> 10:12.300 Right, but here's the thing as long as you're saved and God has left you on this earth 10:12.700 --> 10:16.720 You could still do something for God. You could still be used by God 10:16.720 --> 10:23.380 You could still get right with God. You could still win a soul to Christ and do something and have value, okay? 10:23.880 --> 10:30.140 So I feel like I'm constantly preaching this constantly explain to people do not despair 10:31.020 --> 10:34.000 Don't give up. Don't throw in the towel 10:34.000 --> 10:39.860 Just because your back's letting just because you've quit the church out of church screwed up 10:39.860 --> 10:44.680 Hey start taking steps to get back on track spiritually 10:44.680 --> 10:49.540 And you no matter how screwed up you've been you can come back and fix it 10:49.540 --> 10:55.020 You know, that's just the way life is and so God gives example this over and over and here's the thing 10:55.020 --> 10:59.880 Even when God is just flat out telling Nineveh yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown 10:59.880 --> 11:04.040 He's not even telling them. Hey, here's how you can get right with God and fix us 11:04.040 --> 11:06.920 He just gives them a message of pure doom and 11:07.820 --> 11:09.940 We know it was pure doom because we know Jonah 11:10.500 --> 11:14.100 He wasn't preaching anything merciful to the Nevites 11:14.680 --> 11:22.260 We know how Jonah was. He's just like you guys are screwed. You guys are toast God's gonna smoke you in 40 days 11:22.260 --> 11:29.060 I'm gonna go watch it happen. I'm gonna go get a good seat so I can watch God destroy you. Okay, and yet what they do 11:29.920 --> 11:31.940 They got right with God and you know what they said? 11:32.440 --> 11:32.900 Maybe 11:33.700 --> 11:34.620 Per adventure 11:35.320 --> 11:38.100 God will turn away from the fierceness of his wrath 11:38.100 --> 11:42.440 You know, and that's always a maybe and so therefore if you're smart 11:42.440 --> 11:46.340 You'll always go for that maybe and say, you know what? 11:46.540 --> 11:51.360 I'm gonna throw myself on the mercies of God because his mercies are new every morning. He's compassionate 11:51.360 --> 11:54.080 He's loving and so you've got to 11:54.080 --> 11:58.900 Keep trying to get right with God and don't give up and quit 11:58.900 --> 12:05.020 It's so stupid to just say I'm just gonna go all the way into drugs all the way into fornication 12:05.020 --> 12:08.840 Just all the way into Hormongering and and all this stuff. It's like no 12:09.820 --> 12:11.040 You screwed up 12:11.040 --> 12:15.440 dust yourself off and get back on the horse and try it again 12:16.580 --> 12:22.780 Another interesting thing here is that when when Jehovah has besought the Lord and prayed unto him 12:22.780 --> 12:25.560 It says the Lord gave Israel a 12:26.660 --> 12:32.360 Savior so that they went out from under the hand of the Syrians notice that it is often one 12:32.360 --> 12:36.560 Person that ends up making a huge difference in this world 12:36.560 --> 12:43.480 Or a huge difference in the course of history all throughout the Bible if we study the Bible from Genesis to Revelation 12:43.480 --> 12:46.200 Isn't it typically like one person? 12:46.360 --> 12:49.760 That's the focus of each story as we go through the stories, you know 12:49.760 --> 12:57.120 You're reading the book of Genesis and it's like it's Noah. It's Abraham. It's Isaac. It's Jacob 12:57.120 --> 13:01.360 It's Joseph and then we get into Exodus. Who is it? It's 13:02.060 --> 13:05.640 Yeah, it's Moses, you know or two people Moses and Aaron, you know 13:05.640 --> 13:07.000 But it's mainly Moses 13:07.000 --> 13:12.580 But it's it's like one or two or three people can be so greatly used by God to make a difference 13:12.580 --> 13:17.100 And then I'm not gonna ask you who it is in the book of Joshua because I know you're not stupid 13:17.100 --> 13:23.720 Okay, and then we get to the book of judges and it's just one person after another God sends them a 13:23.720 --> 13:26.080 Savior God sends them a 13:26.720 --> 13:29.320 Deliverer God sends them a judge, right? 13:29.320 --> 13:34.340 Whether it's Othniel, Ehud, Barak, Gideon, right? 13:34.480 --> 13:38.100 And all these other guys that are just kind of no-name guys that you don't really think that much 13:38.100 --> 13:41.260 Tola or something, you know or you know 13:41.800 --> 13:48.400 Was that Shamgar, you know, you know Shamgar of course, you know, it's a popular baby name in 13:48.400 --> 13:50.600 2026 that's burning up all the charts 13:50.600 --> 13:58.260 But the point is that God will often use one person to do something dramatic 13:58.260 --> 14:01.360 So here there's some unnamed 14:01.940 --> 14:08.100 Savior that God sends them that basically helps them defeat sort of like back in the days of the judges 14:09.160 --> 14:10.480 Sends them a savior 14:11.800 --> 14:17.520 You know another thing that's interesting about this besides the fact that God can often use one person because the Savior is singular 14:17.520 --> 14:24.600 That God can often use one person to do something great and to change the course of things is that often that person 14:24.600 --> 14:32.920 Doesn't necessarily get the credit and doesn't necessarily get remembered or get properly honored because it's like whoever's writing this 14:32.920 --> 14:40.520 Chronicle doesn't even know the guy's name and God has chosen not to reveal the name and so this guy's name is 14:40.520 --> 14:41.720 Lost to history 14:42.360 --> 14:50.040 It's just like yeah, what was that guy's name that saved everybody's butts. Oh, we don't know we don't remember, but he sent a Savior 14:50.800 --> 14:58.160 You know what? A lot of times we don't know and that's what's so stupid about these people that base their faith on 14:58.160 --> 14:59.820 Church history 15:00.380 --> 15:03.880 Instead of the Bible instead of the word of God 15:04.440 --> 15:07.280 You're basing it on church history 15:07.280 --> 15:14.640 Well, guess what the greatest man of God over the last 2,000 years are probably totally forgotten to history 15:15.400 --> 15:20.420 But in their time they probably won tons of people to Christ preach to 15:20.420 --> 15:24.100 Thousands or even millions of people, but nobody's gonna remember them 15:24.640 --> 15:29.680 Okay, because the Roman Catholics are the ones writing the book in most cases 15:29.680 --> 15:35.380 So it's like everybody was Catholic until the Protestant Reformation. Yeah, right. Sure 15:36.320 --> 15:41.880 Everybody's Catholic and it's funny how everybody hasn't been Catholic for the last 500 years 15:41.880 --> 15:48.160 There's just all these tons of other beliefs and denominations and things and it's always been that way 15:48.160 --> 15:49.740 There's nothing new under the Sun 15:50.760 --> 15:57.160 It's not like oh, we just have this yay the happy little dark ages. Everybody's Catholic yay dark ages 15:57.800 --> 16:03.260 Stupid there was never such a time when everyone was Catholic. It's dumb 16:03.260 --> 16:09.440 But that's what of course that's what their history book is gonna tell you because they're gonna erase everybody else and 16:09.440 --> 16:14.620 Look even these people that are trying to memorialize their own guy 16:14.620 --> 16:19.320 Don't even know the guy's name and she's a there was a savior. That's the way life is 16:19.320 --> 16:24.300 So here's the thing if you're searching for earthly glory sir serving the Lord, you know what? 16:24.720 --> 16:28.560 That's not the way it works because a lot of times the Lord's not gonna let you get the glory on this earth 16:29.180 --> 16:32.320 Because if you're doing it for the glory on this earth the Bible says well 16:32.320 --> 16:38.920 You already have your reward if you want to get the big rewards in heaven you'd be like this guy and nobody necessarily knows your name 16:39.480 --> 16:42.980 And at the end of the day if you're gonna be super popular and have 16:42.980 --> 16:48.200 Alkalades and have everybody speak well of you on this earth. Well, then you have your reward right now 16:48.720 --> 16:54.580 Whereas the ones who are serving God for the right reasons doing it from the heart for the Lord 16:54.580 --> 17:00.120 Forgot all they care is that the people got saved. They don't care if they get the credit for it 17:00.880 --> 17:05.080 You know, we can't be doing it for fame or money or accolades 17:05.080 --> 17:11.580 You got to be doing it for the sake of saving the people and if you save the people and nobody remembers your name 17:11.580 --> 17:16.340 The people are still saved and so that's what we get here from this unnamed 17:16.340 --> 17:19.860 Unknown savior of the children of Israel at this time 17:19.860 --> 17:24.880 But of course even though God sends them a man of God a savior 17:24.880 --> 17:30.320 Fill with the spirit to go out and fight the Lord's battles and defeat the enemy and deliver them from Syria 17:31.160 --> 17:31.680 yet 17:32.320 --> 17:37.460 They still persist in their sinful lifestyle unfortunately of idolatry 17:37.460 --> 17:45.220 And I want to just point out the parentheses at the beginning of chapter or excuse me beginning of verse 5 and the end of verse 6 17:45.220 --> 17:46.440 because the 17:46.440 --> 17:52.840 King James has put these parentheses here to help you understand and so the way 17:52.840 --> 17:58.220 parentheses work in the King James Bible is that the parentheses 17:58.770 --> 18:06.640 Typically represents something that is deviating from the normal grammar of the sentence. Okay, so this way 18:06.640 --> 18:13.280 You can understand the grammar of the sentence by basically just skipping that which is in parentheses 18:13.280 --> 18:20.660 And then the grammar will connect and make sense and then the parenthetical is just some like extra bonus information 18:20.660 --> 18:25.640 Now why did they put parentheses here because otherwise when you look at verse 7? 18:25.640 --> 18:30.920 It says neither did he leave of the people of Jehovah has you know 18:30.920 --> 18:36.320 It's kind of like okay. Who's the he there? It could be confusing who the he is 18:36.320 --> 18:44.740 Whereas if you don't look at the parentheses, it says at the end of verse 4 because the king of Syria oppressed them 18:45.680 --> 18:51.520 Neither did he leave of the people of Jehovah has but 50 horsemen and 10 charities everybody see that 18:52.080 --> 18:54.280 so the purpose of the parentheses is 18:54.920 --> 19:00.280 Just one thing it's so that you know that verse 7 is picking up 19:00.280 --> 19:05.220 Grammatically where verse 4 left off so that you know that is the king of Syria 19:05.220 --> 19:09.740 That did only leave of the people to Jehovah has but 19:09.740 --> 19:14.500 50 horsemen is that sound like a lot to you like in ancient warfare 19:14.500 --> 19:19.440 You know, they're fighting with tens of thousands of troops hundreds of thousands of troops 19:20.700 --> 19:25.020 So he's saying like okay, you guys can only have 50 horsemen and 19:25.900 --> 19:30.880 10 chariots so he's basically leaving them with like a super small 19:31.600 --> 19:37.540 military when it comes to the technology of the horses and the chariots and that level of fighting and 19:38.140 --> 19:42.640 10,000 footmen which might sound like a lot but again only 19:43.280 --> 19:45.580 10,000 footmen and 19:45.580 --> 19:49.960 Just a couple chariots couple horsemen. It's it's a it's kind of a skeleton crew 19:50.700 --> 19:58.260 As far as Israel so he's really just decimated them and he says the king of Syria 19:59.240 --> 20:05.200 Had destroyed them and again this goes to support what I just told you that verse 7 is 20:05.200 --> 20:12.680 Grammatically picking up from verse 4 because it's still the king of Syria had destroyed them and had made them like the dust 20:12.680 --> 20:18.820 By threshing so the king of Syria has just absolutely chewed them up and spat them out 20:18.820 --> 20:22.060 So God is allowing them to hang by a thread 20:22.060 --> 20:27.400 God is allowing the nation of Israel to continue to exist 20:27.400 --> 20:30.620 But they're just absolutely hanging by a thread 20:31.320 --> 20:35.880 Okay, God listen their prayers and he saved them from total destruction 20:35.880 --> 20:38.260 But because they're persisting in idolatry 20:39.040 --> 20:42.760 He's just letting them barely hang on and be very weak and anemic 20:43.280 --> 20:50.220 But hey, it's better to be weak and anemic than to be dead. It's better to have 10,000 20:51.640 --> 20:59.720 Footmen and 10 chariots and 50 horsemen rather than to just stop being a nation and just become part of Syria and be enslaved completely 21:00.700 --> 21:06.340 And so again don't go all the way off the cliff spiritually because half a loaf is better than none 21:06.340 --> 21:07.200 but 21:07.780 --> 21:13.580 We as Christians we want to go all the way get right with God get all the way in 21:13.580 --> 21:21.540 Serious about serving God get the grievous sin out of our life so that we can actually be blessed by God and not live this kind of like 21:21.540 --> 21:23.620 10 chariot 50 horsemen 21:23.620 --> 21:30.340 10,000 troops kind of Christian life, you know, we want to live the full blown Christian life and not be weak about it 21:31.560 --> 21:37.540 So it says in verse 8 now the rest of the acts of Jehovah has and all that he did and his might are they not written in the book of the 21:37.540 --> 21:43.100 Chronicles of the kings of Israel and Jehovah has slept with his fathers and they buried him in Samaria and 21:43.100 --> 21:45.040 Joe ash his son reigned in his stead 21:45.040 --> 21:51.120 So we have Jihu then we have Jehovah has now we have Joe ash right and God had promised Jihu 21:51.120 --> 21:56.280 that his sons would reign for the next four generations because of his 21:56.280 --> 22:01.240 Wrath that was executed upon Ahab. He's gonna bless Jihu with four generations 22:01.240 --> 22:06.500 But unfortunately all four generations persists in idolatry and so that's what we see here 22:06.500 --> 22:12.060 So after Joe as we have King Joe ash. This is not the same Joe ash from Judah 22:12.060 --> 22:17.200 It's a different Joe ash popular baby name in the 30 and seventh year of 22:18.580 --> 22:20.020 Joe ash King of Judah 22:20.980 --> 22:27.520 Began Jehovah ash the son of Jehovah has to reign so they both have the same name to spell a little different from time to time 22:27.520 --> 22:32.940 Over Israel and Samaria and reigns 16 years and he did that which was evil in the side of the Lord 22:32.940 --> 22:37.520 He departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel sin 22:37.520 --> 22:42.360 But he walked there in and the rest of the acts of Joe ash and all that he did and his might were with 22:42.360 --> 22:44.820 He fought against Amaziah King of Judah 22:44.820 --> 22:51.440 Are they not written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel and Joe ash slept with his fathers and Jeroboam 22:51.440 --> 22:56.600 Sat upon his throne and Joe ash was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel 22:56.600 --> 23:01.460 So that's just kind of giving us like a quick little overview of saying like okay 23:02.040 --> 23:05.340 After Jihu is Jehovah has here's Jehovah has his reign 23:05.340 --> 23:09.240 Here's Joe ashes rain yada yada yada blah blah blah 23:09.240 --> 23:14.800 But then we're gonna get into now the death of Elisha and you're gonna notice that Joe ash is still alive 23:15.340 --> 23:21.600 Okay, so we are deviating from chronological order here because the Bible was just giving us like an overview 23:21.600 --> 23:26.680 Just kind of showing us how Jihu's descendants keep reigning and they keep on 23:27.220 --> 23:32.780 Continuing in the same sin yada yada. Okay, but now we're gonna back up because it says now Elisha 23:32.780 --> 23:40.140 Was fallen sick of his sickness wherever he died and Joe ash the king of Israel came down under him 23:40.140 --> 23:46.640 So notice this is the guy that we just talked about how he died in verse 13 and now he's alive in verse 14 23:46.640 --> 23:49.380 Why because that was out of chronological order 23:49.380 --> 23:53.680 It was just giving us like an overview of a chronicle and that's why this Joe ash 23:53.680 --> 24:00.260 He's gonna die again in chapter 14 because again, we've gone back in time now 24:00.260 --> 24:07.380 The Bible in general is in chronological order every once in a while though for the sake of the story for the sake of themes 24:07.380 --> 24:13.260 It will deviate from chronological order, but usually it makes it obvious if you're paying attention 24:13.260 --> 24:18.840 It's not hard to notice that in verse 13. Yeah, you'd rain this long and then he died and that's like, okay 24:18.840 --> 24:21.860 But you know here is alive in verse 14, okay? 24:22.600 --> 24:27.120 And again, he's gonna die again in chapter 14. I think it's like verse 12 or something somewhere around there 24:27.120 --> 24:31.300 He dies again. I'm not verse 12, but somewhere like that. Okay 24:31.300 --> 24:36.880 Anyway, so let's get into the death of Elisha. It says in verse 14 now Elisha was fallen sick 24:36.880 --> 24:43.560 Of his sickness where have he died and Joe ash the king of Israel came unto him and wept over his face and said 24:43.560 --> 24:48.720 Oh, my father my father the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof and again 24:48.720 --> 24:53.000 This is funny to me because this guy is is doing evil in the sight of the Lord 24:53.000 --> 24:59.080 He's not right with God, but yet he seems to be a big Elisha fan. Isn't that funny? 24:59.600 --> 25:03.320 He loves Elisha. He thinks Elisha is super cool calls him father 25:03.320 --> 25:10.000 But yet he's not obeying him. He's not doing what he says because Elisha is one of the greatest prophets who ever lived 25:11.020 --> 25:13.980 Joe has did that which is evil in the sight of the Lord 25:14.440 --> 25:17.260 Right because when God just gives an overview of him 25:17.260 --> 25:20.360 It's like you did evil because you spent your whole life 25:20.360 --> 25:27.020 Bowing down to an idol and that's idolatry and the Bible says that's not not make unto thee any graven image 25:27.020 --> 25:31.800 That's not bowed down unto them nor serve them the Lord your God is a jealous God 25:32.900 --> 25:37.520 And yet this guy for some reason, you know loves Elisha 25:37.520 --> 25:43.380 So what you see with a lot of these northern kingdom guys is that they have some little modicum of 25:45.120 --> 25:51.220 Spirituality that you know like if you look at even King Ahab, you know King Ab at some point gets right with God 25:51.220 --> 25:56.160 God here's his prayers, you know, and so here's the thing that a lot of these guys are probably saved 25:56.920 --> 26:03.500 But they're just super backslidden super worldly super sinful super and God's not blessing them 26:03.500 --> 26:05.120 God's saying that they're doing evil 26:05.120 --> 26:10.340 But yet they seem to at least be at least a little bit sort of kind of 26:10.340 --> 26:16.820 Connected to worshiping the true God of the Bible and so it's kind of weird how that works 26:16.820 --> 26:18.780 But we see Joe Ash, you know 26:18.780 --> 26:24.280 He's just a big Elisha fan and he's crying and everything and he's sad about Elisha dying 26:24.280 --> 26:29.460 And it's funny what he says because he says oh my father my father the chariot of Israel and the horseman there 26:29.460 --> 26:32.700 I'm like, what does that mean? It's kind of a weird thing to say, right? 26:33.040 --> 26:40.380 Well, if you back up to chapter two of the same book, this is what Elisha said when Elijah died, right? 26:40.820 --> 26:42.900 so Elijah is 26:42.900 --> 26:49.960 able to actually like pass on the torch to the next generation because remember Elisha 26:49.960 --> 26:57.160 Wanted to have a double portion of Elijah's spirit and so you know if Elisha was there when he died 26:57.160 --> 27:00.480 He's gonna get the double portion of Elijah's spirit 27:00.480 --> 27:08.340 And he was able to get the mantle from Elijah and go out and have double the ministry of Elijah and do great things 27:09.600 --> 27:10.720 But here 27:11.360 --> 27:12.980 instead of Elisha 27:13.520 --> 27:13.920 having 27:14.740 --> 27:18.440 His protege that's gonna basically fall in his footsteps 27:18.440 --> 27:25.540 He just has this kind of backslidden messed up king of Israel that's saying the same thing he said to his mentor 27:26.160 --> 27:31.780 He's saying the the chariot of Israel and the horsemen there up because remember Elijah was taken in a fiery chariot 27:31.780 --> 27:34.060 So when Elisha said it it made sense 27:34.680 --> 27:40.080 It fit the context now when Joe Ash is saying it to Elisha. It's really just 27:40.900 --> 27:46.120 He's just kind of just saying words that don't really have meaning. He's kind of going through the motions 27:46.120 --> 27:49.200 He's not a real heir of Elisha 27:49.200 --> 27:54.460 And you know what this shows me is that here's the thing sometimes you can pass on 27:55.020 --> 27:58.000 to the next generation the fire of 27:58.000 --> 28:04.060 Preaching and prophecy and doing great works for God and sometimes you can't because Elijah was a great man of God 28:04.060 --> 28:06.000 And he's able to pass it on to someone else 28:06.000 --> 28:10.640 He's able to train and ordain Elisha to pick it up from him 28:13.120 --> 28:14.300 but Elisha is 28:14.300 --> 28:18.340 A greater man than Elijah in the sense that he does more for God 28:18.340 --> 28:24.280 But yet he's not able to pass it on to the next generation and when he's dying 28:24.280 --> 28:28.420 He doesn't really have a good protege. Who's he supposed to be passing off to Gehazi, right? 28:28.780 --> 28:33.760 His protege didn't pan out apparently other protege's didn't pan out. He's got the king of Israel 28:33.760 --> 28:38.060 He tries to be a good influence on the king of Israel, but he ends up dying 28:39.300 --> 28:43.060 Frustrated and upset with the next generation for not 28:43.840 --> 28:48.920 Catching what they needed to catch not getting what he's trying to pass down to them 28:48.920 --> 28:54.760 You know, it's it's kind of a sad story here that he's not able to pass it on to the next guy the next prophet 28:54.760 --> 28:57.620 And so here's the thing, you know throughout the Bible 28:58.300 --> 29:02.660 Sometimes there will be great men of God doing great works and then other times 29:02.660 --> 29:03.260 It's like 29:03.980 --> 29:06.700 Periods will go by where there's just really no standout 29:07.320 --> 29:13.200 Prophets or really no great leaders or men of God doing anything great for 10 years 20 years at a time 29:13.200 --> 29:17.080 There'll be these kind of dead spots, you know between great prophets 29:17.080 --> 29:22.080 And so it's kind of a sad story here where Elisha is dying 29:22.080 --> 29:27.940 And this is the guy that he's got to basically leave it to is the king of Israel 29:27.940 --> 29:32.420 Who is kind of a joke spiritually and he's not right with God 29:32.660 --> 29:33.560 and so forth 29:34.880 --> 29:39.520 Now why is it wouldn't you think that it'd be easy? It seems like it'd be easy 29:39.520 --> 29:43.560 Just to keep just passing on the faith to the next generation, you know what I mean? 29:43.620 --> 29:46.560 I'm just like and just bringing people in training them teaching them 29:46.560 --> 29:50.380 You know, you think it'd be easy for me as a pastor who have 29:50.380 --> 29:56.180 Passed and preached and had success and have like a successful model of 29:56.180 --> 29:58.700 What we've done and what we've accomplished, you know 29:58.700 --> 30:03.140 You think that you'd be able to train a bunch of other young guys to kind of do the same thing and 30:03.900 --> 30:07.700 You know, we have been able to successfully train some guys that are doing 30:07.700 --> 30:12.800 Phenomenal works for God and great works for God and that are doing every bit is good of work 30:12.800 --> 30:15.200 But then think about all of the bogus 30:16.220 --> 30:21.340 People that we've tried to teach and tried to train and they ended up being idiots 30:21.340 --> 30:26.720 They ended up screwing it up. They ended up being Gehazi. They ended up being a loser in some other way 30:27.240 --> 30:29.860 Why is that? Well, you know 30:30.840 --> 30:33.260 part of the problem is that 30:34.440 --> 30:35.200 People 30:36.080 --> 30:38.080 Often don't want to 30:38.080 --> 30:45.740 Be humble enough to learn and follow somebody else because they they have too much ego and pride 30:45.740 --> 30:49.260 And so I because I was thinking about this today 30:49.260 --> 30:54.380 Like all of these like preaching protégés who've crashed and burned 30:54.380 --> 30:59.740 Like really the big downfall for almost all of them is Envy and 31:00.540 --> 31:04.420 Thinking that they're better than us thinking that they're better than their mentor 31:04.420 --> 31:11.380 Then they're better than other people that they are just somehow thinking that they know better and that they can do better 31:11.380 --> 31:15.140 And and so they get prideful they get arrogant and then they end up 31:15.140 --> 31:20.840 Wanting to tear down their mentor and destroy their mentor as a way to lift themselves up 31:20.840 --> 31:23.760 And of course it never works and it never makes any sense 31:24.380 --> 31:27.340 And you know obviously every situation is a little bit different 31:27.340 --> 31:34.180 But I feel like probably the most common thread that you could trace is like Envy and 31:34.740 --> 31:38.640 Ego in the people that don't make it and that don't pan out 31:40.080 --> 31:44.260 Now here's the thing is that there's no reason why 31:44.820 --> 31:46.740 people should feel this way because 31:47.300 --> 31:50.680 You're supposed to before you become a great leader 31:50.680 --> 31:52.520 You're supposed to be a great follower, right? 31:53.020 --> 31:58.680 And so like why did Elisha pan out because the Bible says that Elisha poured water on the hands of Elijah 31:59.220 --> 32:06.240 So he's a guy who's willing to be humble and do a menial job and he's pouring the water on the hands of Elijah 32:06.240 --> 32:10.600 He's willing to serve. He's willing to follow and here's the thing. This doesn't hold him back 32:10.600 --> 32:15.960 This propels him to greatness because remember when Elijah dies. What is his wish? 32:16.140 --> 32:18.620 He says I want a double portion of your spirit 32:18.620 --> 32:22.420 So this shows it's not that Elisha is just some drone 32:22.420 --> 32:31.180 They're just gonna just blindly do what he's told and has no zeal or no ambition or no desire to surpass his master 32:31.940 --> 32:34.900 That is that really what's going on when he's asking for a double portion? 32:35.200 --> 32:41.700 No, what it is is that he's smart enough to understand that you know what? Hey right now. I'm the follower 32:41.700 --> 32:46.700 I'm gonna be humble. I'm gonna learn. I'm not gonna get out of my 32:47.320 --> 32:51.600 Lane here or get out of place and then when the time comes 32:52.140 --> 32:54.400 Then I will step up to that position of leadership 32:54.400 --> 32:58.600 And I'm gonna use it for the glory of God and I want to do double and here's the thing 32:58.600 --> 33:05.180 I would love to see man that I've trained for the ministry do double the works that I've done and 33:06.360 --> 33:12.200 You know what? Honestly, I believe that they will I believe that some of these guys are going to outperform 33:12.200 --> 33:16.160 And out do me now here's the thing last time I check it's not a contest anyway 33:16.720 --> 33:23.320 You know, we're all on the same team. We're all serving God and there's thing not everybody is necessarily gonna achieve 33:23.320 --> 33:28.340 The same levels, you know, but at the end of the day, we're all on the same team 33:28.340 --> 33:30.820 We're all doing what we can do 33:30.820 --> 33:34.780 We're taking the talents and abilities God has given us and doing the best we can with them 33:34.780 --> 33:39.560 It's not a contest. Some people are gonna pastor a smaller church 33:39.560 --> 33:44.200 They're gonna be in a smaller area or more difficult area more unreceptive area 33:44.200 --> 33:49.500 Other people are gonna pastor in bigger places bigger cities bigger opportunities 33:49.500 --> 33:56.040 And then here's things some people are just gonna have more more of a gift more talent more ability than others 33:56.040 --> 33:59.020 Some people are just gonna be better speakers than others, you know 33:59.020 --> 34:03.220 Just have more energy than others more intellect than others more charisma than others 34:03.220 --> 34:07.840 You know at the end of the day, we all just need to do the best we can with what we've got and 34:08.780 --> 34:11.160 not be in a in a contest about 34:11.700 --> 34:14.140 ego and pride and 34:14.200 --> 34:14.640 whatever 34:15.640 --> 34:22.380 But here's the thing. There's nothing wrong with having an ambition and saying hey, man pastor Anderson did this great work for God 34:22.380 --> 34:24.760 I'd love to do double that in my lifetime like that 34:24.760 --> 34:31.400 That's not a bad thought as long as it's coming from a right attitude a humble attitude that says you know what? 34:31.700 --> 34:39.540 Hey, I want to be greatly used by God. I want to do more. I want to serve more, but before honor comes humility 34:40.400 --> 34:44.460 No one will ever be a great leader without being a great follower first 34:45.480 --> 34:53.100 first you have to be a great church member and look if you're not gonna be respectful to your pastor and 34:53.100 --> 34:55.580 respectful to your mentor and 34:55.580 --> 35:02.960 Actually like be a blessing to him and be a blessing to the church family when you're in a lower position lower status 35:02.960 --> 35:06.620 Then why would God give you success in the higher status? 35:07.800 --> 35:09.700 Right if you're not going to be a good church member 35:09.700 --> 35:14.680 You're not going to be a good pastor and there's the thing even if we just put the ministry aside 35:15.180 --> 35:22.820 You know you've got to learn as a child as a teenager to honor your father and mother or you're not going to succeed for the rest of 35:22.820 --> 35:23.340 your life 35:24.540 --> 35:30.440 You know and it's like and then you go get a job you've got to learn to be respectful to that boss at work 35:31.720 --> 35:38.840 You got to be respectful to the authorities that are in your life to the people who are training you the people that are teaching you 35:38.840 --> 35:40.840 teachers mentors 35:42.440 --> 35:43.440 bosses parents 35:44.000 --> 35:46.100 Whoever it is that's guiding you 35:46.940 --> 35:51.720 You got to listen to those people you got to respect those people and then eventually 35:51.720 --> 35:59.300 Someday God will give you the position of leadership and you'll be able to do a good job as a leader because you were a good job as 35:59.300 --> 36:06.440 A follower I mean that's what the Bible says that if you're faithful in little you'll be faithful in much if you're faithful with another man's 36:06.440 --> 36:08.340 Then you'll be entrusted with your own 36:09.040 --> 36:14.200 Okay, and that is the way life works and unfortunately there are just so many bozos 36:14.200 --> 36:18.820 So many idiots that just feel like oh well, you know 36:18.820 --> 36:23.240 Pastor Anderson, you know they want it they basically want to be under my tutelage 36:23.240 --> 36:27.140 But then they want to also think that I'm stupid or that I'm an idiot or that I'm wrong 36:27.140 --> 36:29.480 It's like well, which one is it bro? 36:30.700 --> 36:35.260 You know, it's like you can't just back. Well, I'm gonna train under a lot and I'm not saying that I'm Elijah 36:35.800 --> 36:39.580 I'm saying you can't be a life shot and back. Well, I'm gonna train under Elijah 36:40.180 --> 36:45.000 But I think Elijah's you know kind of dumb and I'm gonna I'm just gonna do way better 36:45.000 --> 36:50.720 I'm just gonna be where no no because what does he say? I want a double portion of your spirit. He's not saying 36:51.280 --> 36:53.040 I'm smarter. I'm better 36:53.540 --> 36:57.500 Let me just tell you how things are done. Let me tear you down 36:57.500 --> 37:03.200 Let me trash you and hurt you so that I can lift myself up. No, no, it's more like no no no man 37:03.200 --> 37:09.900 I admire you. I love you. I see what you're doing and I want a double portion of your spirit 37:09.900 --> 37:13.480 I want to be like you and then just take it to another level 37:14.220 --> 37:19.800 That's the right way to learn, you know, it's like this in anything. This is forget church 37:19.800 --> 37:22.680 I mean imagine going to the kung fu gym or something 37:22.680 --> 37:27.420 And you're gonna tell the Grand Master or whatever. I don't know Grand Master Flash or whatever the guy's called 37:27.420 --> 37:34.740 You know, you're gonna tell him how to do kung fu and oh, well, I I'm gonna be better than him 37:34.740 --> 37:38.140 It's like shut up, bro. You need to just learn from the guru 37:39.260 --> 37:40.240 You see what I'm saying? 37:41.200 --> 37:45.300 And again, this doesn't mean that you don't think this doesn't mean that you don't have your own opinions 37:45.300 --> 37:46.860 It's just that you respect 37:47.640 --> 37:53.180 Authority and that you respect your teachers and you respect your mentors and maybe you even think to yourself 37:53.180 --> 37:58.240 Hey, I'm not sure that they're right about this. Okay. Keep studying your Bible. Keep reading your Bible 37:58.240 --> 38:05.600 Keep serving God and someday when it's your turn, you know, you can work on those things and prove those things and test those things and 38:05.600 --> 38:06.100 do better 38:07.320 --> 38:08.760 But you've got to 38:08.760 --> 38:11.540 Go the right way and I'm telling you 38:11.540 --> 38:15.780 Elijah passing the mantle to Elisha is a beautiful thing 38:15.780 --> 38:23.880 Moses passing the authority to Joshua is a beautiful thing. But unfortunately the baton is usually fumbled in the Bible 38:24.620 --> 38:28.400 Right, it's beautiful when it's passed from one generation to the other 38:28.400 --> 38:35.900 But how many times is the baton get fumbled in kings and chronicles and in the book of judges where there's a gap 38:35.900 --> 38:43.180 Because there's just nobody carrying the torch from the the the the previous leader. Okay 38:44.880 --> 38:45.480 And 38:45.480 --> 38:49.700 Again, I'm not claiming to be anything like Elijah. I'm not claiming to be perfect 38:49.700 --> 38:52.000 I'm not claiming to be right about everything 38:52.000 --> 38:58.380 But but here's the thing if somebody wants to be trained at Faithful Word Baptist Church and 38:58.380 --> 39:01.940 Trained by pastor Anderson and looks to pastor Anderson as a mentor 39:01.940 --> 39:08.460 Then it wouldn't really make sense for that person to then be acting like oh pastor Anderson's bad or an idiot 39:08.460 --> 39:10.380 Or it's just like well, how's that gonna work? 39:10.940 --> 39:17.760 You know and it's just and you get too many people that are too big for their britches and they're prideful and they're envious and 39:17.760 --> 39:19.960 They're arrogant or they just don't want to wait their turn 39:20.640 --> 39:27.700 You know Elisha had to wait his turn and when his turn came he got the double portion, but he had to wait his turn 39:29.200 --> 39:34.300 Unfortunately, you know, you got people who want to be in the ministry for the wrong reason like Gehazi 39:34.760 --> 39:39.000 He's just for his own self just his own gratification his own 39:39.000 --> 39:44.360 You know greed he wants to be in the ministry and then you got other people that just have such a big ego 39:44.360 --> 39:52.400 They just can't pour hands on the water of the mentor and learn from him and grow and wait their turn and be successful 39:52.400 --> 39:54.660 It's really a shame, you know 39:54.660 --> 40:01.680 Because and look I'm super happy that I've been able to train some great pastors that are out there doing great work for God 40:01.680 --> 40:05.680 But you know honestly like I feel like it should have been a lot more by now 40:05.680 --> 40:08.540 And it should be a lot more in the future, you know 40:08.540 --> 40:14.080 And it's like where are where are the guys at that are going to be that next generation? 40:14.680 --> 40:18.720 That are gonna preach and turn this world upside down with the gospel of Christ, you know 40:18.720 --> 40:21.040 It'd be great to get them trained 40:21.040 --> 40:26.440 But you know what it's gonna take some humble men who want to be serving God for the right reason and 40:27.860 --> 40:32.100 Unfortunately, Elisha doesn't have that so he's stuck with Joe Ash and so 40:32.100 --> 40:34.600 Joe Ash is crying and saying oh 40:35.420 --> 40:41.700 My father my father the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof and Elisha said to him take bow and arrows 40:41.700 --> 40:46.520 And he took on him bow and arrows and he said to the king of Israel put that hand upon the bow 40:46.520 --> 40:51.540 And he put his hand upon it and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands 40:51.540 --> 40:57.220 And so again, you know the symbolism here is Elisha is trying to pass something on to the next generation 40:57.220 --> 41:00.840 He's trying to teach him something. He's trying to show him something. It's like here 41:00.840 --> 41:07.620 Look, it's like the classic teaching someone how to shoot a bow and arrow putting your hand on their hand and showing them and standing behind them 41:07.620 --> 41:08.900 It's showing them exactly how it's done 41:10.540 --> 41:13.800 Obviously Joe Ash knows how to shoot a bow, but it's symbolic here 41:13.800 --> 41:18.900 Okay, he's putting his hands on his hands and he's having him and he shoot the arrow 41:18.900 --> 41:20.840 And he says open the window eastward verse 17 41:20.840 --> 41:26.320 He opened it then Elisha said shoot and he shot and he said the arrow of the Lord's deliverance 41:26.320 --> 41:31.960 The arrow of deliverance from Syria for thou shalt smite the Syrians and affect till thou have consumed them 41:31.960 --> 41:37.760 And he said take the arrows and he took them and he said to the king of Israel smite upon the ground 41:37.760 --> 41:39.920 And he smote thrice and stayed 41:40.640 --> 41:44.620 Meaning that he hits the ground three times and then he stops 41:45.620 --> 41:46.220 okay 41:47.040 --> 41:48.240 Now apparently 41:48.960 --> 41:53.340 The instruction seems to have been clear that he's supposed to keep hitting the ground 41:53.340 --> 41:58.760 But yet he hits the ground three times and then just kind of stops like okay now what and 42:00.400 --> 42:06.380 The man of God was Roth with him and said thou shouldest have smitten five or six times 42:06.380 --> 42:13.260 Then that's how smitten Syria till that's consumed it. Whereas now thou shalt smite Syria, but thrice 42:13.260 --> 42:18.620 So, you know, he seems upset. I'm not sure how clear this instruction was or wasn't 42:18.620 --> 42:23.340 But he basically tells him to smite the ground he hits it three times and Elisha is like what's the deal? 42:23.460 --> 42:28.240 That's not enough. You should have done five or six because however many times you smote the ground 42:28.240 --> 42:31.460 That's how many times you're gonna defeat Syria 42:31.460 --> 42:36.400 Now you're only gonna defeat them three times and that's not gonna be enough to completely take them out 42:36.400 --> 42:42.940 And Elisha died and they buried him and the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming of the year 42:42.940 --> 42:47.640 And we'll get that in a moment. So the point is that you know, I 42:47.640 --> 42:54.980 If you were to think of a theme for this whole chapter that kind of connects the beginning to the end is that you know 42:54.980 --> 42:57.180 Joe Ash not going all the way 42:57.720 --> 43:03.780 Right and this is symbolized by him whole only hitting the ground five three times instead of five or six times 43:03.780 --> 43:09.860 He's not going all the way, you know, Elisha saying hey, you should have done more you should have gone further 43:09.860 --> 43:12.760 You didn't go all the way. You you did it halfway 43:13.800 --> 43:16.120 and really that's the story of 43:16.120 --> 43:20.700 The entire northern kingdom of like well, we're gonna worship Jehovah, but we're gonna keep the idols 43:20.700 --> 43:25.840 We're gonna keep the groves. They're half in half out when it comes to the Lord and 43:26.720 --> 43:31.000 So here he's being rebuked. He's frustrated. So Elijah 43:31.900 --> 43:33.200 He goes up to heaven 43:34.140 --> 43:38.040 Passing the mantle to a guy who's gonna do twice as good as he ever did 43:38.720 --> 43:44.200 You know, that's a beautiful story here Elisha dies angry and 43:44.200 --> 43:46.280 Frustrated with this bozo 43:46.840 --> 43:53.180 Joe ash who is not gonna defeat Syria. He's not gonna deliver Israel all the way 43:53.180 --> 43:57.740 He's an idolater. He's evil in the side of the Lord. And so it's frustrating for him 43:58.820 --> 44:04.620 And so, you know, I preached a sermon on this passage in the past also called go big or go home 44:05.120 --> 44:09.160 You know, it's like don't hit it three times hit it five or six times, right? 44:09.160 --> 44:11.740 If three is good five or six is better 44:11.740 --> 44:16.540 And this is the whole way that we should live our Christian lives is we should try to go big 44:16.540 --> 44:20.480 Try to go all the way try to be all the way in and you know again 44:20.480 --> 44:24.000 That's why I think the faithful word Baptist Church has been successful is 44:24.660 --> 44:31.600 Part of the reason is because we're all in and we push it hard and we push for the numbers and some people are like 44:31.600 --> 44:36.080 Oh numbers don't matter. Well, I don't know Elisha was a guy who thought that numbers mattered 44:37.220 --> 44:39.700 Because there's there's math involved 44:40.380 --> 44:45.600 Both when Elisha starts his ministry and when Elisha ends his ministry, right? 44:45.940 --> 44:50.320 Because when Elisha starts his ministry, he says I want to do double and if you count 44:51.080 --> 44:56.140 He did twice as many miracles as Elijah and pronounced twice as many prophecies 44:56.900 --> 44:59.620 So Elisha starts his ministry by doing double 45:00.920 --> 45:05.680 Elisha ends his ministry by saying to the guy who follows him you did half 45:06.460 --> 45:14.540 Because three is half of six and so he's basically like started by doing double and then the next generation is like I'm gonna do half 45:15.280 --> 45:18.140 He's like, why are you doing half man? Go all the way 45:18.140 --> 45:22.520 Don't be halfway about your Christian life. And you know, here's the thing 45:22.520 --> 45:31.600 There are some numbers to the Christian life, you know some 60 some 30 and some 100 those are numbers. Oh 45:31.600 --> 45:33.880 God doesn't care about numbers. This whole book called numbers 45:36.080 --> 45:42.700 How come in the book of Acts? It's like 3,000 added to the church 5,000 out of the church if God doesn't care about numbers 45:42.700 --> 45:44.060 You explain that 45:44.940 --> 45:46.360 Because numbers do matter 45:47.320 --> 45:51.280 And so we at our church, you know, we try to put in 45:51.880 --> 45:52.400 Hours 45:53.040 --> 45:57.640 Out soul winning, you know, we try to do a great number of 45:57.640 --> 46:00.620 missions trips numbers of 46:00.620 --> 46:05.420 Trips to the Indian reservation trips to Flagstaff trips to other small towns 46:05.420 --> 46:06.880 You know, we're putting in 46:07.420 --> 46:12.240 hours and numbers and numbers of soul winners and numbers of 46:12.240 --> 46:16.340 Salvation that we're trying to achieve numbers of mission strips, you know 46:16.340 --> 46:23.320 And it ends up being more result because we crunch the numbers and we push for the numbers and we say 46:23.320 --> 46:25.360 Hey, we don't want to do half. We want to do double 46:26.340 --> 46:30.700 Right. Elisha is a double kind of a guy. Joe adds to the half kind of a guy 46:31.200 --> 46:33.800 You know, we don't want to be halfway Baptist 46:34.270 --> 46:37.340 Right. We want to be double portion Baptist church 46:38.100 --> 46:42.460 Okay, we want to do twice as much not half as much as our potential 46:43.380 --> 46:49.140 And so here's the thing, you know, maybe you should look at some of the numbers of your Christian life 46:49.750 --> 46:55.580 And say, hey, maybe my Bible reading should be doubled because maybe I'm doing half what I should be doing 46:56.400 --> 47:00.300 And look, I'm not prescribing any wild and crazy Bible reading plans 47:00.300 --> 47:03.740 But you know what I think you should read the Bible cover to cover at least once a year 47:04.580 --> 47:10.260 And that's not crazy. That's 20 minutes a day. So, you know what you say, well, I'm reading one chapter a day 47:10.260 --> 47:11.980 Well, let's you know, let's double that 47:13.760 --> 47:18.720 Right, let's get you from one chapter to two chapters. Let's get you from two chapters to four chapters 47:19.400 --> 47:24.740 You know, let's think about your soul winning and let's think about getting those numbers up now 47:24.740 --> 47:27.600 Look, we can't control the number of salvations 47:28.100 --> 47:35.420 Right. I don't think that God is expecting us to control the number of salvations because we can take the horse to the water 47:35.420 --> 47:36.360 But we can't make him drink 47:37.240 --> 47:41.080 I could go out and work my butt off out soul winning and get zero saved 47:41.660 --> 47:43.440 And that's going to happen from time to time 47:43.440 --> 47:49.740 But he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seeds shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him 47:49.740 --> 47:51.700 Eventually you're going to get people saved 47:52.860 --> 47:59.660 If you never get people saved something's wrong with you, okay as a soul winner, but it's not always going to happen immediately 48:00.260 --> 48:04.240 Sometimes you do have those dry spells sometimes you're going to have to put it in the long hours 48:04.240 --> 48:05.900 But let me tell you something, you know 48:05.900 --> 48:10.160 God doesn't expect us to make people get saved. We can't make people get saved 48:10.160 --> 48:16.420 God just expects us to go out there and bear the precious seed and preach the gospel to every creature 48:16.420 --> 48:18.900 And it's up to them whether they get saved or not 48:18.900 --> 48:22.740 We can just do our best to be a spirit-filled preacher of the gospel out there 48:22.740 --> 48:25.040 Winning souls to christ the best that we can 48:25.760 --> 48:26.920 And so here's the thing 48:27.520 --> 48:31.080 You know get out there and put in the time 48:31.580 --> 48:33.260 Put in the hours 48:34.080 --> 48:39.580 And you will get the results ultimately, you know, and and you say well, I really want to get the numbers of 48:39.580 --> 48:41.620 Salvation's up. I want to boost my salvation numbers 48:41.620 --> 48:45.480 Well, really the only way to do that is to either put in more time 48:45.480 --> 48:48.540 Or to physically go to a more receptive place 48:49.160 --> 48:52.140 Because obviously in phoenix, it's hard to get people saved 48:52.140 --> 48:57.780 You know so we can fill up a van full of people and go soul winning for an hour and we get one salvation 48:57.780 --> 49:04.060 Right if we took all those same people and we're magically in the Bahamas and we went soul winning for an hour 49:04.060 --> 49:06.360 We're going to get probably more than one salvation 49:07.040 --> 49:09.700 If we're on if we're on the Apache reservation 49:09.700 --> 49:11.720 We're probably going to get a bunch of salvation 49:12.220 --> 49:18.580 If we're in Guyana if we're in the Caribbean somewhere if we're you know somewhere receptive 49:18.900 --> 49:24.180 For in a good and look there are some hot spots around here where you have some some good neighborhoods for soul winning 49:24.180 --> 49:28.820 You you run into those spots, but at the end of the day, you know, you want to get more people saved 49:28.820 --> 49:32.480 You got to either put in more time or go to more receptive places 49:32.480 --> 49:37.080 Go on mission strips. I'm sure if you went to the philippines and work with pastor Stucky 49:38.180 --> 49:40.120 You're probably going to get bocu salvations 49:40.660 --> 49:44.620 You know preaching the gospel in receptive places in a receptive country and whatever 49:44.620 --> 49:50.560 You know if you learn Spanish and go to Mexico, you know, you're probably going to be able to get a bunch of people saved 49:50.560 --> 49:54.580 And so here's the thing, you know, we should want to do something big with our lives 49:55.300 --> 50:00.380 And and so, you know, why don't we think about maybe if you're just barely half in and half out 50:00.380 --> 50:06.660 You know think about boosting your bible reading and you know what get out a calculator or do the math in your head 50:06.660 --> 50:09.220 But you know what it's about numbers my friend 50:10.060 --> 50:13.020 You know, it's it's how many minutes are you spending in your bible? 50:13.620 --> 50:18.440 How many verses are you memorizing? How many minutes are you spending praying? 50:19.000 --> 50:23.740 How many hours are you spending out soul winning? How many people are you preaching the gospel to? 50:24.060 --> 50:28.480 How many missions trips are you going to go on? How many weekend trips are you going to go on? 50:28.820 --> 50:33.780 I guarantee you you do the numbers you change the math and you're going to change the outcome 50:33.780 --> 50:35.440 You're going to change the results 50:37.080 --> 50:41.700 You know in a lot of churches what they care about is just how many people 50:41.700 --> 50:43.780 They could pack into their auditorium 50:43.780 --> 50:49.140 And how much money they could put in their bank account those are the numbers that they think about 50:49.140 --> 50:51.920 They're just thinking about attendance and money 50:52.520 --> 50:57.300 Right, but you know what we're thinking about is more like well, how many doors can we knock 50:58.220 --> 51:00.120 How many mission strips can we take? 51:00.840 --> 51:06.560 How many salvations can we get how many people can we baptize right? That's what we're thinking about 51:06.560 --> 51:10.900 Those are the kind of numbers that we're thinking about we're thinking about like spiritual 51:11.700 --> 51:15.520 Eternal value kind of numbers, but we still care about numbers my friend 51:15.520 --> 51:21.360 So we're going to take all the money in the bank and we're going to drain that bank account to get everybody out soul winning 51:21.360 --> 51:25.960 And out doing missions so we can boost the number that matters, which is the salvation number 51:26.680 --> 51:31.540 Because that's what we care about. That's our value. That's our priority around here. Okay 51:32.860 --> 51:38.300 And so don't be halfway about anything that you do and take 51:39.400 --> 51:40.680 A look at your life 51:41.180 --> 51:44.420 Take inventory and say am I smiting the ground three times? 51:44.900 --> 51:46.980 When I should be smiting at five or six 51:47.560 --> 51:52.200 You know, am I spending this much time when I should be spending this much time? 51:52.520 --> 51:56.720 You know, how much effort are you putting into your christian life because you know 51:56.720 --> 52:02.260 I guarantee you that there are a lot of people who are putting a lot of effort into a lot of things that that aren't spiritual 52:02.780 --> 52:06.280 And it's like maybe you should redirect some of that effort into something for god 52:07.900 --> 52:13.060 Because at the end of the day only one life so soon has passed and only what's done for christ will last 52:14.100 --> 52:15.600 And so elisha 52:16.200 --> 52:17.120 He's already done 52:17.600 --> 52:23.360 I mean a lot. Well, he's not quite done because he almost doubled the miracles. He's one miracle short 52:24.040 --> 52:26.080 So here's where he gets the final miracle 52:26.680 --> 52:32.660 It says it came to pass as they were burying a man in verse 21 that behold they spied a band of men 52:33.300 --> 52:39.640 So here the mobites are burying somebody and all of a sudden they're under attack like while they're burying their guy 52:39.640 --> 52:42.600 They're under attack. They're like we got to get out of here 52:43.220 --> 52:45.160 So they don't finish burying the guy 52:47.220 --> 52:50.320 So then they end up just casting the man into 52:51.840 --> 52:53.500 The sepulchre of elisha 52:54.080 --> 52:58.340 And when the man was let down and touched the bones of elisha he revived in so his feet 52:58.340 --> 53:01.320 So basically they're like we just got to toss this body in a hole 53:01.320 --> 53:05.300 And they happen to toss it into the sepulcher of elisha 53:05.300 --> 53:11.700 They throw the body in and the dead body comes into contact with elisha's bones 53:12.600 --> 53:15.220 And the body just is revived and comes back to life 53:15.220 --> 53:19.420 So elisha is performing one final miracle from the grave 53:20.140 --> 53:23.200 That rounds out his double portion 53:23.840 --> 53:29.160 Because he was one miracle short and he gets it posthumously a posthumous miracle 53:29.160 --> 53:30.080 You know what? 53:30.100 --> 53:34.760 I like this story because it makes me think about the fact that I preach all these sermons and they've been recorded 53:35.180 --> 53:38.360 And people get saved watching the by the way to heaven many I just met a guy 53:38.940 --> 53:43.560 Last week who said that he got saved from the soul winning demonstration 53:44.040 --> 53:49.140 And it's like hey, you know what that soul winning demonstration god willing is going to be online 53:49.580 --> 53:51.140 hopefully even after i'm dead 53:52.080 --> 53:57.260 And hopefully other corpses can come into contact with my dead bones 53:57.800 --> 54:03.080 And be saved and so here's the thing you know what this tells me is that we leave a legacy even after we're dead 54:03.860 --> 54:05.620 Even after you're physically dead 54:05.620 --> 54:10.180 Even if it's not like me where it's like mp3s of sermons that i'm hoping survive 54:10.720 --> 54:15.320 And continue somehow, but you know what even how about just the people that you've 54:15.320 --> 54:17.960 Touched the people that you've trained people that you've won to christ 54:17.960 --> 54:21.180 They can continue to do the work after you're gone 54:21.720 --> 54:24.540 And so your works will continue even after you're dead hopefully 54:25.460 --> 54:29.560 And then you know the chapter ends with you know hasale 54:29.560 --> 54:35.780 Oppressing is real and then of course it talks about how you know they fought against them and 54:35.780 --> 54:39.540 You know the three times and so forth. They don't get all the way there 54:39.540 --> 54:43.480 But just you know my encouragement to you this evening is you know 54:43.480 --> 54:47.840 Just take a look at your life and think about if you are half in and half out 54:47.960 --> 54:51.080 Or what you can double think about some numbers 54:51.080 --> 54:56.020 You know double your prayer time double your library and look maybe you're already reading the bible enough 54:56.020 --> 55:01.960 Then just keep doing it because i'm not saying that you need to double everything. I don't care how much you're doing double it 55:01.960 --> 55:02.900 I might be too much 55:04.120 --> 55:09.360 But i'm saying if you're lean on bible reading if you're lean on prayer if you're lean on soul winning 55:09.360 --> 55:12.760 You know let's get those numbers up. Let's double that let's boost that 55:13.500 --> 55:17.700 Let's get all the way in because you know what life is too short 55:17.960 --> 55:19.420 To be a joe ash 55:20.320 --> 55:24.260 And you know what's so funny about joe ash is he's such he's such an elisha fan 55:25.300 --> 55:25.740 Right 55:26.460 --> 55:29.460 But he's such a loser in his own personal life 55:30.340 --> 55:35.620 You know what it reminds me of it reminds me of these like super out of shape people who love to follow sports 55:36.240 --> 55:37.760 I'll never understand that 55:38.520 --> 55:42.500 Like if if i were super out of shape i'd be like 55:43.120 --> 55:45.100 I don't want to think about sports because it's depressing 55:46.540 --> 55:51.680 But i mean you have just like morbidly obese people that just love watching 55:52.120 --> 55:55.600 All these like really fit athletes do sports 55:56.900 --> 56:02.500 Which and look i'm not if that's you i'm not mad at you i'm not criticizing you i've just never been into it 56:03.100 --> 56:05.120 Anyway, so i'm not really in a place to judge 56:05.840 --> 56:09.400 Okay, because i just don't really follow professional sports and i never have 56:09.900 --> 56:14.000 It's one of those things where if your dad's into it you're into it my dad wasn't into it so i'm not 56:15.100 --> 56:17.200 But but but you know when i think about these guys 56:17.640 --> 56:21.100 Who are just super out of shape, but they're just super into sports 56:21.840 --> 56:25.540 You know to me i think there's some people out there like that spiritually 56:26.320 --> 56:32.040 Who are basically they love listening to the preaching and they're downloading all the sermons and listen to the preaching 56:32.040 --> 56:34.080 And they're doing like nothing for god 56:34.920 --> 56:37.140 That's that's what i think of when i think of joe ash 56:37.140 --> 56:38.760 That's what joe ash is like 56:39.320 --> 56:45.020 Joe ash is like the biggest fan. I mean when elisa's dying. He's there. He's a huge fan 56:45.940 --> 56:46.960 massive fan 56:47.480 --> 56:49.260 Oh, my father my father 56:49.820 --> 56:53.520 The chariots of israel the horseman there. He's bringing up elisa's greatest hits 56:54.200 --> 56:59.500 Hey, i remember when you said that remember you said that when elijah went to heaven you said that 56:59.500 --> 57:01.760 That was so cool when you said that 57:02.440 --> 57:03.820 Right. He's a huge fan 57:04.780 --> 57:06.660 But in his own personal life 57:07.340 --> 57:07.820 He's 57:08.340 --> 57:08.720 half 57:09.480 --> 57:10.560 Of what he should be 57:11.360 --> 57:15.820 And god looks down at him and says well you got this gross sin of idolatry. So 57:16.340 --> 57:18.940 You know pass fail you fail 57:19.900 --> 57:22.660 You know, i mean it's it's it's i wonder how many 57:24.020 --> 57:26.220 Failures are listening to my preaching 57:26.840 --> 57:31.640 And are huge pastor anderson fans, you know what i mean? It's like what get out 57:31.640 --> 57:35.360 Why don't you get out on the field and play the game? 57:36.680 --> 57:38.960 Instead of just being a spectator be a participant 57:40.460 --> 57:46.240 Get in your bible yourself get out soul winning get on your knees and start praying and do something for god 57:47.160 --> 57:50.920 And you know what here's the thing like i'm not saying you're going to be a professional football player 57:51.440 --> 57:55.180 You know, maybe you're in your 40s 50s 60s. Yeah, you're not going to be a professional football player 57:55.180 --> 57:59.620 But you know what can you at least go in the front yard and throw the ball around a little 58:00.580 --> 58:04.640 Can we at least play catch with the football? Can we at least play three flies up? 58:04.640 --> 58:06.660 Can we at least do some flag football? 58:08.500 --> 58:10.320 Can you at least run around the block? 58:11.960 --> 58:13.940 Can you at least do a single push-up? 58:16.220 --> 58:20.380 And look everybody's going to be different we're all at different levels spiritually 58:20.380 --> 58:22.880 We're all growing and we're all in the same team 58:22.880 --> 58:28.040 But you know what let's all look at ourselves and see if some numbers need to be boosted 58:29.020 --> 58:32.360 Let's borrow it's not word of prayer father. We thank you so much for your word lord 58:32.360 --> 58:34.300 We thank you for the example of lisha 58:35.100 --> 58:36.120 and and that 58:37.000 --> 58:43.180 Passing of the torch to the next generation successfully and doing twice as much and then also thank you for the bad example of joe ash 58:43.180 --> 58:44.600 Which is a halfway 58:46.260 --> 58:50.680 Failed attempt at the next generation lord help us to take an inventory 58:51.500 --> 58:55.200 And get our lives on track for you lord to the best of our ability and lord 58:55.200 --> 58:57.060 If there's anybody here who has 58:57.540 --> 59:01.440 Massive sin in their lives and just is ready to just quit and throw in the towel lord 59:01.440 --> 59:06.180 I pray that they just wouldn't give up and that they would just keep pushing and try to do a little better tomorrow 59:06.180 --> 59:07.840 And in jesus name we pray amen