there in 1 Kings chapter 17.
We're going to look at 17 and 18 tonight,
and I'm going to preach a sermon entitled
The Man of God, Elijah.
And I just want to go through here
and get a few points out of the life
and the ministry of Elijah.
Of course, if we were to go through
the whole ministry of Elijah,
you know, we'd be here for, you know, quite, you know,
several sermons can be preached out of it.
But we're just going to look at these first two chapters
and kind of see if we can't draw some application here.
But mainly I want us to help us understand some truths
about the man of God, about the man of God.
And, you know, a man of God is somebody who is unique.
You know, it's a unique calling in life to be a man of God.
And, you know, if we're in church,
we have a man of God in our life.
You know, if we're in a church, you know,
the preacher is the man of God.
Today, of course, you know,
Elijah was called the man of God,
and he was a prophet, he was a preacher.
But, you know, we can look into the New Testament
where men like Timothy are called a man of God
that are pastors, that are preachers.
So this is an applicable term, you know,
and the point being that if we're in church, you know,
you have a man of God in your life, wah, okay?
So, you know, it might not be the man of God you wanted,
but you're stuck with him, all right?
And, you know, the man of God serves an important lives
of a certain purpose in our lives.
And, you know, I think back on the men of God in my life
and think about how much they helped form me and shape me
and made me into the man I am today.
You know, that was a great credit to the men of God
in my past, you know?
So the man of God is somebody who plays
a very important role in our lives, at least they should.
And we need to understand that their position
is not a common one.
You know, you can't just find a man of God anywhere.
You know, you can't, even in a lot of churches today,
in a lot of churches you'll walk in there,
you'll find a woman of God, so-called, right?
Standing up behind a pulpit.
Or you'll see a man of God who's not really a man of God,
he's just there to, you know, collect paycheck
or just try to, you know, earn some kind of earthly reward.
You know, he's not in it for the right reasons, okay?
So I just want to look at the life of Elijah here,
his ministry in these two chapters,
and just draw some points about the man of God, Elijah.
And let's first of all look at his making,
the making of the man of God.
You know, Elijah's an interesting character
because he just kind of comes out of nowhere.
He just kind of comes out on the scene
all of a sudden there in 1 Kings 17, verse one,
it says, And Elijah the Tishbite,
who was of the inhabitants of Gilead.
And that's really all the background we have on him.
We just know that he was a Tishbite, you know,
which was a city, which was in Gilead, that region.
And that's really it, you know.
And I think that God kind of did that on purpose
to show us that, you know, the call to ministry
is open to those who desire it.
And this is important to understand
because there's a lot of people
that will teach the strange thing about, you know,
you have to have a very specific, you know,
God-given call on your life
in order to come into the ministry.
And it's only for certain people,
but that's really not what the Bible teaches.
And with Elijah, we see him just coming out of obscurity,
just coming out of nowhere.
He wasn't, you know, he's like Amos.
He wasn't the son of a prophet,
at least that we don't know.
I mean, he doesn't say that he was.
He just kind of comes out of nowhere.
He comes out of Gilead and all of a sudden
he's got this great ministry.
Now, you know, the ministry is open to those that desire it,
but, and if you would go over to 1 Timothy chapter three,
I know we actually go to 2 Timothy chapter three,
2 Timothy chapter three.
We know that it's open to those who desire it,
but of course we understand that there's, you know,
there are certain qualifications that have to be met.
You know, you have to meet certain qualifications
if you're going to be a preacher,
if you're going to be a pastor,
if you're going to be a deacon,
if you're going to be a man of God.
Yes, it's open, you know, but it's,
within that, that doesn't mean that there's no requirements.
People have to meet certain requirements.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter three, verse one,
this is a true saying,
if a man desire the office of a bishop,
that's not good enough.
He has to have this mystical calling on his life
in order to fulfill that office.
No, it says in 1 Timothy chapter three, verse one,
that if a man desire the office of a bishop,
he desire the good work.
And then it goes on and gives us the qualifications
for the man of God that we know have to be there.
Well, look, the most, if the desire is,
who's eligible to be a man of God?
The guy who has the desire.
The guy who needs the qualifications.
Not just the guy who, you know, went to some Bible college
and paid a bunch of money and got a rubber stamp
on a piece of paper and said, you're a pastor now.
I know you are not married.
I know you don't have any kids,
but go ahead and be a pastor now.
Go ahead and lead people.
Now you're a man of God.
You know, that's the real irony, you know,
is that some people that want to teach this,
this mystical calling of, you know,
the call to the ministry,
the room has to be filled with light.
All my hair stood on end.
I heard an audible voice from heaven, preach the Bible.
You know, that's, those are the same people
that are gonna teach that.
They're the same people that'll send out unqualified guys.
They're the same people that say, oh, it's a very elect,
very elitist, very special calling.
It's mystical, it's magical.
You know, it's not for everybody.
But then they'll just totally ignore 1 Timothy three.
They'll just totally ignore, you know, Titus one
and just send out whoever.
Just send out some guy who doesn't even meet
the actual literal biblical qualifications
that are just laid out plain as the nose
on your face in scripture.
Those guys that, you know, they'll say,
well, yeah, anybody can do it, you know,
as long as they have some kind of divine calling
on their life.
Look, it's a bunch of nonsense.
And it's trying to, what they're doing
is they're trying to make themselves feel more important
than they really are.
And here's the thing about it.
It's like, why do you need to puff yourself up like that?
Well, I'm a pastor because, you know,
I had this divine calling at some point in my life.
Isn't just being the pastor or being the preacher,
doesn't that make you feel important enough as it is?
I mean, it's already an important calling enough.
Why do we have to add this extra layer of,
you know, I was God called, you know?
And these other guys, you know,
they weren't God called like I was.
Look, the Bible says if a man desire, if a man desire,
you know, emphasis on the man these days, right?
But if a man desire the office of a bishop,
he desireth a good work.
You know, Paul wasn't trying to, you know,
tell Timothy to discourage other people
that had that desire to not do it.
So, you know, if he desires an office of a bishop, Timothy,
make sure, you know, he's had some kind of
a mystical calling in his life.
Make sure he's of a certain pedigree, you know,
or he's not gonna be good enough, right?
That's not what the Bible teaches.
Obviously, there are requirements in 1 Timothy 3
in Titus chapter one.
But there must be both a desire and the requirements.
These both have to be met, and if they are, guess what?
That means that it's open to anybody
that has that desire and that meets those qualifications.
It's open to anybody that can do that.
Now, I will say this.
You know, there doesn't have to be this mystical calling,
but certain attributes must be present
in those that desire the office of a bishop.
You know, if you desire to be a preacher,
if you desire to be a man of God,
there should be certain attributes that you,
you know, possess.
You know, and I've seen guys in the past that,
you know, they had the desire, they met the qualifications,
but there were just some things that are probably not,
they just weren't gonna cut it.
You know, one of those things you should probably have
that you should have, the attributes,
is you have what's been called the killer instinct,
you know, the ability to get up and just be mean
from behind the pulpit.
I'm not saying every sermon you have to get up
and tear people's faces off, you know,
but there has to be a time where, you know,
you can draw a hard line and say what the Bible says, okay?
The Bible says, if you're there in 2 Timothy verse 16,
it says, all scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for what?
For doctrine.
Look, there's a lot of guys that can get up
and teach a lot of really good doctrine, can't they?
They can get up and they can just clearly expound
all the deep things of God.
They can take all the hard things that are understood
and make them very plain and very easy to be understood.
You know, they can take the doctrine and teach it.
That's great.
It's also profitable for reproof and for correction.
You know, that's where some people lack.
You have to have both.
You can't just be this profound teacher.
You have to also be able to get up and rip face
when appropriate and say it like it is
and not hold back and preach the whole counsel of God.
That's why the scripture is given to us.
It's given by inspiration of God.
Why did he give it to us?
For doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction and righteousness,
that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
Look at chapter four, verse one.
I charge thee therefore before God
and before the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall judge the quick and the dead
and at his appearing and at his kingdom.
Preach the word.
You know, that's good advice for any preacher.
Anyone desires a preacher.
Well, I don't know what to preach.
Just preach the Bible.
Preach the word.
There's so much here to preach.
You know, just pick a chapter and preach it.
You know, we should always get obsessed
with having to come out with some kind of new thing
or try to impress people with our preaching.
You know, it's the basic truths.
It's the simple truths that need to be repeated.
These are the things that people need to hear.
Preach the word and you can't go wrong.
That's what I was always told.
Just preach the word and you can't go wrong.
Preach the word.
Be instant, in season, out of season.
But again, notice, reprove, rebuke and exhort.
Reprove, rebuke and exhort.
There's that killer instinct.
You have to be able to get up and say it like this.
You have to be willing to reprove.
You have to be willing to rebuke and to do the exhortation.
The exhortation's important, isn't it?
It's important to encourage people
and motivate people and inspire people.
But, you know, when I'm reading this list,
it's two negatives.
It's reprove and rebuke and then exhort.
And so it seems to me, you know,
if you're gonna preach the whole counsel of God,
you're gonna do a lot of negative preaching.
You know, you're gonna step on a lot of toes.
You have to be willing to do that.
You have to be willing to put yourself in that position
where people aren't gonna like you for what you said.
So now you can start to see why, you know,
the man of God is maybe a little bit more rare today.
Because not everybody's willing to do that.
Why a real man of God is a little bit more rare
to find today.
Because there's a lot of guys that are getting up
that wanna call themselves a man of God,
but they don't wanna do any reproving.
They don't wanna do any rebuking.
They just wanna preach, you know,
all the love and all that.
And look, there's a time and place for that.
I understand that.
But we wanna preach the whole counsel of the word of God.
I mean, look at, let's move on from Elijah's making.
Let's look at his message.
What kind of a preacher was Elijah, right?
Well, you know, it says there right in the beginning,
he starts just tearing face right away.
If you look there, you know,
he starts preaching about judgment.
That's one of the first things.
That was his first message that we see in scripture.
Elijah comes out of the scene out of nowhere
and it's like, okay, it's time to preach.
What are you gonna preach about?
Verse one.
And Elijah the Tishbite was of the inhabitants
of Gilead sent to Ahab.
Who was the king, by the way?
And he's preaching to one guy.
We're getting a little nervous
because it's a small crowd tonight.
But here's the thing.
You're all just as important as anybody else.
My family's here and I'll preach to you too.
You need to be edified.
You need to take the time to come out
and be here on a Sunday.
I'll preach to you just like I was preaching to 1,000.
But we say, oh, what kind of a servant's it's gonna be
when it's smaller and people are gone
and sick and whatever.
Well, at least it's not down to one wicked,
back-slitted guy like Ahab.
You know, I mean, that's what, that's,
you know, I go, oh, it's so hard to preach to a small crowd.
Yeah, go tell it to Elijah.
Go tell it to a guy whose first message
was to go up to the king of Israel
who had all this power,
who was just this wicked, heathen guy,
and rip his face, right?
You go up there and say, and it said unto Ahab,
as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand,
there shall not be dew nor rain in these years,
but according to my word.
I mean, his first message is that of judgment.
It wasn't, oh, Ahab, you know, God loves you,
and God wants his best for you,
and he wants the best for Israel,
and he really would like it.
No, it was like, hey, you know what?
God's gonna judge this country.
You know, God's gonna judge you.
There's not gonna be any rain for three years
until I say so.
I mean, right away, what else do we see in his ministry?
We see him calling out sin.
This is his message, right?
We see the making of the man of God.
Now we're looking at the message of the man of God.
Look at 1 Kings 18, verse 17.
And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah
that Ahab said unto him,
Art thou he that troubleth Israel?
You know, that's always the accusation
that people bring against the man of God.
You hear it so often.
You give Christians a bad name.
You're the reason why people are turning away from faith.
You know, woe unto you when all men speak well of you.
Or so do their fathers of the false prophets.
You know, it's actually a good thing
when people don't like the preacher.
It's actually a good thing when the Google reviews
are like in the negatives.
You know, it's actually a good thing
when you have the Facebook posts
where people are telling them how bad this church is
and everything like that.
That just tells me, oh, there must be a man of God there.
You know, when they're saying, oh, they trouble Tucson.
They trouble Arizona.
They're the troubler of Israel.
That was Ahab's take on it.
He said, I have not troubled Israel,
but thou and thy father's house.
I mean, you could just see him
pointing that finger right in his face.
You know, you're the problem, Ahab.
This is his message, right?
Of judgment and of what?
Of calling out sin.
This is the work of the man of God.
This is his making.
This is his message, calling out sin.
He said, he calls him out.
I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house
and that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord
and that thou hast followed Balaam.
I mean, he's just ripping face.
He's getting up and just immediately calling out sin.
You know, and this is what the ministry is.
This is what the man of God is called to do.
He calls out sin.
He calls out sinners and sin by name.
When appropriate, okay?
Go over to 1 Corinthians chapter 5,
1 Corinthians chapter 5.
In 1 Timothy 1, he said again,
This charge I committed thee, son Timothy,
according to the prophecies which went before on thee,
that thou by them mightest war good warfare,
holding faith and of good conscience,
and which some, concerning faith, have made shipwreck,
of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander.
Oh, I can't believe Paul just named the name.
Yeah, Paul names names.
When it's, you know, sometimes there's a time and place
to just name the name.
You know, and there's just,
there's nothing more frustrating
to watch preachers get up and just like,
just vaguely refer to people.
Just start.
One, I started dealing with it.
As soon as I decided I was gonna move to Phoenix, Arizona,
I had to listen to some preacher get up.
There's this guy out in Arizona.
It's like, well, I know who you're talking about.
Why don't you just say the name?
Why don't you actually just get up there
and preach like Elijah did and just call it out?
Why don't you be more like Paul and just,
if you feel that strongly about it,
why don't you just say the name?
And then people, you know, get all upset
when you do say, when you do call out names.
When you just say, hey, it's this person
that I'm talking about.
And then people wanna get all, you know,
touchy feely at that point.
Then it's like, oh, now you've crossed the line.
You've actually called out the name.
That's not what I see Paul doing.
I don't see him tiptoeing around, you know,
there's some people, certain people, you know,
who've made shipwreck concerning the faith.
Now, I don't wanna say who.
And everyone's like, well, we know who you're talking about.
That's what's so stupid about being vague from the pulpit.
Everyone already knows who you're referring to.
Why don't you just say it?
The reason why I don't wanna say it
is because then they can just say,
well, I was referring to them.
I was just speaking in general.
You know, and it's a total gaslighting maneuver
is what it is.
And he's saying, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander,
there I said it, whom I have delivered unto Satan,
that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Look at 1 Corinthians 5.
Look, the man of God, his message is to preach
against judgment, it's to call out sin.
It's not only just to call out sin,
it's to call out sin and sinners by name.
And of course, you wanna use discretion.
Obviously, I understand we're not gonna, you know,
if you come to the man of God and, you know,
you have some kind of dealing with him,
he's gonna just, you know, air your dirty laundry
to the whole congregation, I get that.
Well, there's certain sins that do get called out
in Scripture, 1 Corinthians 5, verse one,
he says it is reported commonly
that there's fornication among you
and such fornication is not so much as named
as among the Gentiles.
Paul's sitting here calling out the sin in the church.
Look, there's fornication among you.
Well, where does he, who does he think he is
calling out, you know, the sin in the church?
Well, here's the problem, it's reported commonly.
It's not like he's telling anybody anything new.
They already know, everyone already knows,
oh yeah, the Corinthians, you know,
that's what's going on in that church.
He's like, so I'm just gonna call it out.
And he gets real specific,
that one should have his father's wife
and he are puffed up and have not rather mourned
that he had done this,
he might be taken away from among you.
You think the Corinthians knew he was talking about?
Of course he did.
He says in verse five,
deliver such an one unto Satan
for the destruction of the flesh,
the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
I mean, he's just calling him out.
He calls out people in 2 Timothy chapter four,
you know, Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil.
The Lord rewarded him, therefore, according to his works.
He just calls them out right by name.
That is part of the ministry, calling out sin,
calling out sinners, calling out heretics,
calling out the false prophets,
and people get all upset when you do that,
but that is the ministry.
Well, I just don't think we should, you know,
talk about sin, you know, we shouldn't,
why would we have to call out people's sin?
Well, he said in Isaiah chapter 58,
cry out aloud, spare not,
lift up thy voice like a trumpet,
and show my people their transgression
in the house of Jacob their sins.
That's what God sent Isaiah to go do,
to cry aloud, just to lift up his voice
and actually call out sin.
That's his message.
You know, a lot of preachers don't wanna do that today.
You know, they don't wanna get up and just call out sin.
They don't wanna call a spade a spade.
You know why they don't wanna do it?
Because it comes with consequences.
And again, this is why the man of God
is becoming increasingly more rare today,
because people aren't stupid.
They know if they get up and they call out sin,
there's gonna be consequences.
I mean, how many times have we seen it?
You know, with our friends,
where, you know, some preacher gets up
and rips on the homos, and next thing you know,
they're throwing bombs through the window,
they're protesting, I mean, it's multiple times.
You know, well, there's only been one bombing,
but I mean, hey, how many do you need
to understand that when you get up and you call out sin,
there's going to be consequences.
Matthew chapter 14.
And look, the man of God has to live with that knowledge.
The man of God has to get up and preach these things
knowing there's probably gonna be consequences with this.
And if the man of God's not willing to do that,
you know what he needs to do?
Sit down and shut up.
Let somebody else do it, and let people go to a church
where that is gonna happen.
Because it comes with consequences.
Verse one, you know, John the Baptist.
You know, and John the Baptist didn't really preach
anything that controversial, did he?
It says in verse one, in that time Herod the tetrarch
heard of the fame of Jesus and said unto his servants,
this is John the Baptist, he is risen from the dead.
Now we know how he died, right?
He got beheaded in prison, right?
Well, what was he doing in prison?
Well, it says in verse three,
for Herod had laid hold on John and bound him
and put him in prison for Rhodias' sake,
his brother Philip's wife, for John said unto him,
it is not lawful for thee to have her.
He just said unto him,
it is not lawful for thee to have her.
He just said, hey, you know what?
It's not lawful for you to get divorced and remarried.
It's not lawful, it's not what the scripture teaches.
That landed him in jail, and eventually got,
and you know, and she gets so bitter, Herodias,
that she, you know, takes the opportunity
to have him beheaded.
Look, it's one, you know, it's the job of the man of God,
his message is to get up and to call out sin,
but he better understand that there are consequences.
You know, I remember sitting in a preaching class
and hearing, you know, Pastor Anderson making this
abundantly clear to the men in that,
and I think about this often,
is that he got up and said, you know what?
There's guys in this room who have the ability
that have the desire that they're gonna wash up
because they're not willing to pay the price
that you have to pay as a man of God.
You need to count the cost.
If you want to be a preacher,
if you want to take a stand for God,
to whatever degree in your life,
you need to be willing to pay the cost.
Count the cost beforehand.
You know, because the man of God
has to live with the knowledge that, you know what?
Someone might call CPS.
You know, some news crew might show up at my front door.
Did you really say?
You know, the death threats might come my way.
The bomb might get thrown in our window.
You know, there are consequences for calling out sin,
for calling out sinners,
but that is the message of the man of God.
And you know, but that's not all it is.
You know, it's also calling people to make decisions,
calling people to make changes in their lives.
It's not every sermon isn't just, you know,
ripping face here, tearing off the head there,
you know, and just putting everybody in their place
every sermon.
That's not it.
You know, I kind of talked about it this morning.
You know, we want to help people along and be gentle
and so on and so forth,
but there is a time and place to call it out.
But another part of his message,
if you're there in 1 Kings 18,
is to call people to make decisions.
He says in verse 21,
And Elijah came unto all the people and said,
How long halt ye between two opinions?
You know, people do this all the time in their life.
They know what they should do,
and then they know what they want to do.
They're like, Oh, I know I need to make this decision.
I know what the right decision is,
but I'm just going to stand here and halt.
And, or I'm just going to make the wrong one.
Now, sometimes they make the right one and that's great,
but that's part of the message.
You know, calling people to make decisions,
to make changes in their life.
He said, How long halt ye between two opinions?
If the Lord be God, follow him.
But if Baal, then follow him.
And the people answered him not a word.
They didn't know what to say.
They're just like, Oh, well, we don't know what to do.
So he says in verse 37, Hear me, O Lord, hear me,
that this people may know that thou art Lord, the Lord God,
and that thou has turned their heart back again.
And that's what his ministry was,
was to turn their heart back again.
You know, people are, you know,
so often just at a place in their life
where they need to start making decisions for God.
They need to start, you know, making changes in their life.
And they just need a man of God to come along
and to preach and to bring a message
and to pray and to put them over the edge.
To get them to make, not to just stand their halt,
but to actually nudge them in that direction.
Or, you know, run them off.
That's what he said.
If Baal be God, you know what, go serve him.
If that's what you want, you want Baal, you want all that,
you want the world, then just go do that.
But don't just stand here half in, half out.
Don't be lukewarm.
Either get in or get out.
You know, that's what the man of God does.
And we might as well just get used to it in this church.
That people are gonna come,
they're gonna get on fire for a little while,
and then they're gonna get drawn
to some kind of a decision in their life,
and they're either gonna make the right decision
or they're gonna make the wrong one.
They're either gonna serve God
or they're just gonna go back to where they were
before they got here.
And that's just the ministry, folks.
But, you know, and it's real tempting to just get up here,
you know, and, well, I guess it isn't real tempting,
but it could be real tempting for me to just get up here
and, well, let me just compromise everything we believe.
Let me just make this a more seeker-friendly church,
and, you know, so we can just get some big crowd in here.
But would people, what would that benefit anybody?
It wouldn't benefit anybody anything.
For them to just, I mean,
so we could feel like we have a big church,
but nobody's making decisions, no one's growing,
no one's moving in the right direction.
That's not what I want.
That's not what the man of God is called to.
The man of God is called to put people
in a place in their life where they have to make decisions
and make changes in their life.
That's what Joshua did.
He said, if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord
this day, choose this day whom you will serve.
You know, Jesus said, man cannot serve two masters.
He will love the one or hate the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon.
You have to make a decision.
People have to make decisions in their life
whether they're gonna serve God or mammon.
That's a very real decision that people have to make.
You know what?
And people don't always make the right decision.
And, you know, it's not, and I'm not, you know,
I'm the deacon here, I'm not your daddy.
I'm not gonna sit here, you know,
and try to just persuade everybody to do the right thing.
I'm just gonna tell you, here's the right thing,
here's the wrong thing, you decide.
You make up your mind what you wanna do with it.
He said, choose ye this day whom you serve,
whether the gods which your fathers serve,
the other side of the flood,
or the gods of the Amorites and whose land you dwell.
But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
You know, that's not just a nice little scripture
to put up on your wall at home.
You know, in your calligraphy.
You know, it looks nice.
That's an actual, like, motto.
That is something you have to actually live
and flesh out in your own life.
And, you know, a great thing you take from this
is that the only people you have any control over
in your life are you.
You know, I'm talking, you know, that's plural, but.
You're the only person you have any control over.
Now, obviously, you know, as a husband and father,
I have control over, to some degree,
I have a great deal of influence over other people's lives.
Right, but I can't control what every person does
that comes in here.
But you know what I can do as a man of God?
I can put them in a place where they have to make a decision.
Because that's my job.
That's what a man of God is called to do.
So we looked at his making.
We looked at his message.
Let's look at his ministry, right?
His ministry.
Go back to 1 Kings chapter 17.
His ministry, you know, if a person wants to get involved
and become a man of God, or wants to serve.
You know, and this could be applied to people
who maybe are not going to be a pastor one day,
but they just want to serve God.
They just want to be a soul winner.
They want to be a faithful church member.
They want to just do things for God.
You know, there's going to be some level of sacrifice required.
You know, the ministry of the man of God requires sacrifice.
You know, sacrifice is required of anybody
that wants to serve God to any capacity.
It's going to require sacrifice on your part.
Look at 1 Kings chapter 17, verse 2.
And the word of the Lord came unto them, saying,
get thee hence, and turn thee inward.
Oh, where are you taking me?
Probably some nice cush place where I can just
relax for a little while while this drought goes on,
and God's just going to have peeled grapes brought to me,
and I'm going to be fanned every day,
and I'm going to be kept safe.
No, he said, get thee hence, and turn thee inward,
and hide thyself by the brook chariot that
is before Jordan.
He's saying, you know what, Elijah?
Elijah, go out and hide in the wilderness.
Go out into the bush over there by some river,
and hang out there.
You know, that's a sacrifice.
He didn't say, you know, go find some nice home.
Go back home to where you're from.
Go back to your town in Gilead, and get comfortable,
and put your feet up, and wait a while.
He said, no, go out in the wild.
Go out there.
And he said in verse 4, and it shall
be that thou shall drink of the brook.
No milk, no fresh goat's milk, no fresh squeezed grapes,
no pomegranate juice.
No, you're going to go drink like an animal out
of the brook.
And I have commanded the ravens to feed thee.
So when he went and did according
unto the word of the Lord, for he went and dwelt
by the brook chariot that is before Jordan,
and the ravens brought him his bread and flesh in the morning.
I mean, I don't think these were like gourmet chefs either.
I don't think the ravens were showing up
with those little chef hats on, and an apron,
and pulling up, and starting a little fire.
What would you like today?
Prophet, O thou man of God, would you
like a little flambé quiche with a nice spinach and feta
cheese on the menu?
It was probably some real basic just, you know,
maybe some flesh he had to cook.
Maybe they found some carcass somewhere.
You know what I mean?
They're scavengers.
You know what I mean?
Who knows?
Maybe they swept in, and someone threw some bread out
that had gotten old, and they picked it up.
Who knows?
But it's not this gourmet meal.
And even if it were, he's still sitting out in the bush.
What's the point I'm making here?
His ministry required sacrifice.
He had to give up some comforts.
He had to give up some luxuries.
He had to be willing to take a lesser portion in life.
And the ravens brought him his bread and his flesh
in the morning, and the bread and flesh in the evening,
and he drank of the brook.
And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up.
Then the brook dries up.
You know, and then the drought even gets to him.
And here's the thing.
You have to consider the fact here
that God could have kept Elijah safe anywhere.
I mean, couldn't he have?
Couldn't he have told him, hey, go to that cave
you're going to go to in a little while,
and I'll have a guy there who will make you
whatever you want to eat.
No, he told him, go hang out in the bush next to a brook,
and be there till it dries up,
and I'm going to feed you with some,
whatever the birds bring you.
Look, the ministry of the man of God requires sacrifice.
And it requires discomfort.
That doesn't sound very comfortable to me.
You know, anyone who does any kind of camping,
you know, camping is kind of a leisurely thing,
but we wouldn't want to live that way.
I don't think so, anyway.
You know, everyone wants to romanticize the pioneer life,
but it was pretty hard life.
You know, I was talking about it with somebody the other day,
I can't remember who, but we were talking about
how crazy it would be for us to go back in time,
because you know how people kind of get this attitude
of like, oh man, I was born in the wrong century.
You know, I should have been born back in the 1800s
or whatever, when people were different,
you know, and we didn't have all,
this modern life is making everybody so soft.
I mean, imagine going back in time
and telling people where you came from
and how things are today.
Yeah, we have these things in our pocket called smartphones
and we can basically just entertain ourselves.
We can have any kind of information at our fingertips.
I mean, I could just push some buttons
and people bring food to my door.
And it's like the most exotic food.
Like to them, it'd be just like the most exotic thing.
They've never even heard of like, you know,
mango habanero chicken wings.
You know, we're just getting by the dozens.
You know, and we're just so sick of this pampered,
modern life, we're gonna go back.
We wish we could just go back in time.
You know, if you went back and told people that,
the kind of life you were living now
and that you decided to come back there and live with them,
they'd look at you and go, you're crazy.
What's the matter with you?
They would trade places with us in a heartbeat.
It's not comfortable.
You know, we romanticize it,
but it's not a comfortable existence.
And the man of God is not called to a comfortable existence.
God puts us in uncomfortable positions.
Sometimes he will put us, you know,
next to a brook that he knows is gonna dry up.
I mean, you think about, again,
going back to the example of John the Baptist.
I mean, he went out, when he started his ministry,
he was out in the wilderness.
And you know, he didn't have ravens bringing him anything.
He was eating, you know, locusts and wild honey.
You know, he's like trying not to get stung to get his meal.
And then he's eating insects flying around.
And you know, he's girded with a leaven girdle
and camel's hair.
That's not exactly the most comfortable thing to wear.
You know, some hairy jacket.
But you know what?
God does not call the man of God
to a life of ease and comfort.
He doesn't, and really, you can apply it to any of us.
Hey, quit talking.
So, you know, I say all that to say this,
is that the ministry isn't for everyone.
That's just the facts, you know?
Yeah, it's open to everyone.
It's open to any man that has the desire,
that meets the requirements.
But you know what?
It requires a certain level of character.
It has, you have to have some level of, you know,
you have to be somebody who's willing to count the cost
and is willing to be put in some uncomfortable positions.
Somebody who's willing to pay the price
and deal with the consequences.
So his ministry, you know, required sacrifice,
required discomfort, but only, you know,
it also focused on the needs of others.
You know, that's the calling of the man of God,
is to focus on the needs of other people.
You know, real quick, 1 Kings 17, verse eight,
we know the story here.
And the word of the Lord came unto him,
and of course, this is after the brook dries up.
The Lord sent him saying, arise, get thee to Zarephath,
which belongeth unto Zidon, and dwell there.
Behold, I have commanded a woman there to sustain thee.
So he arose and went to Zarephath.
And when he came to the gate of the city,
behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks.
And he called her and said, fetch me,
I pray thee a little water and a vessel that I may drink.
And she was going to fetch it.
And he called her and said, bring me,
I pray thee a morsel of bread in thine hand.
And she said, as the Lord thy God liveth,
I have not a cake, but a handful of meal and a barrel
and a little oil and a cruise.
And behold, I am gathering two sticks,
and I may go in and dress it for me and my son,
that we may eat it and die.
So everyone's just starving in this story.
And Elijah said unto her, fear not, go,
and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof
a little cake first and bring it to me,
and after thee, make for thee and thy son.
For thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
the barrel of meal shall not waste,
neither shall the cruise of oil fail.
So it sounds at first like, you know,
he's just going there for himself.
You know, he's going there to just rob this widow woman
the last bit of meal that she has, right?
Well, what's really going on,
he's going there to perform a miracle for this woman.
Because the man of God, you know,
his ministry focuses on what?
The needs of others.
God's concerned about people, you know,
and God is concerned about those that have and eat.
And this is, you know, a great example of that.
And it's not just all rip and face and, you know,
calling people out and call and sin out.
You know, a big part of it is helping people.
Big part of it is giving people,
helping them with their needs,
whether it's physical or spiritual,
praying for one another, encouraging one another.
That's a big part of the ministry,
focusing on the needs of others.
And that's why, you know,
sacrifice and discomfort are required.
Because if we're just only concerned about ourselves,
you know, we're not gonna be concerned
about the needs of others.
But if we can just accept the fact that,
you know what, I'm gonna be uncomfortable,
I'm not gonna have everything that I want,
I might not even have everything that I think I need,
I'm gonna be put in an uncomfortable situation
and I have to make sacrifices.
If we're willing to accept that,
then we can start to think about,
well, let me focus on the needs of others.
And we know the story here, it says in verse 15,
and she went and did according to the saying of Elijah,
and she and he and her house did eat many days
and the barrel of meal wasted not.
Well, that was a really good meal for Elijah.
I bet he was real glad after eating
whatever those birds were bringing him,
sit down and have a nice home cooked hot meal
and drinking some fresh water.
And neither did the cruise of oil fail
according to the word of the Lord,
which he spake by Elijah.
Again, it's not just ripping face.
Look, there's a time to rip face,
but let me just come out and say this,
is that I'm not just up here to be a preach retainer.
I'm not just here for preach attainment.
There are sermons that have to be preached
that some people are gonna hear and go,
well, that wasn't very exciting.
Yeah, but somebody else is gonna hear it and go,
I needed that.
I needed to hear some sermon
about being gentle to other people.
I needed to hear some sermon about how to raise children,
or some sermon, whatever the topic,
that isn't going to just be this rip-roaring sermon,
this ripping face sermon that's gonna get
thousands of views on YouTube or whatever,
but those are the sermons that need to be preached
because the man of God is called
to be focused on the needs of everyone,
the needs of others.
It's not just all sticking your finger in Ahab's face
and calling him out.
It's also visiting the widow and providing needs.
Verse 17, it says,
And it came to pass after these things
that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house,
fell sick, and his sickness was so sore
that there was no breath left in him.
And she said unto Elijah,
What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God?
Art thou come to call my sin to my remembrance
and slay my son?
And he said unto her, Give me thy son.
And he took him out of her bosom
and carried him up into a loft.
And there he abode and laid upon him his own bed.
And he cried unto the Lord and said,
O Lord, my God, hast thou brought this evil
upon the widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son?
And he stretched himself upon the child three times
and cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord, my God,
I pray thee let this child's soul come into him again.
And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah,
and the soul of the child came into him and he revived.
And Elijah took the child and brought him down
out of the chamber unto the house
and delivered him unto his mother.
And Elijah said, See thy son liveth.
Now I want you to pay attention here
because Elijah just did this amazing miracle
to this woman, right?
And you would think that that would be enough for her.
She would say, Oh, you know, you are a man of God.
But notice what she says in verse 24.
And the woman said to Elijah, Now, by this,
I know that thou art a man of God,
and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.
You know, she had to see her needs met
before she was willing to accept Elijah for what he was,
before she was willing to give Elijah his respect, you know,
before she was willing to acknowledge him.
She says, Now, by this, by what?
By the fact that you came and raised my son from the dead.
Now I know thou art a man of God because you met my need.
Not because you showed up and reminded me how wicked Ahab is,
you know, she already knew that.
Not because you showed up and reminded me of the fact that,
you know, Israel's worshiping Baal,
you know, those sermons need to be preached.
But there's also the sermon where, you know,
we have to just come and take care of somebody's need.
We have to help somebody with something
that is very important to them.
And she said, Now, by this,
I know that thou art a man of God,
and that the word of truth is in thy mouth.
You know, part of the ministry of the man of God,
you know, is focusing on the needs of other.
It's more than just reaping, ripping face.
It's bringing the dead to life.
And this isn't just the ministry of the man of God.
This is the ministry that God has given to all of us,
man, woman, boy, and girl.
It's bringing the dead to life.
You know, don't worry,
I'm not going full Pentecostal on here.
We're not gonna start,
I'm not talking about literally raising the dead.
But we spiritually do that when we go soul winning, don't we?
We spiritually go out and bring life to those that are dead.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5,
For the love of Christ constraineth us,
because we thus judge.
If one died for all, then we're all dead.
They were all dead.
When you're out there preaching the gospel,
you know, you're like Elijah.
You're going out there
and you are reviving somebody's child.
You are bringing somebody back from the dead, literally.
Maybe not literal in the sense that they're dead,
you know, you're bringing them back to life in this story,
but literally, spiritually speaking,
that is a literal reality
that they were gonna go to the place of the dead.
They were gonna go, you know, to the lake of fire.
They were gonna be dead there,
but now they've been brought back to life, eternal.
So we see that, you know,
the ministry of the man of God, it requires sacrifice.
It requires discomfort.
So he can stay focused on the needs of others.
And the needs of others isn't always
just the ripping face sermon.
You know, it's the real needs that people have.
It's soul winning.
It's preaching the nuts and bolts of the Christian life.
But I also wanna, you know,
we'll wrap up here in a minute,
but I wanna look at his humanity.
Look at his humanity.
It says in 1 Kings chapter 19, 1 Kings chapter 19.
And you have to remember, this is out of,
this is out of the, after the high point
of Elijah's ministry, where he's just, you know,
killed the prophets of Baal.
He's turned the hearts of Israel back to the Lord God.
He's just called fire down from heaven.
Just this huge miracle, right?
And it says in verse one,
And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done,
and how withal he had slain all the prophets with the sword.
Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying,
So let the gods do to me, and more also,
if I make not thy life as one of them by tomorrow
at about this time.
So she's, you know, breathing out her death threats.
And when he saw that, he arose and went for his life.
You know, and that might surprise us, you know,
whenever I read that story, it's kinda like,
it kinda surprises you.
I mean, he's just on a tear.
And especially after everything that God
has done with him so far.
I mean, he's provided for him in the wilderness.
He's provided him with the miracle, with the widow woman.
He's even allowed him to bring her son back from the dead.
I mean, he knows God's with him.
But at this point, you know,
the pressure just becomes too much.
I don't know what's going on exactly,
but it seems to me like he has kind of a lapse in faith.
You know, this great spiritual high that he's on
is immediately followed by this low in his life.
And what I'm pointing out here is the man of God is human.
He's just, he's human like anybody else.
The man of God is just like the rest of us.
He's a man of like passions.
It says that when he heard that, verse three,
and when he saw that, he arose and went for his life
and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah,
and left his servant there.
He's like, you probably don't wanna hang out with me.
I'm a dead man, you know, run for your life.
Every man for himself.
But he went himself a day's journey in the wilderness
and came there and down and sat under a juniper tree,
and he requested for himself that he might die.
He's like, Lord, kill me.
And he said, it is enough.
Now, Lord, take away my life
for I am not better than my father's.
You know, you read this story,
and you're just like, what is going on here?
And we can't understand it,
but you know what we couldn't understand
is that Elijah is a man of God, a man of God.
He's not God, he's not perfect.
And no man of God is perfect.
They all have faults.
Every man of God in scripture is flawed,
you know, with the exception of Jesus Christ.
And even if it's not recorded, you know,
there's some, you could look at like Daniel,
you'd be like, well, what was Daniel's flaw?
I don't know, but he had one.
I guarantee you they all did.
And I love that the Bible records their flaws,
that it records their failings and their shortcomings,
because it's relatable, because we're all that way.
It's his humanity, you know,
and we need to make sure that we don't,
you know, we want to respect the man of God,
we want to, you know, we want to,
but we don't want to put him on this pedestal,
you know, and exalt him, you know,
think above man that which is written,
you know, think above him above measure,
you know, because that's just setting yourself up
for disappointment.
You know, I don't think anyone in this room
has a problem with that,
of putting me up, you know, in some high lofty position.
But if you are, let me just go ahead
and tell you right now, prepare to be disappointed,
because you're gonna find out that I have flaws,
I'm gonna say or do something that's gonna offend you,
that might even be, you know, wrong for me
to have said or done, you know,
I'm probably going to, you know,
do something that is not right at some point,
you know what I mean?
Now I'm not talking about grossed, you know,
just negligent sin, you know,
man of God should never be accused of those things.
There are certain things that should just never happen,
obviously, but you know what, I am human,
you know, just like the rest of us,
just like Elijah here, you know,
I might have a bad day, I might have a hard time,
you know, there might, maybe you're not gonna like
the look on my face one day when you walk in,
you know, but maybe I just had a hard week,
just like you did, you know,
maybe I'm gonna be in a bad mood,
or maybe I'm gonna, you know,
need some time by myself or whatever it is,
because I'm just a man.
I mean, I might be the man of God down here,
but I'm still just a man, and no man of God is perfect.
They're all flawed.
In James chapter three, he said this,
my brethren, be not many masters.
He's talking about being not many masters,
you know, not being many instructors,
not being many teachers, why?
Knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation,
the man of God is held, yes, held to a higher standard,
and because of that, you know,
when he slips up or he does something wrong,
there's a greater condemnation.
There's more at risk.
Look, I have more opportunity to get up here
and just, you know, hurt people through my words
or teaching something wrong or, you know,
there's a greater risk for the man of God,
because he has more people's attention.
More people are looking to him,
more people are listening to him.
There's more pressure there.
You know, they shall receive the greater condemnation,
for in many things we offend all.
He said, in many things we offend all.
If any man offend not in word,
the same is a perfect man and able also
to bridle the whole body.
Then he goes on and talks about the tongue, right?
And it's the tongue that gets us all into trouble.
You know, and my job is,
there's a lot of the use of the tongue in this job.
The man of God is doing a lot of talking.
You know, and sometimes the man of God is gonna get up
and he's going to offend people.
In fact, the Bible said in James 3,
he's going to offend all.
And he said in many things.
You know, and I think what he's saying there is that
even if I never made a mistake,
let's just say I never made a mistake
or I never misspoke or whatever,
even if I just, every word came out of my mouth perfectly
and everything I said was just, you know,
righteousness and truth and never made a mistake.
I would still offend everybody eventually.
Just pick up just by the nature of the word of God.
Just because the Bible steps on people's toes.
Just because people are all different stages
in their Christian growth.
People are coming from all different areas.
People have all kinds of different sins in their lives
and things like that.
And if I get up and start to preach the whole counsel of God
like I'm supposed to as man of God,
it's only a matter of time until I offend everybody,
the Bible says.
In many things, we offend all.
I might not offend everybody all at once,
but eventually I'll get to you.
You haven't been offended yet, just give it time.
You know, your day's coming.
And look, I don't ever set out to just offend people.
I don't ever go to church.
In fact, a lot of times, sometimes I come to church
and I think, you know what, I put that in my sermon,
but I think I was just in the flesh.
I think I'm just gonna, you know,
save that for another day.
Not that I'm holding back,
but just I'm saying, you know what,
that's not gonna benefit anybody.
You know, if I just put something in there
just for the sake of offending something,
you know, I'm gonna take it out.
Because I'm not just going out of my way to offend people.
I don't have to try to do that.
I just preach the Bible and people will get offended.
The Bible says, but the tongue can no man tame.
It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison.
How are you gonna offend somebody?
Just with the words that come out of your mouth.
So we see, you know, the humanity of the man of God.
We've looked at, you know, his ministry,
his message, his making, his humanity.
And I wanna close here in,
I know I said that a minute ago, in a minute, his meekness.
Look at his meekness real quick.
You know, Elijah, he wasn't in it for the notoriety.
You know, some guys get in the ministry,
they wanna get behind a pulpit, they wanna get on YouTube.
You know, and I'm not against getting on YouTube
and getting big on YouTube.
That's great, that's a great tool.
You know, some people are better at it than others.
It's just not my, I'm not good at it, all right?
I don't know what to tell you.
You know, I'm just not that big of a draw
on the internet, you know?
And I'm not, it doesn't bother me, like, I get it.
Like, I'm real picky about who I listen to.
You know, I've only got so many hours in the day,
I can't listen to every preacher that's out there.
You know, and if I'm gonna listen to somebody,
I'm gonna listen to somebody that I wanna listen to.
I guess just a lot of people don't wanna listen to it.
But you know what?
There's a group of people that come here
three times a week that listen.
You know, and that's good enough for me.
And hey, if people wanna listen online, it gets big, great.
You know, but that's not why we should be in it
as a man of God, for notoriety, you know, to be known.
And if we're known, great, that's wonderful.
That should not be our motive.
That's not why he was in it, he was very meek, right?
He was jealous for his God, 1 Kings 19, verse nine.
After he, you know, runs for his life and requests to die,
you know, God sends an angel and he feeds him
and he goes 40 days in the strength of that meat.
And it says in verse nine,
and he came thither into a cave and he lodged there
and behold, the word of God came to him
and said unto him, what doest thou here, Elijah?
And he said, I've been very jealous
for the Lord God of hosts and for the children of Israel,
for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant
and thrown down their altars,
and has slain thy prophets with the sword.
And I, even I only, am left.
Now, he certainly felt that way
and I don't think he knew the full situation
and you can't really blame him for saying, you know,
I'm the only one that's left,
because that's what he honestly thought was going on, right?
But where is his heart?
He's not like, I'm the only real man of God in town.
It's just that he honestly thought that he was the only one
and God had to correct him in the end.
He said, you know, there are 70,000
have not yet bowed the knee to Baal.
But he says, again, you know, the voice comes to him again,
verse 13, verse 14, he says,
and I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts
because of the children of Israel
have forsaken thy covenant and thrown down altars
and slain thy prophets with the sword, and I only am left.
So we see that the heart, his meekness is the fact that,
you know, he wasn't in it for the wrong reasons.
You can't get into the ministry,
you can't be a man of God with the wrong motives
because you'll compromise.
You'll compromise, you'll turn aside
under the vain jangling.
You'll discern aside under filthy lucre.
You'll get into the wrong reasons.
You're bound to just make a mess of things.
The man of God must be motivated to serve God only.
Why are you, you know, why do we wanna be a man of God?
Why do we wanna serve God?
You know, is it because we love the Lord?
That should be our motive.
That was his motive because I love God.
And then you know what, it won't matter.
It won't matter how big the church is or isn't.
It won't matter, you know, how popular I get
or don't get as a preacher.
What'll matter is whether or not God is being served or not.
And if we have the right motive, you know,
God will be served.
And that should be why we get into things.
We need to have, you know, that requires what?
Meekness, you know, being motivated.
We'll close here.
It says, the last thing I wanna look at is this.
It's his mantle, his mantle.
Because if you remember there at the end of verse 15
when God kind of straightens him out in the cave
and then tells him what he needs to do.
He says in verse 15, the Lord said unto him,
go and return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus.
And when thou comest, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria.
And Jehu, the son of Nimshai,
shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel.
And Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel-Meloah,
shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.
You know, he had a man of God, Elijah,
he had a mantle that needed to be passed on.
There was somebody else that had to pick up that mantle
because here's the thing about a man of God.
Going back to the fact that he's human,
this means that he's gonna die one day.
He's not always gonna be here.
And if people are gonna, what's required
is that somebody else has to be willing
to pick up the torch and carry it on.
That mantle has to be passed on to somebody at some point.
That's what he told him to do.
He said, look, you're gonna go find Elisha,
the son of Shaphat, and you're gonna anoint him
to be prophet in thy room.
You know, when you go away, he's gonna take over for you.
Verse 19, so we depart thence and found Elisha,
the son of Shaphat, who was plowing
with 12 yoke of oxen before him.
I love that picture there.
You know, he's got these 12 yoke of oxen before him
and he's plowing with them, right?
He's out working, he's got, you know,
he's out in the field, he's doing the work.
You know, that's where you find a man of God,
is someone who's out actually doing the work already.
You know, someone who's already not,
someone's gonna show up and just be like,
well, you know, I'll work, I'll put in the labor
as long as I get to be the man of God.
That's not how it works.
You know, people come to you and say,
oh, I'm willing to help in the church, what can I do?
Go scrub a toilet.
Well, I won't do that.
Well, then nevermind.
You know what, go do something else then.
You know, go do whatever, I don't care.
Because, you know, we're not,
well, I won't do that, but I would love to, you know,
lead the songs, no offense, brother.
But that's been an example I've had in the past.
Well, no, I want something in the spotlight.
Well, no, I need you to run a vacuum.
You willing to do that?
I need you to take out trash.
I need you to wipe down the windows.
I need you to do some menial task
that no one's gonna notice,
that no one on YouTube's gonna go,
wow, what a great, that guy did a great job
wiping the windows.
Who keeps that place so clean?
Man, those chairs are straight.
No one says that on YouTube.
And some people, you know, they want the glory.
Their motives are wrong.
You know, that's not who's gonna get the mantle.
That's not who you wanna pass the mantle onto.
You wanna find an Elisha,
somebody who is already doing the work,
is already out there, and it says there,
and, you know, some other characteristics
about Elisha and the passing on of Elisha's mantle.
It says, so he depart, 16,
and Jehu the son of Nimshai shall to be,
I'm sorry, verse 19.
So he depart thence and found Elisha the son of Shaphat,
who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him.
And he with the 12, and Elisha passed by him
and cast his mantle upon him.
And he left the oxen and ran after Elisha.
You know, he left what was,
he didn't try to do both.
Because that's the calling of a man of God.
You can't try to do both things.
Look, I'm not saying that, you know,
sometimes we have to work another job
and pastor at the same time.
I get that.
But you know what?
You can't have this divided interest in your life
if you're gonna be a man of God.
You know, I've seen guys get into the ministry
and try to fulfill this role of a man of God,
but they, you know, they leave their heart in the world.
They leave their heart in some secular position.
You know, they're not like Elisha,
who's willing to say, well, the oxen, you know, whatever.
I'm not interested in that.
I don't want, you know, like you can either plow the field
or you can take on the mantle of the man of God.
But you can't do both.
And the guys that I've seen that try to straddle both,
and not out of necessity, but just because, you know,
they weren't quite sure whether or not
they wanted to get all, you know,
they end up failing in the ministry,
end up getting out of the ministry.
They end up quitting the ministry.
And look, I get it, it's not for everyone.
But you know, you should know that going into it.
People need to know this going into the ministry
that it's not for everybody.
And if you would rather, you know, go out
and go earn a living in the secular world, then go do that.
Because you can't do both.
You know, eventually at some point you have to be all in.
You know, unless it's out of,
I understand sometimes out of necessity
of the pastor has to work two jobs, I get that.
But if not, you know, why not just be all in?
You know, why not just leave the oxen with the oxen?
Don't let this old life hold you back.
You know, have the right priorities.
That's what he had to do.
He left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said,
let me, I pray thee kiss my father and mother
and then will I follow thee.
He said, I want to say goodbye to my family,
but then I will follow thee.
And I love what he says to him.
He says, and he said unto him,
go back again, for what have I done to thee?
You know, it almost seems like you really get
a full picture of his personality,
but sometimes I wonder if Elijah
wasn't a little bit of a grumpy guy.
If he wasn't kind of a, maybe kind of a tough guy
to be around a little bit.
I mean, he lived a hard life.
I mean, he's out living in the wilderness.
You know, he might have been a little rough around the edges.
What have I done to thee?
Whatever.
But again, showing kind of his meekness again.
He's like, you know, do what you want with it.
You know, I'm nobody.
He said, go back again, for what have I done to thee?
And he returned back from him and took a yoke of oxen
and slew them and boiled their flesh
with the instruments of the oxen
and gave unto the people and they did eat.
I mean, he just burned it all at the end.
He just said, you know what, goodbye to that old life,
goodbye to all those old ambitions,
goodbye to all those dreams and all that.
I'm just gonna leave that all behind
and just fully follow the man of God
and just take on that mantle.
And then he arose and he went after Elijah
and then notice those last words,
and ministered unto him.
And then you don't hear about Elijah
for a long time after that, until Elijah,
until he actually is able to take on that mantle.
But we know that he was there.
The next time you hear about him,
he's identified as him that poured hands
upon the waters of Elijah, or Elisha.
Him that poured, excuse me, Elijah.
Again, I'm maxed up all the time.
That's what he's known as.
That's what he goes on and does.
Part of taking on that mantle is just serving.
Just serving and serving and serving and that's it,
because after all, that's what the ministry is
at the end of the day.
That is the calling of the man of God,
to service, to sacrifice.
So if you're gonna take that mantle on,
that's where you start.
It's just through service.
The ministry of the man of God begins and ends
and everywhere in between with service.
So that's, because that's the nature of the ministry.
So I just wanted to look at that tonight
and remind us about the man of God.
That they're rare, we don't have a lot of them,
and for good reason.
Because of the fact that people need to be willing
to count the cost, because it does come at a sacrifice.
Because it is uncomfortable.
Because people are going to be offended
because it is a tough job to do.
But look, somebody needs to do it.
Somebody needs to stand up and stand in the gap
that God should not destroy the wicked.
Someone needs to stand up and preach the counsel of God
and make up the hedge.
And we need to do that here in Tucson.
Look, we need to do that all around the world,
all around this country.
People are clamoring for good churches everywhere.
And you know what?
I'll be perfectly honest, the list of guys
that are even close to being able to go out
into the ministry is very, very, very short,
at least in this church.
You know, it's incredibly short.
And I feel like a lot of times we kind of put them
in this weird position of like saying,
you know, well, if you express any interest
in wanting to do it, then you know,
maybe you're not the right person for it
because, you know, a real man of God wouldn't,
you know, he's happy doing another thing.
You know what I mean?
Say like, you know, the people that insist on doing it
are probably not the people you want, right?
So then people are like, well, I want to do it,
but I don't want to insist.
You see what I'm saying?
It's like this catch 22 with people.
But look, we need guys that are willing to step up
and fill that position.
You know, either as pastors, as preachers,
as servants in the local church,
like there's a real need for people to serve God today
and to reach people and to, you know,
not just do the face ripping,
but also ministering to the needs of others,
going out and doing what?
Bringing the life back, bringing life back to the dead,
raising people from the dead spiritually.
But if we're going to do that,
if we're going to say, I'm willing to take on that mantle,
just understand it begins and it ends with service
because that is the very nature
of the ministry of the man of God.
Let's go ahead and pray.