in our hearts and our ears to your word.
In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray, amen.
Amen.
All right, well we're there in 2 Kings chapter number two.
And we've been going through the series on Sunday nights
on the life of Elijah, a series called The Times of Elijah.
And this is actually now the 13th week in this series.
And tonight we're gonna finish up this series.
We come to the end here where Elijah is caught up
in a whirlwind.
And we talked about this a little bit last week.
We were in the beginning of this chapter.
We're gonna cover a few of those verses
just a little bit tonight.
And we'll end in the chapter where the life of Elijah ends.
But I want you to notice in verse nine, it says this,
2 Kings chapter two in verse nine, it says,
And it came to pass when they were gone over
that Elijah said unto Elisha,
ask what I shall do for thee
before I be taken away from thee.
And Elisha said, I pray thee,
let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
We see in this passage here
that Elijah was getting ready to depart.
Elijah is getting ready to leave.
And we see this idea or this theme
through this chapter of succession,
of the fact that someone has to take up the mantle,
literally, for Elijah.
But figuratively, for every generation,
someone has to come up behind us
and take up the mantle of the things that we've taught
and the battles we've fought and the things we've stood for.
And of course, we see this idea of Elisha
getting ready to become the successor of Elijah.
Notice verse 12, 2 Kings chapter two in verse 12 says this,
And Elisha saw it, and he cried,
My father, my father, the chariots of Israel
and the horsemen thereof, and he saw them no more,
and he took hold of his own clothes
and rent them in two pieces.
And then notice verse 13, he took up also the mantle.
Now, the mantle would be like an overcoat
or a cloak of Elijah that fell from him
and went back and stood by the bank of Jordan.
So we see here that Elisha is actually referring
to Elijah as a father.
He says, my father, my father.
Now, Elijah was not the physical father of Elisha,
but he would be like his spiritual father.
If you remember, even Paul would say of Timothy
in the New Testament, he said, my own son in the faith.
And he talked about Titus being a son in the faith.
And the idea here is that Elijah was training Elisha
to carry on his ministry.
And in fact, we see there in verse 13
that Elisha took up also the mantle of Elijah.
And that's even become a phrase or an idea or a thought,
even in our modern vernacular where
people will talk about someone taking up the mantle,
and it means that they're going to assume a role of leadership
or assume a responsibility.
And it's taken from this story.
So what we see is Elisha taking up the mantle
or carrying the torch is another way of saying it for Elijah.
And what I want to do tonight, just kind of as we finish up
this series and as we finish our study in the Times of Elijah,
is give you three thoughts in regards
to how to prepare the next generation to take up
the mantle, how to prepare the next generation,
not just of believers like Elijah was doing with Elisha,
those spiritual children, those spiritual sons and daughters
that the Lord allows us to have as we reach people
with the gospel of Jesus Christ, but also
just our own physical children.
And the great thing about our church
is that there's a lot of kids, and there's
a lot of families with a lot of children.
But you know, we need to make sure that we raise children
and we train children so that they will take up
the mantle behind us and carry on the beliefs
and the standards and the traditions
that we have given them.
So I want to give you tonight just three thoughts we
can get from this passage in regards
to preparing the next generation to take up the mantle.
I'd love for you to write these statements down
as we move through the passage.
But I'd like you to notice, first of all,
that we must teach the next generation to stick with us.
We must teach them to stay with us and what we have done.
Notice there is a little bit of a story here in verse 2.
It says this.
And Elijah said unto Elisha, Terry here, I pray thee.
Now, keep in mind that Elijah is now
coming to the end of his ministry
and his training with Elisha.
This is like we talked about last week, his last day
on earth.
After this day, he will be caught up in a whirlwind
and he'll go to heaven.
And he's kind of testing Elisha a little bit.
Here he tells him, Terry here, I pray thee, for the Lord
hath sent me to Beto.
And if you remember from last week,
we talked about the four different locations
that Elijah went to during his last day.
And of course, he started in Gilgal.
And then he went to Beto.
And then he went to Jericho.
And then he went to Jordan.
And we talked about how those different places represent
different things and have different representations
in the Christian life.
But here we see that he's telling Elisha as he's going,
he's saying, Terry here, I pray thee,
for the Lord hath sent me to Beto.
And I want you to notice a response from Elisha.
And Elisha said unto him, as the Lord liveth
and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
So they went down to Beto.
Here you had Elijah saying, hey, how about you stay here
and I'll just keep going down the way.
And Elisha says, no, no, I'm not leaving you.
I'm going to stick with you.
Notice it's emphasized again in verse 4.
And Elijah said unto Elisha, Terry here, I pray thee,
for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho.
And he said, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth,
I will not leave thee.
So they came to Jericho.
Again, Elijah says, I'm going to go to Jericho.
Why don't you stay?
And he says, nope, I'm going to go with you.
I will not leave thee.
Notice verse 6.
And Elijah said unto him, Terry, I pray thee here,
for the Lord has sent me to Jordan.
And he said, as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth,
I will not leave thee.
And they went on.
Now, this is physically happening
where Elijah is saying, I'm going to go over here.
Are you going to stick with me?
And Elisha says, I'm going to stick with you.
And then he says, I'm going to go over there.
Are you going to stick with me?
And Elisha says, I'm going to stick with you.
And then he says, I'm going to go down this way.
Are you going to stay here?
And he says, no, I will not leave thee.
Now you say, well, what is the importance?
Because remember, Elijah told Elisha,
we're going to look at it here in a minute.
He says, ask of me what I can do for you before I leave.
And he says, I want a double portion of your spirit.
And he says, you will get it if you're with me when I leave.
So he says, you've got to see me be caught up
in order to get the power of God, the blessing of God
upon your life.
And this is all an illustration that we
need to train our children.
Look, we need to teach our kids, and we
need to teach young Christians and new Christians
to walk with us, to walk alongside us,
to adopt our beliefs, adopt our standards,
adopt our teachings, adopt our style,
to the point that when they get older,
we can say, hey, son, look, what I'm telling you is this.
I should be able to say to my adult children, you grew up.
You grew up with certain standards.
Now listen, I should be able to say to my daughters
as they are older and as they grow up to be young ladies,
I should say, at one point, you dressed a certain way.
At one point, you wore certain clothing.
At one point, you did certain things
because daddy made you do it or because your mother made
you do it.
But now you have the choice.
Now that you're grown up, you've got the choice.
I'm going to keep going in the direction that I've been going.
I'm going to keep believing the things that I believe.
But now you've got to decide, honey,
are you going to stick with us?
And we will know we have succeeded
if they say, I will not leave thee.
I will stick with the standards that I've been taught.
See, we will fail if my kids and your kids,
we will fail as Christians if we teach them, hey,
stick with the King James Bible.
We're all about the King James Bible.
The King James Bible is God's word.
And then they grow up, and they're like, well,
I don't know about that King James.
You keep going that way, and I'm going to go with the NIV.
You understand what I'm saying?
We need to teach these kids to stick with us to the point
when they are adults, when they can make their own choices.
They will decide, I'm going to stick
with the old time religion.
I'm going to stick with the old hymns.
I'm going to stick with Bible preaching.
I'm going to stick with high standards.
I'm going to stick with the things that I have been taught.
See, Elijah knew he was getting ready,
and he was ready to now go when he said,
I'm going in this direction, Elijah.
You don't have to go if you don't want to.
What would you like to do?
And Elijah said, I will not leave thee.
See, at some point, we have to teach our children
to transition from, you used to go to Sunday night church
because we made you.
But as an adult, you should choose
to go to Sunday night church because you want to,
because you love God, because you will not leave the path.
Keep your finger there at second kink.
That's obviously our text for tonight.
Go to the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah chapter 6.
Well-known passage, but let's look at it together.
Jeremiah chapter 6.
Jeremiah chapter 6 and verse 16.
Jeremiah chapter 6 and verse 16 says this.
Thus saith the Lord.
Stand ye in the way and see and ask for the old paths.
Where is the good way?
And walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.
He said, look, you need to be asking for the old paths.
You need to walk in the old paths.
But notice, and this is what we're seeing today,
but they said, we will not walk therein.
Do you understand that today in the United States of America,
the pastors that lead local churches,
even among independent fundamental Baptists,
my peers, the 30, 31, 32-year-old pastors today,
for the most part, have decided that they will not
walk in the old paths?
I mean, today, if you look at the average 32-year-old pastor,
even among the independent fundamental Baptist movement,
you're going to find skinny jeans.
You're going to find weak, watered-down preaching.
You're going to find contemporary music.
You say, where was the breakdown?
Because all those guys, they grew up
going to the same conferences I grew up going to.
They grew up in the same church as I grew up with.
They grew up here in the same preaching I heard.
What was the problem?
What was the issue?
The issue was that there came a point when
Elijah was no longer there.
And Elijah said, I'm going to keep going down this old path.
I'm going to keep going down the way that God called me to go.
Do you want to come?
And they said, no.
You go on ahead.
I'll try a new path.
I'll try a new way.
I'll try some new music.
I'll try some new methods.
I'll get rid of the pulpit.
I'll get rid of the traditional hymns.
And we'll try something different.
But they said, we will not walk there.
And here's all I'm telling you is the impact
that you and I are making and the Lord
is allowing us to have upon the world today
with the online ministry and the different things that
are happening in churches like this and churches like this
all across the country will be a failure if we don't figure
out how to have succession.
Because I've said this before, but there is no success
without succession.
We need to make sure that the next generation picks up
the mantle that we left off.
We need to make sure that the next generation picks up
the mantle of hard preaching, picks up
the mantle of soul wedding, picks up
the mantle of separation, picks up
the mantle of holy living and righteous standards,
picks up the mantle of marriage and not fornicating,
of living a sober life and not being a drunk, of doing right.
You say, well, how do we do that?
How do we accomplish that?
Well, I want you to notice how Elijah did it.
And we talked about it last week.
He did it, first of all, by mentoring.
Remember, Elijah takes Elisha with him along the way.
And I'm sure along the way that he talked with him.
And he talked to him.
And look, moms and dads, we need to understand this.
And we need to get this.
The Bible says train up a child in the way he should go.
And we need to spend time communicating
with our children, not only telling them what we believe,
but also, here's the key, why we believe it.
See, it's not enough to have standards and convictions.
I'm all for standards and convictions.
But those standards and convictions
need to be connected to biblical principles.
Look, mom, you need to be able to sit your children down and
say, honey, we don't dress that way, not just because I said
so, but let me give you some biblical principles as to why
we don't dress that way.
Let me give you some biblical, we don't go, son,
we don't go to those places, not just because pastor preaches
against it, not just because I said not to,
but let me give you some biblical principles.
See, we must mentor our children so that they not only
know what we do, but they also know why we do it.
We must mentor them.
We must have them.
That's why I love family integrated church system.
Why?
Because we have our children with us.
We have our children with us out soul wedding.
We have our children with us in the church service.
We have our children with us as we are walking with God.
We must learn to communicate.
We must learn to speak with them.
We must learn to teach them.
But listen, it's more than just mentoring.
There are two concepts to this idea of training up
the next generation and making sure that they take up
the mantle behind us.
One is that we must mentor.
And look, you must talk and teach your children.
You cannot just put them in front of a TV
or in front of a computer or in front of a video game
and ignore them and not spend time with them
and then wake up one day and have some 18-year-old who's
a drunkard and a fornicator and you're wondering,
well, what happened?
What happened was you never taught them
not just what you believe, but why you believe it.
We must mentor them, but there's more to it.
We must mentor them, but we must also model for them.
Notice what Elijah does.
Elijah takes them on this tour and takes them to these places.
He talks about the guilt gals of his life
and the Jordans of his life and the Bethos of his life
and the Jericho's of his life.
And he talks about the victories and about the defeat
and the struggles and all those things.
But then notice, he not only mentors, he models.
Notice 2 Kings 2, verse 7.
And 50 men of the sons of the prophets
went and stood in view afar off, and they stood by Jordan.
We get to the Jordan section of this little tour
where he is mentoring him and he's talking to him
and he's helping him.
And then in verse 8, the Bible says this.
And Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together
and smote the waters.
And they were divided hither and thither,
so that they too went over on dry ground.
See, Elijah did not only mentor Elijah, walked with him
and spent time with him and helped
him to know and understand what they believe.
Elijah also modeled Christianity for Elijah.
See, look, it's not enough.
It's not enough for me to tell my kids,
we have to read the Bible.
It's not enough for me to get up and preach sermons about,
we need Bible reading.
We need to consume the word of God
and retain the word of God and apply the word of God.
You know what will be more powerful for my children
than me standing up as a pastor?
I'm talking about my children, the children of Pastor Jimenez
who live in the home of a pastor.
You know what would be more powerful than me getting up
and preaching a sermon on Bible reading once a year like I do?
You know what would be more powerful is
that when my children see me in my life
and see my wife in her life, that we take time
to read the Bible.
The most powerful sermon on Bible reading
that I can give my kids, you know what it is,
is for them to come downstairs on Monday morning
and see mom and dad sitting at the table
with a cup of coffee spending time in the word of God.
Now go ahead and mentor.
Go ahead and train.
Go ahead and teach and communicate and say,
we don't go there.
We don't do that.
Here's where we stand and here's what we believe.
I'm all for that.
But they better see a life that follows that up too.
They better not just hear you talk about soul winning.
They better see you all soul winning.
They better not just hear you talk about separated life.
They better see you living a separated life.
See, I teach my kids, and even now we
teach our kids about how they ought
to be husbands in the future for their future wives
and wives in the future for their future husbands,
and how they ought to raise their future kids.
But more powerful than that, they
ought to watch a dad treat their mother right.
They ought to watch a mother submit and be
respectful and reverent.
See, the most powerful lesson we could teach our kids
is not just what we say, but what we do.
We must mentor, but we must model.
See, Elijah just took Elisha to the Jordan River.
And I'm sure he talked about the fact
that here Elisha is where Joshua parted the sea
and they crossed over into the promised land on dry land.
And he mentored him.
But then you know what Elisha does?
He takes his coat off and he parts the river.
He modeled it.
He showed them.
He did it for them.
He allowed him to see.
See, I used to have a pastor who would say,
your talk talks and your walk talks,
but your walk talks louder than your talk talks.
And you can sit there and say, oh, bless God.
I'm a fundamentalist.
And I do this and I believe that.
But your kids, they know who you really are.
They actually know where the rubber meets the road.
And what I'm telling you is this.
If we are going to have a generation that's
going to take up the next gen, that's
going to take up the mantle from us,
they're going to not only have to learn it.
They better learn it.
They better hear it.
They better be trained.
There better be some biblical principles
that are applied to some standards and convictions.
There better not just be rules, but there should
be reasons for those rules.
There better not be things we do, but here's why we do it.
Here's why we don't do that.
Here's why we don't watch that.
Here's why we don't go there.
Here's why we don't hang out there.
Here's why.
There are rules, but there are reasons for those rules.
We better mentor, but then we better model.
They better see it.
And look, by the way, they better see it
and they better see it happily.
You think my kids are going to serve God?
Bless God, serving God is the greatest thing in the world.
Then at home, my wife and I are just like, oh,
this is so terrible.
This is the world I'm in.
Wish I would have never gone into ministry.
Pastor, you ever feel like that?
Yeah.
You ever show your kids that?
Try not to.
Say why?
Because I want my kids to know that it's great to serve God.
It's a privilege to serve God.
Serving God is the greatest thing ever.
Are there difficult times?
Of course there are.
But we need to mentor and model.
We need to make sure that we teach them in a way.
So look, here's the goal.
And here's the goal of parenting.
The goal of parenting is this, that when they grow up,
when they grow up, they will adopt your convictions.
When they grow up and you, Elijah,
are looking at your Elisha and you're saying,
I'm not going to be here anymore.
You're on your own now.
I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing.
I'm going to go to Gilgal.
I'm going to go to Jericho.
I'm going to go to Jordan.
I'm going to go to Bethel.
You don't have to come.
Do you want to come?
And they say, yes, I want to come.
I want to live that life.
I want to believe those things.
We'll know we have succeeded.
We'll know we have succeeded when they choose
to take up the mantle.
You say, how do we do that?
Well, we mentor and we model.
We tell them and then we show them.
Go to Judges, chapter 7.
Judges, chapter 7, you're there in 2 Kings.
2 Kings, if you go backwards,
you're going to go past 1 Kings, past 2 Samuel,
into 1 Samuel, Ruth and Judges.
And by the way, this is what good leadership is.
Good leadership is mentoring and modeling,
mentoring and modeling.
If you mentor and you don't model, you'll fail as a leader.
If you model and don't mentor,
that's what the old eye feed us.
Go to the old eye feed churches.
Go to the old eye feed churches today.
You know what you'll find?
You'll find a pastor who believes in separation.
For the most part,
you'll find a pastor who believes in separation.
You'll find a pastor's wife who's dressed modestly.
You'll find a staff who dresses right, who does right.
And then you'll find a bunch of worldly people in the pews.
You say, why?
Because they'll model it all day long,
but they never get up and preach it.
They never get up and say it.
Now look, if you say it and you don't live it,
that doesn't work either.
You need both.
We need to mentor and we need to model.
Judges chapter seven, look at verse 17.
Notice what Gideon said.
Gideon said this to his followers.
He said this, the Bible says,
Judges 7, 17, and he, this is Gideon, said unto them,
notice what he said,
this is what every father ought to say to his children.
This is what every husband ought to say to his wife.
This is what every pastor ought to say to his congregation.
This is what every leader had to say to every follower.
He said, look on me and do likewise.
Listen, dad, can you say that to your kids and mean it?
Could you say to your kids,
look at me and do what I'm doing?
Or do you have to tell your kids,
well, don't do what I say, but not what I do?
You'll fail.
You'll fail because your talk is cheap
and your walk will out talk your talk every single day.
Go to 2 Kings chapter two, 2 Kings chapter two.
You say, how do we ensure
that the next generation takes up the mantle?
Well, we must make sure that they stick with us.
We must make sure that their convictions,
that our convictions become their convictions.
We must make sure that they develop their own standards.
We must make sure that they develop their own walk.
Look, your teenagers need to develop their own walk
where they read the Bible for themselves,
not because mom tells them to or dad tells them to
or it's a homeschool assignment, but because they want to.
They go soul winning because they want to.
They serve God because they want to.
That is the goal, that they would stick with us.
Let me give you the second point in regards to
making sure the next generation sticks with us.
Not only must we make sure they stick with us
by mentoring and model,
but we must teach the next generation.
The next generation must be taught
to attempt great things for God.
Notice verse nine.
It says this, and it came to pass when they were gone over
that Elijah said unto Elisha,
they just parted the Jordan River, excuse me.
He just parted the Jordan River,
it went hither and thither.
And then Elijah said unto Elisha, he said,
ask what I shall do for thee
before I be taken away from thee.
And by the way, let me just say this,
I'm not preaching on this,
but in this passage we see that a saint,
what's a saint?
It's a believer, that's it.
A believer is a saint.
Every believer is a saint.
A saint can only do for you while here on the earth.
Notice Elijah says, ask what I shall do for thee
before I be taken from thee.
Why does Elijah have to tell him what I shall do for thee
before I be taken from thee?
Because Elijah understands one thing.
Once I'm taken from you, there's nothing I can do.
You know what we learned from that?
Elijah was not a Roman Catholic.
Elijah was saying to Elisha, listen Elisha,
I don't care how many candles you light,
I don't care how many prayers you make to the saints,
I don't care how much you pray to me once I'm gone,
once I'm gone I can't help you.
For there is one God and one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
If I can do something for you,
I can do it for you while I'm here.
You need me to do something for you?
Tell me before I go.
Because once I go, there's no praying of saints.
That's just a little Catholic doctrine there
that we pull out of the passage.
He says, ask what I shall do for thee
before I be taken from thee.
And Elisha said, I love this, I pray thee,
let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
We have one of the greatest prophets who has ever lived
just part of the Jordan River,
just so Elijah and Elisha, two men,
could cross it on dry ground.
And Elisha says, I want what you've got times two.
I want a double portion of thy spirit.
You know what we must teach the next generation?
Not only must we teach them to stick with us,
but we must teach them to attempt great things for God.
Second Kings chapter two, look at verse 10.
Notice what Elijah responds, he says this,
and he said, thou hast asked a hard thing.
Thou hast asked a hard thing.
I love this word right after that.
He says, and by the way,
when you pray, ask for some hard things.
When you beseech God for power, ask him for a hard thing.
Elijah says, thou hast asked a hard thing.
But I love this, he says, nevertheless,
nevertheless that thou see me when I am taken from thee,
it shall be unto thee, but if not, it shall not be so.
Notice the blessing was connected
with how he stuck with him.
But he says, look, you've asked for a hard thing,
but you can have it, nevertheless.
God will give it to you.
Go to 1 Kings chapter one,
right there in 2 Kings, just flip one book back
to 1 Kings, look, we have to teach our kids
to accomplish great things.
You say, how do we teach our kids
to accomplish great things?
Well, same way we teach them to keep our convictions.
How do we teach them to keep our convictions?
By mentoring and modeling.
How do we teach them to accomplish great things?
By mentoring and modeling.
By teaching them, by telling them
that you can accomplish great things for God,
that it's not just Elijah, but it is the God of Elijah,
and the God of Elijah can do great things for Elisha.
We have to teach them that, but then they have to see us.
They have to see us attempt great things for God.
And you find this throughout scripture.
You find this idea, 1 Kings chapter one.
In 1 Kings chapter one, we have the succession
of Solomon taking the kingdom of David.
You find this all throughout the Bible.
You have Joshua taking the leadership of Moses.
You have Solomon taking the leadership of David.
You have Elisha taking the leadership of Elijah.
But I want you to notice what it says here
in 1 Kings 1 about the ministry, or the kingdom,
or the reign of Solomon.
It says this, and moreover, the king's servants
came to bless our Lord David's sake.
This is when David is getting ready to die,
and he has appointed Solomon as his successor.
And they said this, God make the name of Solomon
better than thy name.
They're talking to David, and they're saying,
you know what we hope?
We hope that God makes the name of Solomon
better than thy name, and make his throne,
Solomon's throne, greater than thy throne.
And you say, how did David take it?
Notice, and the king, talking about David,
bowed himself upon the bed.
You know what I want for these kids?
I want them to take one day when I'm gone,
and I'm dead, or I'm no longer here,
that some young man would take up the mantle
of being the pastor of Verity Baptist Church,
and that they will do things better, and greater,
and reach more people, and accomplish more.
We must teach our kids to do great things for God.
Ephesians chapter three, go there real quickly.
Ephesians chapter three, in the New Testament,
we have Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts,
Romans, 1st, 2nd Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians.
Ephesians chapter three.
How do we do that?
By showing them that we're trying
to accomplish great things.
By showing them that we're trying to do big things for God,
and accomplish great things for God,
and we're starting churches,
and we're running mission strips,
and we're having, you know, we had that back in Easter
of last year, we had that huge,
where all of the churches that are of like faith,
we kind of worked together,
and made sure there was a soul-winning marathon
in every state in the country,
and in many foreign countries.
That was a big day.
That was a great success.
You know what our kids saw?
They saw, hey, they can do it,
and you know what I want to do is tell those kids,
and you can do it better.
You can do it greater.
You can do more.
Ephesians three and verse 20, notice what the Bible says.
I often think of this verse and pray this verse.
Ephesians three, 20 says this.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us.
What we need to understand is this,
that God can do great things through us.
God wants to accomplish great things through us,
and we must teach the next generation
to attempt great things for God.
Now let me just take a moment and say this.
Here's what we don't need to do.
We don't need to put burdens on the next generation
to accomplish specific things.
We don't need to put burdens upon the next generation
to try to live through them, or try to make them do.
Obviously, we just want God to use them
in whatever capacity God wants to use them,
but whatever capacity God wants to use them,
let's teach them to go big for God, to do great things.
You say, what are you talking about?
You know, I'll give you a perfect example
of this kind of near and dear to my heart
because I'm a pastor, but one thing that I often try to,
I have to fight and try to kind of protect my kids
because I'm a pastor, a full-time pastor,
and a lot of times, and people,
they're not being mean or bad,
or they're not trying to hurt my kids, and I get that,
but I do have to try to defend my kids from this,
especially my sons.
A lot of times, people will try to put upon them like,
well, you're gonna be a pastor one day, right?
Because your dad's a pastor,
so that means you're gonna be a pastor.
No, it doesn't.
But I don't need my kids to be a pastor one day,
for my sons to grow up and be a pastor one day,
for me to be proud of them.
Now, if God wants to use them in that capacity,
and they feel led to do that,
and they have the desire to do that,
I'm gonna be all for them, and I'm gonna help them,
but I'm not putting that pressure on my kids,
and please help me.
Don't put that pressure on my kids.
They don't need that.
They don't need some, you know,
well, of course you're gonna grow up
and be the next pastor of Verity Baptist Church.
They don't need that.
Look, an eight-year-old doesn't need that, please.
Please don't do that.
You say, what do you want for your kids?
I want them to love the Lord.
I want them to be faithful to church,
and I want them to be soul winners.
I want them to have good marriages.
I want them to raise a godly seed,
and you say, what if they grow up and they're a plumber?
As long as they're serving God, that's great.
We don't need to be put,
and look, don't put some expectations on your kids.
Well, you gotta grow up and be a mission.
No, no, don't do that.
The world does that.
You gotta grow up and be a doctor,
and then we wanna spiritualize it.
Let's don't do that, but whatever they do,
whatever they do, let's teach them
to attempt great things for God.
If my boys grow up to be businessmen in churches somewhere,
and they're just their faithful laypeople
helping the pastor of their local church,
then I want them to be the most faithful,
the most loyal, the most helpful layman in that church.
And by the way, let me just say this,
because there's so many bad theology
and thinking among people.
There's nothing wrong with not being a pastor.
You're not some sort of second-class citizen
when you're not the pastor,
or, well, you're not a pastor, you're a deacon.
There's nothing wrong with being a deacon.
It's great.
Not everybody has to be just like us
or whatever we're doing.
Do you understand that?
Wherever God has you, wherever God has called you,
just make sure you're attempting great things for God there.
Just make sure that you're content with that position
and that you're attempting great things for God.
And look, we must expect great things for God,
but we must attempt great things for God.
And we must teach our children.
And you know that kids, you know that young people,
they are attracted, they are actually attracted to zeal.
They're attracted to work.
They're attracted to,
they like it when they see things going on.
You know, we've had issues here where we had protests
and people fighting against us and having issues,
and all the old people are like,
oh no, maybe we should cancel the service,
and all the kids are like, whoa, great!
Man, look at those, you know,
it excites them to see some battles.
So let's mentor and let's model.
Let's let them see some great things for God.
Let's let them see us attempt great things for God.
Number three, go back to 2 Kings chapter two.
You say, how do we make sure
the next generation takes up the mantle?
Well, we must teach them to stick with us.
We must teach them our convictions
and connect them to biblical principles.
They need to know what we do and why we do it.
Look, they need to know why you go to church.
They need to know why you're King James only.
They need to know why you go soul winning.
They need to know why you don't drink alcohol.
They need to know why you don't smoke cigarettes.
It's fine if you just tell them,
don't do that, don't do that, don't do that, that's great.
But at some point, you have to teach them, here's why too.
Here's a biblical principle, here's a verse, son,
here's a verse, daughter, here's why we do that,
so that they'll stick with us,
so that our convictions will become their convictions,
so that they take up the mantle.
And we must teach them to attempt great things for God.
I don't wanna put something on our children,
but let's also not stomp it out.
If they want to accomplish great things for God,
let's help them dream, let's give them a vision
and help them have that vision.
Bible says where there is no vision, the people perish.
But number three tonight, how do we help the next generation?
The next generation must be taught to pick up the mantle.
They must be taught to actually take it from us.
And here's what I mean by that,
and let's look at the passage, 2 Kings 2, verse 11.
And it came to pass that they went on and taught that,
behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire
and part of the boat asunder,
and Elijah went by a whirlwind into heaven.
You know what ought to motivate you and I as parents
and me as a pastor and all of us as leaders,
is that one day our kids and our followers
will not have us.
See, there came a day, there came a time
when, verse 11, a chariot of fire and horses of fire,
notice what it says, and parted them both asunder.
And Elijah went up by a whirlwind, and Elijah saw it,
and he cried, my father, my father,
the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof,
and he saw them no more, and he took hold of his own clothes
and rented in two pieces.
There came a day when Elijah was no longer there.
And what does Elijah do?
Verse 13, he took up also the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him and went back
and stood by the bank of Jordan,
and he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him,
and smote the waters, and said,
I love this part of the story where he takes Elijah's mantle
and then he goes to the Jordan River
where he just saw Elijah part the river,
and he says this, where is the Lord God of Elijah?
And he says, I saw God do great things
for the previous generation.
I saw God answer prayers for the previous generation.
I saw God's power and might amongst the previous generation,
but is that God available for me?
Where is the Lord God of Elijah?
And when he had also smitten the waters,
notice they parted hither and thither,
and Elijah went over, and when the sons of the prophets,
which were to view at Jericho, saw him,
they said, the spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elijah,
and they came to meet him and bowed themselves
to the ground before him.
See, there's coming a day when my kids will not have me
and they will not have their mother
to tell them what to do and where to go
and who to talk to and who not to talk to.
There will come a day when we will not be around.
There will come a day when this new IFB movement,
as we like to call it, will not have Pastor Anderson
and will not have Pastor Jimenez, for whatever that's worth,
and will not have Pastor Romero or Pastor Manley Perry
or whatever, these men, the men today, my contemporaries,
will move off the scene.
One day, one day, we will be parted.
One day, we will be in heaven.
One day, we will not be around to preach the sermons,
to lead the soul-winning, to teach the doctrine.
One day, we will be parted from them asunder.
And notice verse 12.
And Elijah saw it and he cried,
my father, my father, the chariot of Israel
and the horseman thereof, notice this phrase,
and he saw him no more.
One day, we won't be here,
and we need to make sure that they are ready.
See, you know what the next generation needs to know?
When Elijah took the mantle of Elijah and he said,
where is the Lord God of Elijah?
Here's what he was saying.
He was saying, I know that God is not limited to a place.
I know that God is not limited to Jordan
or Gilgal or Bethel or Jericho.
I know that God is not limited to one place
where God can work in one location.
I know that God can work in several places.
And then he understood this.
He said, I know that God is not limited to a person.
It's not just Elijah.
It's not just Joshua.
It's not just Moses.
It's not, and look, for us,
it wasn't just Curtis Hudson and Jack House.
And for the next generation, it's not just Pastor Anderson.
It's not just Pastor Romero.
It's not just Pastor Major.
God is not limited to a place.
He's not limited to a person,
and he's not limited to a time.
God can use you like he's used others.
And there is no success.
There is no success.
Without succession.
And we need to make sure that that next generation,
that next generation is willing and ready
to take up the mantle.
And they won't have to ask all sorts of questions,
and they're not gonna have to go back
and find the MP3 files.
What did they believe?
Why is it that we didn't believe the pre-Trib rapture?
They should know it.
They should understand it.
They should be ready for it.
And we need to be leading with the idea in mind
that one day they will see us no more,
and we will have failed
if someone doesn't pick up the mantle and moves on.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your word.