Thank you, Pastor. We turn to 2 Kings chapter 2. 2 Kings chapter 2. If you all would stand with me as we read the Word of God tonight. We'll start in verse number 1 of 2 Kings chapter 2. And it came to pass, when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said unto him, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel. And the sons of the prophets that were there at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day? And he said, Yea, I know it, hold your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as my soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho. And the sons of the prophet that were at Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head to-day? And he answered, Yea, I know it. Hold ye your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Terry, I pray thee here, for the Lord hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on, and fifty men of the sons of the prophet went, and stood it in view to far off, and they too stood by Jordan. 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. 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. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if Thou wilt see me when I am taken from Thee, it shall be so unto Thee. But if not, it shall not be so. And it came to pass, as they still went on and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot 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. He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went over." Let's pray. Grace Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you that we can come together tonight and Lord, hear the preaching of the Word. And Lord, you know what you have in front of you, Lord, is an unworthy vessel. And I just pray, Lord, that you would fill my mouth, Lord, with what you want me to speak. I pray, Lord, you'd guide my tongue, God, that you'd fill me with thy Spirit. I ask, Lord, that you cleanse me and wash me, Lord, in the blood of Jesus Christ tonight. And I pray, God, for those who are here, Lord, that they would have willing hearts. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. just like a pressure, you know, an instant pot, how that builds up pressure. You don't get to do this very much. Boy, that pressure keeps building up. And I asked my wife if I could give her this sermon the other day. She said, no, I want to hear it with everybody else. So she didn't take the instant pressure off. So I'm just building, building, building. You'll probably get three messages out here tonight. Listen, in the last, we've experienced things in the last 18 months or so. And many of the old soldiers of the cross have passed on. And just recently we've had Brother Verdi Moore down in Nicholasville. He had a good work down in Eastern Kentucky. Brother Dave Harney, Brother over in Stamping Ground, and many others, Brother Sammy Allen. He's gone home. And these were men, they either died by natural causes or this virus, and these are men, these soldiers were men who God used to build great Bible-believing churches and ministries in these past many years. And my question tonight is that who's going to take up their mantle? Who's going to take up their mantle? Elijah took up Elijah's mantle, but who's going to take up these men that have passed on? Who's going to take up their ministries? Now, my concern is that those who are there to continue the work and the ministries that these men left are less and less. We don't find men and women who are consecrating their lives to serve the Lord. And from what I see, there's a lack of love for Jesus Christ and a consecration of their lives to the Lord is what I see coming up. And we can see, as the pastor mentioned, there's a lot of red out here tonight. Why is that? That's because there are people who are not consecrated to Jesus Christ. And I'd just like to go over some things tonight on what it takes. Turn to 1 Kings chapter 19. First Kings chapter 19, and I would just narrate this, but I'll go over here. Let's start in verse number 16, kind of the start of Elisha. And Jehu the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel, Mahola, shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth the sword of Hazel shall Jehu slay, and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay. Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth. And Elisha passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left the oxen, Elisha, and ran after Elijah, and said, Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee. And he said unto him, Go back again, for what have I done to thee? And he returned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen out. Let me just stop there for a minute. The pastor just about preached that message over in devotions over there yesterday, and boy, I was getting a little bit anxious. But Elijah got off to a little bit of a shaky start. If you go to Luke chapter 9, verse 57 to 62, Jesus Christ said, follow me. And one man said, I need to go bury my father. And Jesus said, let the dead bury the dead. And then another man said, let me go back and bid farewell to those in my home. And Jesus said that those who are doing the plowing don't look back. You don't look back. And this is a companion passage of what we're reading here in 1 Kings chapter 19. Listen, Elisha was called to do something for the Lord. And he wanted to go back, and I guess maybe he was sentimental, I don't know why, but he wanted to go back and kiss his father and mother. And Elijah got a little bit sarcastic with him. And he said, what have I done to you? Go back. And so Elijah did go back. He got off to a shaky start, just like many Christians do. Many Christians, many people get born again and they get off to a little bit of a rough start. But, just like Elisha, they can recover themselves. And that's what Elisha did. It said in verse number 21, 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 it unto the people, and they did eat. Then he arose, and went after Elisha, and ministered unto him. When God calls you to do something, you don't hesitate. That's the worst thing you can do. Many a Christian has been called to fulfill God's will for their lives, and they have let family or friends hinder them. You must put Christ first. Is there anything in the Bible where it would indicate that you would put anything above Jesus Christ? Can anybody give me a verse? Because frankly, I don't find it. Christ is first. Husbands must, I'm sorry wives to say this, but husbands must put Christ ahead of you. Children, I'm sorry to say this to you, but mom and dad must put Christ ahead of you. Mom and dad, when sons and daughters are out from under your roof, they must put Christ ahead of you and your counsel. Congregation, I'm sorry to tell you this, but pastors need to put Christ ahead of you. And politicians, wherever you're at, I'm sorry to tell you this, and listen, I'm guilty of this, but Christians need to put Jesus Christ ahead of politics. I think the pastor alluded to that this morning. Listen, Christians, Christ is to have the preeminence in your life. And what does preeminence mean? It is of high importance, superiority, dominant. But as you can see tonight, In many people's lives here that come to this church, Christ does not have the preeminence in their lives. I know some people are traveling, they're out of town. I understand that. But there are people who could be here tonight that are not here because Christ, they're putting their spouses or they're putting their children or they're putting the other family ahead of Jesus Christ. They have their preeminence. When you are not where God wants you, you are saying, that has preeminence over Jesus Christ. I love all of you. I believe you should be preached with charity. When the pastor preaches things like this or any other preacher or anybody preaches things like this, it's not because we would stand up here and try to chastise you or rebuke you or reprove you. It's because we want to see you grow. We want to see people be successful for Jesus Christ. And we know that when they do not put Christ as the preeminent and superior thing in their life that they will fail eventually. You'll fail eventually in one way or the other. Now Elisha did recover himself. He did go home. He did take the yoke of oxen and he slew them and he did give it to people to eat. And this is a picture of what a Christian should do. As a believer, as believers we need to slay or get rid of some things. Now I don't mean slay, don't slay anybody. I mean that metaphorically, I don't mean that literally. But in our minds, metaphorically, we need to slay or get rid of some things so we grow as followers of Paul and as disciples of Jesus Christ. Now don't get that mixed up. We don't wanna, you have everybody nowadays, they're trying to, I wanna be like Jesus, I wanna be like Jesus. No, that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says Paul said, be ye followers of me as I am a follower of Christ. Paul called himself the master builder. We are to follow what Paul wrote in his epistles, what he penned out to Christians, the doctrinal truths that he gave, the mysteries that Christ gave to Paul. We are to follow Paul who followed Christ, and as we do that, then we'll be more like Jesus. will be more like Jesus. Now, there's some things that we need to stop as a testimony of what Christ has done for you by saving your souls. There's some friends we need to drop to limit the temptation and prayer pressure to sin by going along with the crowd. And there's some habits we need to adopt to replace those things that you put away. Reading the scriptures and praying daily Nobody wants to embarrass anybody, but I'm telling you right now, if you're not in your Bible every day, you are falling short. And if you're not in fellowship with the Lord every day, praying every day, I'm sorry, but you're falling short. You're not gonna make it. These are things that are commanded us to do. The Word is the light. It is a lamp. It is bread. It is water that washes. It cleanses you. It reflects you. It shows you your faults. It shows you your needs. If you're not in that Bible every day, you're out of the will of God. I'll tell you that right now. If you're not having some sort of prayer or fellowship with the Lord every day, you're out of God's will. What else? Fellowshiping with other believers. That's a necessary need in our lives for accountability, for encouragement, so that we can, iron sharpeneth iron, so a man doth the countenance of his friends. We need to be faithful in church, in activities. We need to be a witness to others. I think it would shock us how many don't tell other people about Jesus Christ, or how many people don't give out a gospel tract, or how many people don't at least make an attempt. We're all about a whole lot of other things. We go to the soccer games. Yay, Johnny, I'm glad you got a goal. We'll go to the football games. We'll watch baseball games. We'll do all these things. We'll go boating or we'll go camping. And boy, we get all things prepared and ready to do that. But how prepared and ready are you to be a witness for Jesus Christ? How enthusiastically do we witness for Jesus Christ? Now listen, we all fall short. I fall short. But that doesn't mean that we don't strive to do better. We are working out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it's God that worketh in us both the do and the will of his good pleasure. Parents, your kids are watching you, and whatever you do, your kids will take it further. If you're not faithful in church, your kids won't be faithful in church. If you're not faithful in reading your Bible, your children will not be faithful reading their Bible. They'll see no need. If your kids don't know you pray, they will not pray. Why? Because they don't see you doing anything. They don't see you witness. I appreciate Brother Jim, and I'm not trying to build Brother Jim up. I don't want him to get a big head so he can't get out the door there. But I appreciate him when he takes Mike out street preaching. Now we had some guy one time said, you know, that was abuse. But listen, someday that boy's gonna grow up and he's gonna know that his daddy was out there preaching the word of God. How many of you would do that? How many of you have Christ as the preeminent place in your life? Listen. We need to stop some things, we need to drop some things, and we need to adopt some things. Now, these things we add to our lives after that fill the vacuum that those things have left. Now, after Elijah went after Elijah and started ministering to him, he had a desire to fulfill the prophet's call to take Elijah's office when he died. However, the Lord decided to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind, as we read. Now the characteristics, what characteristics did Elijah possess to be able to take Elijah's place? Not only to fulfill the call, but to do more than Elijah did. These are some things that you predetermine to do. You just don't wing it. This Christian life is not, well, I'm just gonna wing this Christian life. You gotta determine to live it. Back in 1985, I got away from the Lord, and I went back to some places that I shouldn't have gone back to. I didn't go back and do the exact same things, but I was miserable the whole time. I mean, God was just beating the fire out of me, and thank God He did. But He almost took my son back then, and He told me if I didn't get right, He was going to take him. And that day, I got right with the Lord. And that Sunday, I got down at Hope Baptist Church, and it was in December. It was just after Thanksgiving. And I vowed to God and determined that I would never quit again. And by the grace of God, I never have. And that's not because of me. That's because of Jesus Christ and His grace and His mercy. You got to predetermine to live for Jesus Christ. If you don't, you won't. It'll just be a convenience when it's convenient for you. I still love you. I still love everybody that's not here, but Christ is not preeminent in their life. Sad to say, What was Elijah? He was faithful. He had faithfulness. Elijah would not leave Elijah's side. Elijah told Elisha three times to tarry here, but Elisha would not leave his side. You notice that in 2 Kings, didn't you, chapter 2? Now, there's three places where Elijah told Elisha to tarry. One was Gilgal, where Israel encamped after seeing the miracle from God where they crossed over the Jordan. The second was Bethel, where Jacob, God spoke to Jacob in a dream and he ascended and descended and he gave Jacob a promise. And the third was Jericho where Israel got their first victory in the promised land. Now there's three places where you will get complacent and vulnerable in your Christian walk. As Gilgal, after God seeing a great work or miracle for you, listen, you can become complacent and vulnerable at these points in your life. Two, after great fellowship with the Lord. How many times you had great fellowship with the Lord, man, and you got blindsided, and you got complacent, and you got knocked on your keister. How many times when God has done a great thing in your life, you rested on that great thing back here instead of pressing on for the Lord? You don't rest on what you've done back there. If you rest on that, you're going backwards. You thank God for the victories He's given you and you go forward and you go on after a great fellowship with the Lord. And after a great victory, listen, how many times have you gotten the victory over something? Pray, God, I got the victory over this thing. I'm gonna trip over that speaker. Praise the Lord. God's given me the victory, man. Praise God. And then, next day, you fall flat on your face again. You do the same thing that you thought you had victory over. Don't glory in your victories. Glory in Jesus Christ. We don't have the complete victory yet. Why? Because we're living in this thing right here. You are not going to eradicate sin out of your life, but you can ask God to help you to get victory over the sin in your life, and you better do that daily, because this will come up and smack you right in the face, as it has me. Many times, many times. So those are some areas in a Christian's life where you need to watch out. When you think you know it, when you think you got command of the word of God, when you think you know it all, when you think you, you know, just, man, I just got this thing big, that's when you're gonna fall. That's when you're gonna head right down the old stair steps and hurt yourself. Those who take up the mantle must be faithful, not allowing outside influences to affect their service to the Lord. Happens time after time. The old guard, the old soldiers of the cross were faithful in their duties, in their determination, and in their devotion to the Lord. What else did Elisha have? He was fervent. He was fervent. Fervent is having a great zeal and compassion. Now we know about Elisha. It says in James chapter 5 that Elisha was a man of like passion. And who taught Elisha? Don't you think Elisha Absorb some of that passion that Elijah had sure also mentioned those verses about a fur of the prayers of a Righteous of the fervor prayers a righteous man availeth much You have to have some fervency some zeal some compassion Now he Elisha was fervent in spirit. He was fervent in service, and he was fervent in prayer Also, he was focused He was focused. When God told Elijah to do something, he did it. How focused do you gotta be when the man who is the one you're serving, and he tells you in three different places, Terry, here. And they said, well, these prophets said your master's gonna be taken from you today. Do you think for one second Do you think for one second, I mean even when they were sleeping, do you think for one second that Elisha took his focus off of where Elijah was? I don't think he did. Why? Because Elijah was known to move pretty fast in the Word of God. The Lord could move him from one place to the other pretty quick. Elijah didn't take his focus off Elijah one second. Second, I believe, he always had his eye on Elijah. Listen, if you want to take up the mantle, you have to have some focus, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Listen, you can take that in reverse order. When we get our focus off of Jesus Christ, we lose our fervency. Our focus goes first, our fervency goes second, and then our faithfulness. But by the time that our faithfulness has gone, as you can see, this is already out the door. Even though you may be coming, even though you may hit some services, this is already out the door. It's just waiting for this to follow. It's awful quiet. We're in a marathon. We're not in a sprint. Many say people start, but they will not finish. That's a preeminent thing, it seems like, in Christianity today, is we have a lot of starters, but we don't have a lot of finishers. They start things, they don't finish them. They'll start ministries, they will not finish them. They will go for a while, they will not finish it. They start running their race, they don't finish. And that is an epidemic. You talk about a pandemic. That's a pandemic in Christianity today. And it's becoming more, listen, I hope I'm proven wrong, but I don't see in our young men, and I don't mean all, but I don't see in our young men any desire to be consecrated to the Lord, to be real honest with you. I think that is a, I think that's a worry for men like our pastor and some of these older men, Brother Seiler, others that are just not seeing the consecrated lives that they need. Well, where are they getting that? Well, they're getting it from the generation before them. And if the generation before them, Christ is not preeminent in their life, then don't expect it to be in our young people's lives. And we've got some decent young people. But it takes more than just being decent. It takes being devoted. It takes being consecrated, separated as pastor, separated to something, being sanctified daily to the Lord. Elijah had a desire to do more. He wanted a double portion of Elijah's spirit. How many people want to do more than the generation before them? Because those things that he did were stated above, he received that request. Elijah got his prayer answered when he called upon the Lord, when he parted Jordan, when he raised the young boy from the dead. And that's just a couple of examples. Elijah was able to carry out what others could not do. Other prophets could not heal the water of Jericho, Elisha did. Other prophets could not raise the axe head, Elisha did. Other prophets could not make the pottage edible, Elisha did. Elisha had spiritual eyes that he could see what others could not see. When the armies of the king of Syria surrounded him and his minister at that time was Gehazi, And Gehazi saw the armies of Syria and he cried out, you know, Elisha, we're surrounded. What are we going to do? And Elisha said, Lord, open his eyes. Open his eyes. And what did they see? They saw horses and chariots of fire surrounding them. He said, there's more with us than with them. Now why couldn't Gehazi see it? Why were his spiritual eyes shut? Because he was a carnal minister. You remember what Gehazi did when Naaman the leper came and got healed of his leprosy? And he tried to offer Elisha something and Elisha said, no, I'm not going to take it. I'm not going to take it. And Gehazi said, well, He got a great big old miracle. I think we need to do something. You know, I think we need to go feed the poor, you know, use this for something good. And so he went after Naaman and he said, you know, he wondered what he was going after him for. And so he gave him two changes of garments and two things of silver. I can't exactly remember which, but when he went back to Elisha, what happened to Gehazi? He got the leprosy that Naaman had. Why? Because he had sin in his life. And I'm afraid what we have here in Christianity today, listen, I'm not, I'm not, I could dim myself. We got a bunch of Gehazi's. They're out for themselves. They're out for what they can gain. They're out for what they can do to fulfill this thing right here. And we don't have very many Elishas. And we're getting less and less and less Elishas. We're getting less and less that can take up that mantle. Now the old guard's coming down to the finish. Now listen, time passes, and if the Lord tarries, we're gonna lose some of these men who have been defenders of the faith. Who's gonna pick up where they left off? Who's gonna take their place? Who's gonna put other things aside so they can serve Jesus Christ? Listen, everything's gonna burn up. Only one life will soon be passed. Only what's done for Christ will last. Our houses are gonna burn. Our lands are going to be set on fire. Our cars and our boats and our campers are going to be set ablaze. Our bank accounts are going to be nothing. Everything is going to be destroyed. The trophies that our little children get in our soccer league burn up. Our little participation awards, gone. Flames. It's all going to burn, folks. Nothing is going to pass through the judgment seat of Christ that has not been done for Christ. This is a preparation for that day. Your life is in preparation of that time. Pastors and those who preach, they don't mean to be mean, spirited, but they care for you. They care how you finish. They want you to finish. After almost 39 years, I've seen them come and go. I've seen them start. I've seen them quit. I've seen a pastor, a guy who was a missionary and became a pastor. almost a practical atheist now. There's no guarantee you're gonna finish unless you predetermine before the Lord that you're going to make Him preeminent in your life. Let's stay ahead and bow our heads and I'm done. But I hope the Lord's not done. If you need to come, come on. Don't hesitate. I'm going to turn this over to the pastor. Thank you, Pastor.