All right, good morning. Shall we open our Bibles to 2 Kings chapter 2. It is always a joy to be here at Men's Retreat. I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to minister these many years at this particular event and the Lord is always blessed and it's always been an encouraging time. You find things out about yourself you find things out about others, you get a word of encouragement. The other night I had a word of encouragement from the pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church of Tishby and his word was, I'm going to break your fingers. Not the normal kind of word of encouragement one receives, but you've got to just roll with the punches sometimes. And we've had a word of encouragement. Brother Brian has been very helpful in the absence of John Thomas to allow me to wear the substitute shirt for John Thomas. That was very well received. And I realize how deeply persecuted that brother is at Bethany Baptist Church. And I will pray for him all the more. And it's just been a blessing. It's been a joy. Anyway, it has been a good time, and we thank the Lord for the fun and the fellowship, and appreciate the singing from our brothers from Spalding, and enjoyed each piece that you brought and sang and met last night, and you know, they sang that wee camp song, Kumbaya, this morning, and I was looking at, and I never remember what that means, Kumbaya, do you know what it means? Come by here. Come by here, Lord. And that's what you want this morning, isn't it? You want the Lord to come by here and to feel and sense His presence and His blessing and His help and to know that He is speaking with us. Well, let's look in 2 Kings chapter 2 and verse 1. It says, and it came to pass when the Lord should 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 at Bethel came forth to Elisha and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he said, Yeah, I know it. Hold your peace. And Elisha 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 thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho. And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha and said unto him, knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? And he answered, yeah, I know it, hold your peace. And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, 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 too went on. Fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off. and they too stood by Jordan. And Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together and smoked 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 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 him no more, and he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces. And 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 smoked the waters and said, where is the Lord God of Elijah? And when he had also smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither and Elisha went over. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you this morning for the joy of this week, for the fellowship, for the friendship, for the encouragement. Lord, we've had fun. We've had laughter. But Lord, we've also had times of sobriety, times of contemplation, times, God, perhaps of conviction. We trust, Lord, times of encouragement. times that we felt edified, at times, Lord, we felt lifted up in our spirits. And we pray, Father, that this morning as we bring our little series to a close, as we look at Elijah's parting from this earth, Lord, that you would help us to walk through this scripture and to really, Lord, just get a sense of the ending to this man's life journey. we pray father that we would learn something today that would just be fresh for us that would just bring us some spiritual soul food and lord that would strengthen our our inner man and cause us to be conformed to the image of the lord jesus christ lord minister to our hearts i pray and bless us in jesus name amen Well, we've had a very brief overview of Elijah's ministry, and the nature of the beast is such that we've had to skip over one or two events along the way. But we've gone now from the cave there in the mountain, and we're now at the end of Elijah's life. And you know, he's lived his life in a whirlwind. It's just been a flash. It's just kind of, he's appeared in 1 Kings chapter 17, and now he's disappearing. in 2 Kings chapter 2. He steps out of nowhere to confront the king of Israel and he then moves from there to his adventures by the drying up brook, from there to the meal table of the widow of Seraphat and from there to that great victory on Mount Carmel and then ultimately or then on to the moment of despair and the moment of depression and defeat and disuse and we saw there his restoration. He's lived a very tempestuous life or at least he's enjoyed a very tempestuous ministry to this point. But now that is all about to end and verse 1 makes it clear that Elijah's time on earth is up. He's going to remove, be removed from the earth by the Lord. God is taking the prophet home and he will live here, he will leave here like he lived here. He will leave in a whirlwind. Now as Elijah lived out the last of his days and hours of this life, it's really interesting to see how he conducted himself. You know we don't know that this may be the last day or the last hours of our lives. We don't know that. It's possible, God forbid, but it's possible that some of us may not even make it home today. You know, I trust and we've prayed and we sought the mercy of God and we hope everybody does, but we don't know. You just don't know. And so if you didn't know, how would that change? your attitude to the day? How would it change your approach? How would you do things differently? You know, would there be people you need to go and see and say, listen, I've wronged you and I need to seek your forgiveness? Would there be somebody and say, well, you know, if I'm going to heaven today, I really need to witness to this person before I go. I need to go and speak to this person about Jesus. I've been meaning to do it for some time, but I haven't got quite around to What would you do different if this was your last day? And here's the interesting thing about Elijah. He didn't live like a man who knew his time was short. He actually lives like a man who thinks he has plenty of time. And it's this time that just before Elijah is taken into heaven that I want to focus on this morning. You see, one of these days, brothers, our life journey is going to be over. Your journey is going to be over and my journey is going to be over. Someday, you know, we're going to hear of one another's passing. And you're going to hear, you know, Pastor Moore's passed away or whoever it is has passed away. And it might take you by surprise or stop you in your tracks to hear that. You know, I was thinking about some of the men that have come to our meeting here in Hebron Hall over the years that have passed away. And there are seats that are now empty that were once filled by brethren that we enjoyed the fellowship of and who are, from our point, sadly in glory. But not from their point of view, it's again for them. And of course, we remember them with great affection. You know, we remember Brother Bill passed away just a year or two ago. And those of you who didn't get to meet Brother Bill, what a brother he was. Tremendous encouragement. Always something uplifting to say. Always a cheery thought. Always a spiritual thought. You know, he's a man who humbled us when you were around him. He humbled Matt in the table tennis. He... He... Had the confidence. He'll never live it down, will he? But seriously, there's a man who's gone. His journey's over. and He's in the glory. And you know, all of us are going to leave this world. We're either going to leave by way of the cemetery or we're going to leave by means of the rapture. But either way, we will leave here in a whirlwind, swept away into the presence of God, brought into the glory of the Savior. Until that day comes, we have to live our lives in a way that is pleasing to the Lord and in a way that honors His will. Now I want you to see how Elijah spent his last days as we think on the prophets parting. And I want you to see it was a time of watching in verse 1. It came to pass when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. Elijah knew the precious truth that he was going to get to go to heaven without having to pass through the veil of death and this was a privilege that he had been really blessed to enjoy because there was only one other person in history to this point who enjoyed such a privilege and we know that was the man Enoch in Genesis chapter 5. We read of Enoch how he walked walked with God and he was not because the Lord took him. And God simply took Enoch to heaven without allowing him to experience the course of death. And this was the event that Elijah also was anticipating. He was expecting to go up to heaven by means of a whirlwind. And of course, this is something that could happen to us. Because we are expecting the Lord Jesus to appear, aren't we? We want to be caught up to meet Him in the air and to go up into heaven in a whirlwind, as it were. We're looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. We're not looking for the undertaker. We're expecting the upper taker, right? We're looking to the heavens. We're expecting the Lord to come and call us home. And so the Lord Jesus will come someday to the atmosphere and we'll hear that upward call and we will be gone in a moment in the twinkling of an eye. And that precious event that is yet future for the Church of God is anticipated in type by the experience of Elijah. Now as we read these verses it becomes quite apparent that everybody seems to know what is about to happen. The sons of the prophets now look in verse 3. They come out to Elijah and they say, Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? They say the same thing in verse 5 and they're anticipating his departure. 50 of them come out in verse 7 and they stand there waiting to see this event. It's almost like they're at Cape Canaveral expecting a liftoff. They're standing there waiting to see what's going to happen to Elijah. They're anticipating it. And Elisha knew about it. You get the sense of his personal loss when these young prophets come out, these sons of the prophets, these Bible school students, as it were, come out at Bethel and then at Jericho. And they say, knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today? Look at his rather terse reply. Yeah, I know it. Hold your peace. You know what he's saying? Yeah, I know. Shut up. I don't want to talk about that. I'm going to miss him. I'm going to miss him. And you get the sense of the bond between these two men. Elijah knew about it, Elisha knew about it, the sons of the prophets knew about it. It wasn't a secret. It was something that people had spoken about, heard about, that they could prepare themselves for. And so it is with the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes in meetings you'll hear people talk about the so-called secret rapture. I don't believe in the secret rapture. I believe in the rapture. It's no secret about it. It's in scripture. It's going to happen. And it's a thing that's been predicted. The Lord Jesus himself spoke about it. What did he say? You know, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, what? I will come again and what? Receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. The Lord Jesus preached the rapture. He's not coming to us. We're going to him first and then we're coming with him to the earth at the revelation. The New Testament predicts it repeatedly. Paul wrote about it in 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. John writes about it in Revelation chapter 4 and verse 1. It's something that is well documented in type and in doctrine throughout the pages of scripture. There is no exclusion for anyone not taking the idea of the rapture seriously, nor indeed of any Christian being caught out by surprise, because it's in the book. And there's no excuse for not being ready for the return of the Lord Jesus. So even though all these people knew it was going to happen, they didn't necessarily know when it was going to happen. And therefore, Elijah lived his last days and last moments in anticipation of that coming event. Brother, are you ready if the Lord should come? Are you ready if the Lord should come? You know John says this, every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure. It ought to be a motivating factor in our lives. Every day at some point in the day we should think this is the day perhaps that my Saviour will come. This might be the day that changes world history. This might be the day that changes my life forever. This may be the very day when I go face to face with the Lord Jesus, when I see Him in all of His glory and I'm drawn into His presence and into the comfort and the bliss of eternity with Him. It was a time for watching. This is a time for watching. We're living in dark days. We're living in days in which the signs of the times are unfolding before our very eyes. Anybody who cannot recognize that we're living in peculiar times is really someone who has just got their head in the sand. It's a time for watching. But it was a time for walking, verses 2 through verse 11. You see, as Elijah anticipated his departure from this world, he continued to live as he always had done. He continued to walk in humble obedience before the Lord as God. Notice his statement in verse 2. He says, the Lord has sent me. He says, the Lord has sent me. Again, he says it in verse 4. Elijah said unto Elisha, tarry here, for the Lord hath sent me. The Lord hath sent me to Bethel. The Lord hath sent me to Jericho. In verse 6 he says, tarry here, I pray thee, for the Lord hath sent me. The Lord hath sent me to Jordan. You know, here's a man who throughout his life with the exception of that blip at Beersheba, he's been Heeding the Word of God. Remember we read from chapter 17 of 1 Kings how that he responded to the Word of God. He came into the presence of Ahab at the Word of the Lord and the Word of the Lord came on to him as saying. And we see that again and again and again throughout his ministry. It says it came to pass after many days the Word of the Lord came to Elijah. Now he says the Lord has sent me. The Lord has sent me. The Lord has sent me. Brother you need to be hearing the word of the Lord. You need to be heeding the word of the Lord. You need to be obeying the word of the Lord. You need to be able to say sometimes, the Lord has sent me. The Lord has sent me. You know, you think about this, he's at the end of his days, I don't know how old he was, but I imagine he was up in years. And if Elijah had been like many folk in our day, he would have spent his last days on earth just laying out his retirement from Christian service. Yeah, I'm gonna buy myself a little caravan, go down and live by the sea. Spend my last days fishing, or golfing, or gardening, or whatever your cup of tea is, or your cup of fruit tea. And so he would have been forgiven by us if he had been planning out his retirement. But you know what? You don't ever retire from the ministry of the Lord. When I was applying for a mortgage one time, the lady said to me, well, she says, what age do pastors retire at? And I just laughed at her. I says, pastors don't retire, dear. I says, pastors just get old enough to where they just bore other people to death. We don't retire. We pay back. But you know, you don't retire. It's not just pastors. Elijah understood this truth that many people fail to grasp, that there's no higher calling than following the will of the Lord for your life and doing whatever he bids you to do, whatever stage of life you're at. There'll never come a day when you can quit on serving the Lord. There never comes a day, no matter where life takes you or where it leads you, that you can just put up your feet and say, well I'm done with witnessing, I'm done with church, I'm done with prayer, I'm done with the Bible, I'm done with fellowship, I'm done with service. There's never a day when you can do that. Never. And even though we may know we're leaving and that our day could be today, we should still seek to live our lives in full surrender before the Lord. Now, as the Lord led Elijah from place to place, God was bringing him to that place from where he intended ultimately to remove him from this world. Now, for Elijah, these places had significance for him, the significance in his understanding of the movement of God throughout Israelite history. It allowed him opportunity to go back and to visit the School of the Prophets, to visit some of those young men that he had been an influence on, that he had been a blessing to, you know, and I love that. I love the fact that he invested himself in a younger generation and he looked for people to come behind and replace him and he was permitted by God to go and speak to these young men who were making preparation and training in the service of the Lord. He was allowed to be an encouragement to them and you know these places each one gave him opportunity to reminisce about his life and how the Lord had moved marvelously and powerfully and wonderfully throughout the So let's take a moment and think about those places that he stopped off on route to meet his chariot of fire. First of all, notice he goes to Gilgal. That's where he begins his journey. It says, It came to pass when the Lord would take up Elijah unto heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. Where's Gilgal? Gilgal was the first place the Israelites camped when they crossed the River Jordan and entered into the Promised Land. Gilgal is the place of new beginnings. Here they were not involved in battle. They were nearing the battle but they were not fighting them yet. Rather, they were in a place of safety. They were in a place of security, of preparation, of communion with the Lord. And here they renewed their covenants. Here they grew strong in their relationship with the Lord. And for Elijah, it was a time for him to remember how it all began for him. How the Lord called him. How the Lord filled him. How the Lord began to use him for his glory. You know, it's a lovely thing to go and look over your journey in life. You should do that with some degree of regularity. I remember hearing a pastor tell a story about visiting a particular church and he was the guest speaker and he said that each night the pastor would take him back to his hotel and he would have a particular church member, one of the deacons, drive him home. And so on the first night they're driving home and he said to the deacon, brother so and so, would you tell pastor such and such how you got saved? And so he told him his testimony. The visiting pastor said, well that's wonderful, thank you for sharing that and went on home. Next night they came, he came back to church, preached his meeting, he's heading back to the hotel, same brother is sent out with him, he says, the host pastor says, brother so and so, will you tell pastor such and such how you got saved? Well, the guy was patient, he was being a good guest, and he said, all right. And so the guy told him the same story. Third night, same thing. Fourth night, same thing. Finally, the visiting speaker on the fifth night says to the host pastor, when he went through the same motion, he said, listen, he says, I've heard the fellow's testimony several times. He says, it's not like I've forgotten it. I know how he could see it. He says, I'm not having him tell you it because I think you've forgotten. I'm having you tell it because I don't want him to forget. Sometimes we need to remember where the Lord took us from. The pit from which he dug us. You know, when you get saved, sometimes you start to get a little bit holier than I with folks in the world. And you forget where you were in the world. You forget what you were like when you were in the world. You know, you might be in church and you might be the treasurer, the secretary, the deacon, the elder, the pastor, whatever. But there was a time when you weren't any of those things. There was a time when you didn't have that cloak of respectability. You know, there was a time when we lived in Belfast, and I was pastoring there at this point, and periodically we'd be out shopping in Tesco or wherever, and there was a woman that we'd bump into who was a friend of mine when I was a teenager. She knew all my horror teenage stories. And when she'd see me, she'd be making a beeline for me. You know, I'd see her coming down the aisle. And then she'd come up to me and I'd be saying, this is my wife, Hazel, and this is Clara, and this is Rachel, and this is Michaela, and this is Paul. And she'd say then, you know, I remember your dad, Wayne. And then she'd start telling old stories. I remember the night he did this. Oh, I remember when he went down to the disco that night and there was a big fight. Stop it. So it got to the point, if I saw her coming, I'd say to Hazel, you take the kids and go down there. And I'd go up and talk with her. But you know what? It was actually painful for me. She thought it was fun. She wasn't being malicious. She wasn't trying to be difficult. See, it was just being a friend. When you meet an old friend, you share old stories, don't you? But those are old stories from my unregenerate past. Those were stories that were now under the blood. Those were stories that Christ had forgiven me for, and I didn't want to hear them again. And sometimes we lock the past into a safe in our memory, and we bolt the door, and we forget what we were. And we start to get haughty with people who are now in the same position we were in and looking down on them. But sometimes we need to just go back to Gilgal and see where the Lord brought you from. And realize that you're not all that. That you're just an old sinner saved by the grace of God. He goes from Gilgal to Bethel. Verse 2, And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarih, 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 at Bethel came forth to Elisha. He went to Bethel. Bethel was a holy place for the people of Israel. It was the house of God. It was at Bethel that the patriarch Jacob had met the Lord. In Genesis 28, you remember the story of the ladder that reached up to heaven and the angels going up and down. It's a picture of our salvation in Christ and how Christ is the only way into heaven. It signifies a place of the altar of Jacob and total dependence. upon the Lord. Bethel was a place of revelation. Bethel was the place where God became known and where he drew near to those who worship him. For Elijah, Bethel was a place to reflect upon all the altars that he had built and he had experienced. We read yesterday how he repaired the altar of the Lord. He remembered how his life had been left and lived in total dependence upon God. He went to Bethel to remember those times in the house of God. Then he goes to Jericho in verse 4. He says, the Lord has sent me to Jericho. You know where Jericho is. Jericho is for the people of Israel, a place of victory. The first great victory in the promised land. The great battle that was fought there against those impregnated walls. This was the place of the first major conquest. And for Elijah, Jericho was a place for him to remember all the great victories he had enjoyed in his life. He could reflect back on the great things that God had done for him. You know, they didn't maybe seem like great things at the time, but I've no doubt he thought back and he thought to that time of drought in the land, and he said, you know, I remember, I remember Jericho. I remember sitting by the brook Jareth and waiting for those ravens to come in morning and evening with breakfast and dinner. Oh I remember, I remember Seraphath when I thought that I was at the wrong address. I'd come to this widow woman and she was about to take her son in and eat their last supper and die. And God, I remember the victory God provided for us there. I remember Mount Carmel. I remember the faces on the prophets of Baal as the fire fell from heaven and consumed mine altar. I remember, I remember the cheers of the people, the Lord, He is the God, the Lord, He is the God. He remembers these victories and He remembers these conquests and He comes to this place Jericho and then He goes to Jordan in verse 6. And he says, the Lord has sent me to Jordan. Now for Israel, the river Jordan marked the end of their wilderness journey. It's a picture of death. That it was a place where pilgrims died. Remember, there were those who were not permitted to cross the river Jordan. There were those who were not permitted to enter into the promised land. The greatest of those was Moses, who was allowed to see the land from Mount Nebo before God put him to sleep and buried him. So it was a place where those pilgrims died. And when they crossed Jordan, those who were alive were no longer pilgrims, but they were a people who had arrived home. Now they were in the land of promise. Now they were in the place that God had given them. Jordan was the place that marked death, the transfer from death into glory, from life into glory. Now for Elijah, this was the perfect place to reflect on all the ways that he had died to self during his years as a man of God. He could reflect on the fact that for the most part, by the grace of God, he had lived a selfless life. He had lived a life for the glory of God. And you look at this, this is exactly the progression of our Christian lives. We all have the Gilgal experience, don't we? We all have that new beginning, that time when we found the Lord Jesus or He found us and saved us and we became one of His. We all go back to that time. Then there's our Bethel experience where we grow in the Lord, where He reveals Himself through His Word, where we learn how to pray. where we become more and more acquainted and intimate with him, and we begin to grow and to walk and to come to a place of maturity. And eventually we come to our Jericho, a place of great battle, a place of great conflict, a place of great difficulty. And yet God pulls through, and he gives us a victory in some battle in life. And here we see how the world and the flesh and the devil are mortified. They're defeated as we live victoriously. in the power of the Lord. And eventually we are going to face our own Jordan. We'll come to the end of our journey just as Elijah did. Now, of course, Jordan can be a tough place physically, but it isn't a bad place spiritually because it's merely a doorway into the presence of the blessings of the Lord. It's just a doorway. You know, we were talking last night around the table out here, and Len told us a very interesting story about the passing of his father-in-law. Was it your father-in-law? And, you know, he... I'm not going to go into the story, but he told us a little story about how his father-in-law was on his deathbed, and he got momentarily conscious, and he, you know, he stood up and gave the thumbs up. He gave the thumbs up, didn't he? And I thought that was interesting because there was a lady in our church passed away about six years ago. Lovely lady, five, six years ago. And a wonderful woman, wonderful Christian. And I remember I went to visit her the day before she died. And at this point, they were draining her lungs. She was only 40 some years old. They're draining her lungs. She had breast cancer. She had ovarian cancer. And they're draining her lungs. And she's struggling to breathe. And she knew all along she was dying. She knew that. And here she is, literally within 24 hours of death. She now, at this point, lost her ability to speak. And I'm in there, and I speak to her. Her name's Jill, Jill Bond. And I'm trying to encourage Jill, and I'm reading the Bible with her, and I'm praying with her, and I'm trying to encourage her as best I can. And you know what? And I didn't realize this was her penultimate day on Earth. But my image of her will always be this. She looked at me, and she had this great, big, beaming smile. And then she did this. It was a thumbs up. And you know when I think about her, I see her there smiling. The next day I walked in and she was lying cold on the same hospital bed. But the day before, thumbs up! She was rejoicing. Even though Jordan was a struggle for her, she knew it was a step into glory. And one day you and I are going to arrive at that place that Elijah went to, where he went to heaven from, and we are going to live in the very presence of our Savior. What a day that will be. with my Jesus I shall see when I look upon his face. So Elijah traveled his last miles here on earth. I want you to see something. He did not attempt to travel them alone. In verse 2, verse 4, verse 6 you might think that he wanted Elisha to stay behind. He kept saying to him, Tarih here, the Lord has sent me there. Tarih here, the Lord has sent me there. Tarih here, the Lord has sent me there. The Lord has sent me to Bethel. The Lord has sent me to Jericho. The Lord has sent me to Jordan. But you know what? Even now he's training this guy Elisha. He's putting him to the test. And you see the reality of their relationship because every time he says to Elisha, Tarihir, Elisha replies the same way, no way, as the Lord liveth, as my soul liveth, I'm not leaving you. So they go down to Bethel together, they go down to Jericho together, they go down to Jordan together. You get to verse 11, it came to pass as they still went on and taught that behold there appeared a chariot of fire. He's right there to the end. Elijah is with Elijah to the end of the story. It speaks of friendship. It speaks of fellowship. As Elijah completed his tasks upon earth, he didn't withdraw himself from those who would seek to encourage him. He continued to walk in fellowship with other believers. He continued to value that company of God's people who God had given to him. Do you realize, friends, each one of us is a gift of God to the other? We're a gift to each other. We're here to encourage each other, to bless each other, to strengthen each other. And so, you know, even in going to the School of the Prophets, you see that in walking with his friend and his associate Elijah, Elijah realized that he was part of a bigger company of people. He knew that he needed others in his life. Do you know what I find? I find there are too many, I call them Lone Ranger Christians. Now some of you guys won't even know who the Lone Ranger is. Hi, old Tonto. Hi, old Tonto. You know, some of you know JJ. I was out knocking on doors with JJ one day. I knocked this door. Nobody answered and I said to him, there's nobody in Kimis Abbey. And JJ said, what? And I said, there's no one in Kimis Abbey. And he went, Is that like a foreign language? And I said, haven't you ever heard of Kemosabe? And he went, blank. And I said, the Lone Ranger? Blank. I had to tell him the whole story of the Lone Ranger. Hi-ho silver away, and the silver bullet, and the masked man, and all that stuff. But nevertheless, the Lone Ranger, if you're not familiar, was a vigilante cowboy who went around the Wild West in a fictional story taking care of bodies. But if that was his deal, he traveled alone. And there are some Christians and they want to travel alone. I meet them all the time. Some of them say, well, I don't want to be part of a church. Why don't you want to be part of the church? Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Why do you think it's not worthy of your presence? Well, I've been hurt in another church. You know what? So have I. I've been hurt in churches. I've got the scars. I got the marks, but I don't ditch the church because I had a bad experience here or a bad experience there. You know, I've gone into restaurants where I've had horrible meals, but I still go to restaurants. I don't go to restaurants anymore. Why not? I went there one time and the peas were cold. I'll grow up. You know, I've gone to some horrible football matches. You know, he and I went to a football match at Stoke City. Worst football match of our lives, I should think. Against Cardiff. It was against Cardiff. It was dreadful. They were like playing just on the centre lane. The ball just went about 10 yards this way and 10 yards that way. And it was a freezing cold December evening and we only went because it was £10 a ticket but we were robbed even at that. £10 a ticket. It was horrible. It's the worst game of football. I felt sorry for him. I wanted to take him along as an encouragement, as a gift to him at Christmas and just introducing the premiership football. And I thought, man, he'll never come back to football after this. This is everything Americans say is bad about football. But you know what? You don't go to one bad match and say, I said I'm never going back to football. Because you go back another time, it'll be a good match. And if you have an experience in a church that's a bad experience, that doesn't mean it's going to be true of every church. or even every Sunday in that church. You may go back the next week and it'll be a great experience. You don't go to church because it's an experience. If you're going to church because it's an experience, let me tell you what you are. You're a consumer, not a disciple. If you're a disciple, you go to church because that's the church that Jesus built. And there are too many Lone Rangers. Too many who think they can go it alone. Too many who think they don't need anyone else in their lives. And here's Elijah, Elijah Markhew, this man who stood alone on Mount Carmel. And he's coming to the end of his days. And he has Elisha with him, right to the very end. And he's fizzling the sons of the prophets and connecting with God's people as he heads toward glory. It's time of watching. It's a time of walking. It's a time of working. I've already touched on this thought today, but he didn't spend his last days on the bench of do nothing. He was busy. Busy in the work of the Lord until that instant God called him away. And in that he sets an example for all of us that we would all do well to follow. Notice that what he's doing is he waits for this whirlwind. Even at the end of his life Elijah is still walking by faith. Verse 8, Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together and smoked the waters. That took faith. And they were divided hither and thither so that they too went over on dry ground. When he came with Elijah to the river Jordan, you know, they needed to get across. So he does what he always did do. He expected the impossible from God and he received it by faith. And it appears that Elijah never reached a place in his life where he said, well, I've seen it all now. There's nothing left that God can do for me. There's no more that I can learn. There's no new victories to be won. Even to the end, He's still looking for the Lord's supply. You know, we have a dear brother in our church. In fact, it's Jill Bowen's father, Brian Eccleston. Some of you will know Brian. And Brian is probably one of the greatest Christian men I've ever met. Honestly, one of the greatest Christian men I've ever met. He's 80 years of age. And he's been nothing but a blessing to me from the first day that I met him until the last... great, great brother in Christ. But you know, Brian comes into our vestry on Sunday mornings, he comes in, he's one of our deacons now, and he comes in and he sits down with me to pray. Every Sunday he prays with me. And he sits down, and there's hardly a Sunday goes by when he doesn't say, listen David, the Lord showed me this in the scripture this week. Oh, I learned this in the scriptures this week. And here's a man, you know, if you look at his Bible, his Bible's falling apart. And he reads it through two, three times a year, has been saved now for 50 or 60 years. So he's probably read the Bible, you know, in total, from beginning to end, 120, 180 times. And you think to yourself, well Brian, you know, you've read it 180 times, you must surely know what's in there. But he still comes in, oh you know what, I was doing my devotions this week and I saw this verse. Or he'll come in and say, David, I have a question. You know, he's asking me. You know, he's been saved longer than I've been alive. And he comes and he asks me. And you say, well why is that? Because he realises that God still has some things for him. And it appears Elijah was the same way. He just kept walking by faith and dependence until the very last step of the road. And as they walk together, Elijah spends his last moments with Elisha, teaching him about obedience, teaching him about faithfulness. He doesn't just pat Elisha on the back and say, well, Elisha, you just have a good life, son. And then he wanders off into the sun. No, he doesn't. He knows Elisha is going to take his place someday. He knows that Elijah needs and deserves the best of preparation and training that can be given. The future depends upon Elijah doing his duty today. This is the last day of his life. But he realizes the future depends on him doing his duty on this day. And so before he leaves, he has to hand his ministry down to the next generation. Brethren, as we who are older near the end of our journey, we need to understand there's another generation that's coming behind us that must be prepared to replace us, though we're irreplaceable. But nevertheless, that was a joke. Thank you for laughing. But we're going to go. We're going to go. And what we're teaching that younger generation about faith, about obedience to God, about faithfulness to the Lord's house, about maintenance of the family, about the work of God, about the love for the Bible. What are we teaching them? What are you teaching them as an older Christian? What kind of legacy are we leaving behind as we travel through this life and toward our crossing of the River Jordan? You know, we're here this morning, all of us are here because some faithful person witnessed to us. And we're here because somebody taught us. You know, we didn't always know the things that we now know. Somebody had to teach us those things. Somebody took the time and answered our questions. Somebody took the time and sat down and explained. Somebody pointed us in the direction of a certain book. Somebody helped us along the way. And our duty now is for those who follow us to give them that same opportunity, to teach them, to pass on to them, to encourage them, to prepare them to get the job done for Jesus. Here, listen men, older men, it is our job and our duty to teach the younger men, I may even say the boys in our fellowship, how to conduct themselves as Christian men. They have to be taught what a real man is. Now let's get this cleared up right from the off. A real man doesn't listen to Abba. Sorry Trevi, real men don't listen to Abba. No, all joking aside, they need to know how to love their wives. You know what? They need to see you loving your wife. You know, my wife and I, we don't do this very often, but the other day we walked up the church holding hands. It was amazing how many of our church members commented on that. You know, a number of them made little jokes. Oh, you know, there's the honeymooners, you know, or whatever. And they made little jokes. But you know what? I was surprised how many people observed that little. We weren't doing it for show. Normally I walk ahead and she walks behind in the Muslim fashion. But on this occasion, you know, we held hands and we walked together up to church. And a number of our folks said, oh, that's really nice, Pastor. It's really nice to see you holding hands. They're watching. Young men need to know how to treat their wives. How to love the woman in your life. How to treat your children. They need to know that. You know, some of us and some of them grew up in homes that were not perfect. Our brother shared the other day the difficulties of his home life and what a tragic upbringing he had in so many ways, being abandoned here and abandoned there, left in an orphanage and all the rest of it. You know, a young man like that, you know what he needs to see? He needs to see a good home life in church. Needs to make that comparison. Needs to see you and me. Being kind with our children and loving our children and taking care of our children and providing for our children and working for our children. They need to see, you know, how to live for God in a world that is wicked. And this world is a desperately wicked world and it seems it's getting increasingly more so as time passes. Young people, I would hate to be a young Christian today. The temptations that young Christians today face seem to me to be far more concentrated than they were for previous generations. And who's gonna teach them how to live in the face of that kind of temptation and opposition of the Spirit if you and I don't do it? We gotta lead by example. You know, they need to be taught that a man's word is his bond. That's a great thing to teach a young person, isn't it? You make a promise, you keep it. You say you're going to be there, you be there. You say I'm going to be there at that time, you're there at that time. Because a man's word is his bond. A year or two ago, I was out with some of the older ladies in our church. We have a little group, they have a little group, they call them the knitters and the knatters. And they were going somewhere and they were short of a driver and I offered to drive them to this garden center, wherever it was they were going. And we were walking around and several of them were saying, we've never been to Ireland, pastor, we'd love to go to Ireland. You know, would you take us to Ireland someday? And I said, sure, of course I'll take you to Ireland someday. One of those throwaway things like, it's never gonna happen. And then one of them said to me one day, when are we going to Ireland? And I thought, I've got to take him to Ireland. And so we did this year. I bundled a bunch of pensioners on a plane. And I got a minibus. And I drove them around Northern Ireland. And I had a four day or three day holiday. And you know what? They loved it. But here's the thing. I didn't have the time for that. but I had to make the time for it. Why? Because people knew, they knew, and God knew that I said, someday I'll take you there. And even though it wasn't entirely convenient for me to do that, I did it anyway. Why? Because you've got to set the example and show your word is your bond. You say you're going to do something, you do it. And the younger men notice that. They need to realize their marriage vow means something. I watched a young lady on TV a while back on the news one night they had a story, a magazine story about a village that was given over to this business of having a school prom. That always makes me laugh, the school prom. When I was at school the last day you just threw your school bag into the river and went home. That was school prom. That was it. There was no helicopters and fire engines and all the rest of it. I look at them and say, what is wrong with you people? You don't even, you're not even supposed to enjoy school. What's wrong? But this wee girl was on TV in this village that was completely devoted to school proms. And they interviewed her, and she's dressed in ange, and her mother has spent thousands of pounds in this dress, and they've hired some fancy vehicle of thousands of pounds to bring her and her friends to the prom, and all this stuff is being done. And they said to her, you know, well, why do you do all this? And here was the wee girl's answer. She says, your school prom is the most important day of your life. She says, it's more important even than your wedding day. She says, because you can only come to a school prom once in your life, but your wedding day, you can be married many times. I thought, whoever gets her is getting a treasure. Do you promise to take care of Will for the next three years, maybe? Uh-oh, uh-oh, what is wrong with this generation? Our young men need to be taught by us that when I went to that marriage altar and I said to my wife, that I'm going to stick with you till death parts us, even if that means I have to kill you to bring it about. That I meant it. That I meant it because I made a promise not to man, not to her, but to God. And they need to see that. They need to see that. They need a good godly example. And you and I as older men are called to be just that. Look with me in Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2 and verse 2. Notice what it says. Let's read verses 1 and 2. It says, But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine. And then there's a reference to the older men in the church. That the aged men be sober and grave, temperate. sound in faith, in charity, in patience. Down to verse 6, he says, young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded. The older men are to be sober, the younger men are to be exhorted to be sober. He says, let the young men be sober-minded, in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works, in doctrines showing uncorruptness. Gravity. Sincerity. What did he say? The aged men be sober. Be grave. Teach the young men sobriety. Teach them gravity. Teach them that there are times when we have a laugh but there are other times when we have to sit up and listen and be earnest about the things of God. Sincerity. Sound speech that cannot be condemned. That he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil things to say of you. Let it not be said of us by the next generation. They didn't teach us. They didn't help us. They didn't show us. They didn't live it out. Let not that be said. You see, your influence extends beyond the walls of your own home and right into your Christian community. You have a responsibility, not just to your children, but to all the younger men in the church and to set the right example in faithfulness and holiness and in tone. And so that's what Elijah did. He took Elijah under his wing right to the very end and he listened to his request. When Elijah said, can I have a double portion? He said, you've asked for a hard thing, but he didn't say no. It really wasn't his to give, was it? Says you've asked for a hard thing, but let's see what the Lord will do. Verse 11 says there, as they still went on. You see that little phrase? They came to pass as they still went on. Even though he was nearing the end of his life, he found no stopping place. Even though he was near the end of his life, he still went on. In fact, it was as he was going on that the Lord sent the chariot of fire to meet him and to greet him and to bring him to glory. exit this man from this life. Can you imagine what it would have been to have been there and to seen that, to be those 50 young preachers standing on the hill watching Elijah and Elisha in the distance and they're talking and they're chatting and Elijah has his arm around his young man and he's mentoring him and he's saying, now listen son, you've asked for a hard thing but we'll see what the Lord, and suddenly the fire appears from heaven and these horses come out of nowhere with their chariots, come sweeping down and grab the prophet and he's up and away and into the air. What a way to end your days. What a way to go. And what impresses me more than the fact that he went up in the whirlwind is that while he was waiting to do so, Elijah just remained faithful, doing what he always did, serving God. He lived like he was going to be there for another hundred years. He just did what he always did. Nothing changed. Now I expect this morning I'm speaking to some of you and you know, maybe you've sat down in God. You ever take your kids for a walk and they don't want to walk and they keep trying to sit down? They're small. I'm tired, Daddy. I'm tired. Can you carry me? Of course, you're a loving father, and you say no. You know, our father one time, I took him on this walk when he was a little boy. He was about five or six, seven years of age. And we were on this walk. It was a hot day. We were in Spain. We were at the Alhambra Palace. We were walking around the grounds of the Alhambra Palace, which I always wanted to see. I'd seen it in Blue Peter when I was a boy, and I always wanted to see it. And when I realized we were near to it, I thought, I'm going to go visit the Alhambra Palace. My kids weren't interested. It was a hot, sticky day. We couldn't find any water. And they were parched. And our Paul sat down on a wall. And he said, I can't go on. I can't go on. And his face was screwed up. And I said, son, if you don't get off that wall and start walking, I'm going to take a photograph of you right now, sit in there crying, and I'm going to show it to your wife on your wedding day. And so I did. I took a picture of him. I've lost the picture. But I took a picture of him. But you know what, we're a little bit like that kid sometimes. We just want to sit there. I'm done. I'm done walking. The Lord has come along and said, get up. The journey's not over yet. We haven't got to the end of the road. I've got to go to Jordan. There's still a while to go. Put one foot in front of another, keep walking. You see brother, it's time to get off the bench. It's time to get up and start walking. It's time to make progress. Paul puts it this way in Romans chapter 13. He says that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. For now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed. The night is for spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, set up and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envy, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. What was Paul saying to the Romans? He was saying, keep on walking. Keep going. The finish line isn't just yet. You know, some of you perhaps have sat down on God. You look back over your life and you say, you're a used to be Christian. You know what I mean by that? Oh, I used to be a Sunday school teacher. Oh, I used to be a youth worker. Oh, I used to sing in the choir. Oh, I used to do this and I used to do that. And why are you not doing it now? Well, I sat down. Why are you sitting down? Who gave you permission to sit down? Where does it say in the Bible, thou shalt sit down? Elijah didn't sit down. He just kept walking and walking and walking. Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho, Jordan, heaven. Where did you start? Gilgal. Where did you go? Bethel. Maybe to Jericho. And then I sat down. Why'd you sit down? You gotta get to Jordan. Not finished yet. Others of you are in the thick of a fight today. You know, you've come to this meeting this week and you were tempted to quit. You were tempted to call Brother Darren, email him, or text him. That's usually the brave way to do it. And say, I can't come, Pastor Darren, because I have to do some cat sitting this week. I got a message like that, I actually got a message. You got a cat sitter message? I can't come to church, I'm cat sitting. You don't have to sit for a cat. Cats take care of themselves, cats don't even care about you. There's no selfish animal on the planet. Cat's probably sitting on you. I can't come, I'm cat sitting. Give me a break. attempted to quit. Oh, dear Darren, dear Pastor Matt, thanks for bringing this to the men's retreat, but I don't think I'll be coming to church this Sunday. Why? Well, I'm quitting. Why? Who gave you permission to quit? Who told you you could stop? Who said you could sit down? Who said you could stop walking with the Lord? Here's what you need to do. You need to get up and renew your commitment to Christ. You need to go back to Gilgal and see Jesus dying for you fresh. You need to see the blood being shed. You need to see the Saviour being crushed. You need to hear the pain, cry out, call Him, crucify Him, crucify Him. You need to see the Pharisees and the scribes despising Him. Come down from the cross. You need to see him holding up the vinegar to his lips. You need to see Joseph of Arimathea lifting his limp body and lying it down on the ground at the foot of Calvary. You need to see Nicodemus and David taking the legs and the hands and carrying that body and putting it with love in a tomb. Then you need to say to yourself, if the Lord would do that for me, I am the world, and I think it was okay to sit down. And renew your commitment. You see, today is a day when those who are willing to walk with the Lord may win great victories. If there's a need in your life, here's what I'm saying to you, bring it to Jesus. Bring it to Jesus so that that need can be met. When Elijah had a need, it was met. Brother, will you surrender to him? Will you go on as Elijah did? Will you glorify him? Will you honor our God? Will you be ultimately caught up in a blaze of glory to stand before the resurrected Christ and to hear him say, Job done. Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord. May God bless these thoughts to your heart.