2 Kings chapter 2. If you'd like to stand for the reading of the Bible, we're going to read a few verses here and I'm just going to go ahead and tell you, I will not finish this message this morning. You'll have to come back tonight. There's just way too much. I hope that you've got enough of the Lord in you. That it'll make you want to come back. tonight. In verse number 8 of chapter 2 of 2 Kings, listen up girls, y'all listen up real close. The Bible says, and Elijah took his mantle. A very, very important part of Elijah's ministry was his mantle. Are you listening? Look up this way. Look up here at me. Remember this. You came to hear me. I didn't come to hear you. All right, so listen real close. You young folk, pay attention. You ain't going to hear nothing by talking and you ain't going to hear nothing by looking across the church. You ain't going to get nothing. I was telling somebody yesterday, I love precious babies. I love babies. I love them. I love them. I remember when I was a baby, 106 years ago now, something like that sometime. But I remember this, and I see this. Young people cannot pay attention when they're playing, and adults can't pay attention when they're playing with babies. So, you know, I'm just asking you. It's a quarter to 12. I probably won't be here very much longer this morning. Boy, that makes it sound like I'm fixing to die. I didn't mean to say it like that. I don't want to give you the wrong impression. I'm not getting suicidal by no means. Amen. But I'm just, I'm asking you to do this. For the sake, listen up. Listen up. For the sake of others around you, stand up straight. Thank you. Stand up straight. Look up this way. Click your heels together. That didn't do nothing. Made noise. All right. Y'all know what that means. Amen. And then we'll see what God's got for us. Amen. 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." Chapter 2 and verse number 10. And he said, Thou hast asked a hard thing nevertheless, if thou 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 Lasius 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 He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back, and stood at the bank of 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 Father, I pray that you'll take what we've read for your glory. Thank you for this time, this people. Lord, thank you for each and every one, God, this morning, God, that has come out to get something from you. Lord, they didn't come to hear me. God, I can't help them. But God, if they'll get something from you this morning, Lord, God, you can stir their hearts and you can help them. And God, encourage them, God, to walk with you. Lord, we'll thank you for what you do. We'll bless your holy name in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. And amen. You can be seated. Thank you so much for standing. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. I got to look at some things this morning because there's something we're faced with right here before we're going to understand what happened in the life of Elijah and Elisha that you've got to go backwards. You know, a lot of times we've had our kids come to us and we say, one child will be telling on the other child. One adult will say something about this other adult. And you can take it like that if you'd like to, and knowing that you probably are being deceived, or you can back the story up and find out some other very important facts about what happened. I was listening to a preacher preach yesterday and he was talking about doing marriage counseling. He was talking about talking to the husband and talking to the wife. And he was talking about what he does when he sits down with them and gives both of them a piece of paper. And he'll tell the husband, he'll say, you write down all the problems that you can imagine in this relationship on your piece of paper. And he gives the other one to the wife and says, you write down all the problems that you know of in this relationship and we'll look it all, put it all together. And so they wrote them down and they hand him the paper and he let neither one of them look at either person's sheet of paper. I've done this before. And I found out it's very profitable. Because he's sitting there blaming her on his piece of paper, and she's sitting there blaming him on her piece of paper, and the problem's not on the paper. The problem is, in between the two pieces of paper, in between the two people, somebody's missing. Amen. Amen. A strong marriage cannot go on without God being involved. Amen. A man has to be a Christian, he has to be holy, he has to follow the Bible to be able to be a good Christian husband. A woman has to go along the guidelines of that book to be a good Christian wife. And so, as we looked at that and we thought about how that they two have to work together, I'm looking at this thought, Brother Donnie, this morning on how this young preacher followed the old preacher. Or maybe I want to look at it like this. I don't know, David, you could write it down. How Elisha wanted Elijah's mantle. That mantle is very important. And to understand what that mantle did, what that mantle represented, how that Elisha was confronted, we're going to have to back this story up into 1 Kings to find out some very important things about Elijah's life and Elisha's life before we can ever get to the place that we're going to see how that Elisha wanted what Elijah had. And if we don't, it don't make sense. It'll never make sense. My point in that example of those that married, that husband and wife, you've got to back it up to a further time than that one office visit with two pieces of paper. You've got to go backwards. So we're going to look back this morning in 1 Kings chapter 19, and as we look back there, we're going to see some things about Elijah and Elijah's life. on how that he literally was to the place where he was able to do some things for God and make a difference in the work of the Lord. In chapter 17, 1 Kings chapter 17, with the first time we ever even make notice or take notice of Elijah, and it just opens up and says, and Elijah the Tishbite, who was in the inhabitants of Gilead said to Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word." I'd like to say one of the very important factors about the life of Elijah was Elijah said some mighty powerful things that made me scratch my head. I mean, when I think about some of the things, he said, he didn't say, at the word of the Lord, he said, but at my word. God had put him in a place and God had given him power that he was able just to step off. I don't believe he just took it lightly upon himself and made some frivolous statements, but Elijah had spent time with God. He wasn't trying to figure things out. He wasn't trying to fathom things out that would just make sense and it might look like it would look good in the way the country and the world would operate. But God had sent this man of God to deal with the king of the people of God that was the most wickedest king that Israel had ever seen. As we look deeper into this text and we see that how the man of God had taken his stand and now he's standing before this king and he's declaring unto him it's not going to rain for these three plus years. And this man, this king, he's the man that's in control of the country. He's the man that's supposed to be watching out for provisions. He's the man that's supposed to be giving orders. He's the man that's very rich and famous. He's got lots of animals. He's got lots of servants. He's got lots of workers. And so those people are going to depend on Him. Those animals are going to depend on Him. But let me tell you, in three and a half years of no rain, there ain't going to be no grass. The trees are going to be dying. I'm saying there's a lot of things that take place when the droughts come. Can I tell you, there was a famine in the land. There was a drought in the land. It reminds me of America in the year 2015. Whenever people can go out and they can do that which is right in their own eyes, and they can live any way they want to, and they can live in sin. Two men can walk down the sidewalk holding hands. I wish somebody would hit me just a little bit this morning. I was driving down the highway the other day and I was sitting at the red light there at Hardee's Brother Joe and I had to pull my phone out and take a picture as two young girls was walking down the sidewalk holding hands and they had to hurry to get across the road. They had to turn loose because one was a little heavier than the other and the smaller one outruns the bigger and I mean that's just all part of weight contribution, I guess. I don't know what I was thinking in that stuff. But I know there, as soon as they got across the road to what they thought was safe again, they commenced holding hands again. In America, in St. Mary's, Georgia, where we never thought we'd see such a thing. Hey, let me tell you, we've seen worse than that in this little city right here. We stay sane and decent every day. I'm telling you, this is the kind of stuff you ought to make your children listen to. Sit up! Sit up! Be quiet! Listen! I'm saying there's things that we need to know about. We're living in an hour when there's a famine of God, there's a famine of the gospel, there's a famine of preaching, there's a famine of old-time religion in the church house in the year of 2015. There's a famine in the land. When that famine comes, people quit praying. They start whining. What we gonna do? What we gonna do? What we gonna do? What we gonna do? How come the churches are dying off? What we gonna do? What y'all gonna do, preacher? Preacher, what y'all gonna do? I got a better question. What you gonna do? Now, if you sit there and look dead very long, Al Chapman will come by and drag you out. Anybody know who Al Chapman is? He owns the funeral home right down there by where I live at. He'll thank you a good prospect for embalming. Amen. I'm just saying, I'm saying this morning there's nothing more depressing than walking into a church house and seeing folk with no joy and no zeal and no excitement singing I'll Fly Away like they're fixing to crawl off the lot. I'm saying this morning we need to get stirred and excited about God. That song they sang a while ago. Listen! That song they sang a while ago. Well, if that didn't stir your heart, there's something wrong with your heart. Amen. I believe this. Call me wrong if you want to, Brother Donnie, but I don't think nothing will help the church of the year of 2015 in the church of this late Odyssey in church age. Nothing will help the church. Nothing will stir the church. Nothing will get the church on fire like a bunch of people that are church members to get saved. Say, brother, but I am saved. Yeah? Elijah. Elijah goes before the president. He goes before the king. He said, it ain't fixing to rain. I want you to know it. He said, you ain't getting no rain. God knew he wasn't going to get no rain, so God led him off to a place. God sent him down to a place. He said, I'm going to send you a place. He said, I'm going to send you down there to a place where you ain't got to worry about water while it ain't raining. He said, I'm going to send you to a place. I'm just, hey, I'm just, you know, I'm a realist. I'm just thinking like this. Somebody help me that's been on a farm one time. After three years, three and a half years of no rain, the ponds dried up, the rivers dried up, the grass dried up, the cows ain't got feed, the hogs ain't got nothing, all the animals is dying. They ain't no meat, but God said, I will supply the meat by the most greediest bird you've ever seen. I tell my wife about this, she says, that raven was so greedy they wouldn't share with each other. That's a man. But under the submission and authority of a holy God, he had to deliver Brother Micah. They had to bring him right to Elijah's table and set it right there while he's sitting there in a creek in a brook. The first place that normally would dry up was the last place that was going to dry up. And he's sat there by that brook, and he's got water, and he's got meat, and the brook just kept flowing. I wonder if Elijah ever got to the place where he said, I'm just one day, while I'm resting, I'm going to walk backwards. Have you ever been through the woods where you say, I'm going to see where this creek comes from? I have. I've backtracked them before, haven't you, Brother Charles? I wonder if Elijah just finally found a place where he couldn't go no further, and there's a big pile of rocks that that water's flowing out of. I read over there in the book of Revelation where there's a throne that water's going to flow out of. I'm saying God can make water come where God makes water where He wants it to come from. And a lot of people don't think so. But I'm telling you, at an old-fashioned church where God still wanted and God still welcomed, people can come get a drink. They can come fellowship. They can come enjoy the good songs of God. I'm saying a place that is established upon the rock. It's a place where we can get a drink. Let's look on. Let's look on. We see. We see how that God petty He fed him. He fed him with ravens. In this chapter, you'll notice this. He fed him with ravens. Then he fed him with a widow. Poor little old widow didn't have nothing but a, but all she had, all she had was a little bit of meal, a little bit of oil, and I would say two sticks. I looked, I looked at that bread. I was thinking, I read about in the Bible in John 10, I read about somebody said they was the bread of life. I've read how the Holy Spirit all is a type of the Holy Spirit, and I know what they done to our Savior on two sticks. I know this, I know he got fed by the ravens and he got fed by the widow, but he also got fed by the angel. Elijah was such a boastful man, good night. I mean, that's pretty powerful, my way of thinking. Hey! Just want to let you know, it ain't raining here no more till I say so. I'm not being sarcastic, okay? But if you come by my house today and said that, I'd say thank you. I'd say my road needs to dry out a little while. Please. But it don't take long to swim out of water. And so Elijah, Elijah gets real boisterous and he's real powerful in his speech and he starts throwing off these commands. And then one day he hears, a woman hears about him. He ain't heard nothing out of her. You know what hurt a man more than anything in his life? It ain't him losing a job, he'll get another job. Brother Joe lost several fingers and you thought that would have kind of hindered him, messed him up a little bit, but he kept on. But man, a woman? Some of the best men in the world have been brought down by a woman. I'm talking about Their lives were twisted into shambles. She brought them to a place where they didn't know how to operate. And the man of God has declared to the King of Israel, it ain't gonna rain till I say it's gonna rain again. Then he goes to the brook and he witnesses God feed him and God water him. Then he goes to the widows and sees this woman sacrificially give unto him. You know, that oil and that meal didn't run dry, but she still didn't believe he was the man of God. The Bible says that in just a little while down after that chapter, Her son died. And when her son died, she said, art thou come to bring remembrance of my sin? She does something worthy. She felt like worthy of her to lose a child for. And he said, no. He took that child up and he carried him up there in the upper chambers to his room. And he laid across that child three times. And he prayed, he begged God, he said, let his soul come back to him. And the Bible says that he did. And he carried that baby, carried that boy back down there to his mama. She said, now I believe that thou art a man of God. Now, you know what most of us, we don't believe that God has called a man specifically. Hey, some people think that you don't have to be called. Time always tells that. Cause I've met some that they said they wasn't called neither and they tried it. I listened to a man preach one time. The whole message he preached out of the book of Job. And he said God didn't call him, he just wanted to do it. And he didn't even know how to pronounce Job. He said it turned into the book of Job. I was in this church a long time ago. And so now Elijah is in the place where he's seen God provide for him. He's seen the water cut off. He's seen the provision from a brook in a drought. He's seen the ravens feed him. He's seen a widow woman give the last thing of what she had. He's seen her son come back to life. And then he heard from a woman. the wife of Ahab. And she said, after he's done had all these prophets of Baal killed, she said, if this don't happen to you by this time tomorrow, I hope it happens to me. Now, I don't know about you, but I've had some women say some things to me, precious church ladies from time to time, that absolutely would make you not sleep. I mean, they was mad. They was angry. They wanted you to know it. So the only way to let you know it is to tell you. Just tell you. I seen a young man tell a preacher something one time. I thought, I'd be so scared to say something to a man of God like that. We're talking about a man right here. We've just seen great miracles. Him performed by the dame. Now, all these things I'm telling you this morning, because you've got to understand, word gets around. Word gets around. I don't think they had TVs back then. Pretty sure they didn't have internet. I doubt they had telephones. Don't even imagine, they probably had newspapers, but word gets around. You know, all you got to do is just do something wrong and word just goes crazy. God forbid I don't plan on it, I don't want to, but all I'd have to do is just run off with the preacher's wife. And word gets to the wrong one. They wouldn't care that I'm the preacher and she is my wife. But the wrong one get word, Bill Leo. Word get around. And all the things that I'm wanting to think, all the things that Elijah did, word got around. And people heard about it. I got to thinking, I got to thinking about this. When that angel fixed him a cake, he got off after he heard from Jezebel, he got off and he said, I want to die. Here's what the Bible says, he requested to die. But let me tell you this, you can request all you want to, but if you've got a ministry going on and God ain't through with you, you ain't fixing to die. When God establishes a ministry, listen to me, when God establishes a ministry, God wants you to know either you're going to do it or somebody else is. Brother John and Sister Mandy don't go on with their ministry. They've got a ministry here. And if they don't carry it out, God will put somebody else in that ministry. But God is not going to put somebody in that ministry until, I mean, not going to take Brother John out until there's somebody ready in that ministry. And so Elijah says, I want to die. And he just lays down to die. And an angel of the Lord comes by and woke him up and said, wake up and eat. And he looked over and there was a cruise of water and a cake of bread. And so he ate until he was full. You know what he did? He laid down again. He satisfied his hunger. But he's got to satisfy his strength. And so he lays down and he woke him up again and said, eat more. You're going to need some more meat. And he ate more. And the next thing you know, the Bible says he goes 40 days on the strength of that meat. Now, he just went on a 40 day fast. Forty days God talked with him. You think 40 days I'm talking to God, I'm praying a lot. If I'm fasting 40 days, I'm talking to God. You fast 40 days, God's talking to you. Because you done got so weak, you ain't talking no more. Can I say this here? A fast will not hurt you once in a while. It won't hurt your marriage. It won't hurt your Christian attitude. And if you go in there and tell everybody what you've been doing, you just blew it. It was for your glory, not for him. And so now, here he is. He's in a place, he's in a predicament that he's up on Mount Horeb. And he's thinking, surely God, 40 days, Brother Jerry, 40 days he's on the fast. Surely God's going to do something. Surely God's going to show me something. I'm trying to get to the place where I can deal with this. Elijah. And the Bible says he thought the Lord was in the fire, but he wasn't in the fire. And he thought the Lord was in the wind, but he wasn't in the wind. And I believe he thought he was in the earthquake, and he wasn't in there. All the places where Elijah thought God would be seen, God wasn't seen. Because you know why? All the miracles Elijah had done was big, visual miracles. And he said he was in a still, small voice. And so God now sees that Elijah is tired. Elijah wants to die. But before he can die, he's got to bring somebody up under him. And God tells him, He said, I want you to go some places. And He introduced several people. They're going to be the king. They're going to be this here. He says, and there's a man named Elisha. He said he's going to be a prophet. And so he goes to where he meets Elisha. Now Elisha's plowing in the field. There's 12 yoke of oxen plowing. Okay? That means there's 12 different people with their two oxen plowing fields. And Elisha was the 12th. It's very possible they left him to the last, Brother John. It's very possible. Listen, I've looked over this thing and prayed over this thing, Brother Dan, and I'm probably going to say, you're reading between a bunch of lines. Well, let me enjoy it, okay? Brother Darnell, it says Elisha was the twelfth. You know what I'm thinking? I'm thinking Elisha was the youngest man out there plowing. All them other men, they was doing their jobs, isn't there? And here comes the man of God that takes his mantle and throws it on Elisha. Now, there are two ways you can look at that. One, it might have been a custom in that time, whenever somebody else was being recruited for a position like that, that that's how it was identified by the older man of God, taking his mantle, his jacket, or whatever you want to call it, and putting it on somebody that he thought could fulfill the job, or whoever God directed him to do so. Could be that might apply right there. Or it might be that Elijah had seen and heard about a man of God named Elijah and prayed and asked God to send him by his way one day and said, God, all the things I've heard about Elijah, I wish you'd give me that kind of power. I wish you'd give me that kind of chance. I wish you'd send him by my way, but God, I ain't never seen Elijah. I don't know what Elijah looks like, and I don't know if I would ever recognize him if he comes by my way. So if he ever does come by my way, why don't you just let me know who he is by letting him throw his mantle on me? Man, that's a bunch of hypotheticals right there. That's a bunch of possibilities. I mean, you would think, what's the chances of something like that happening? You'd think, how in the world? I mean, here's a man of God that's against the King of Israel for his wickedness and violence. And here's a farmer over here in a field that nobody knows who he is except the Holy God. And God wants this, the man of God with the power of God on his life. to go by his way and to tell this young man, God wants you to be a servant for the Lord. What's the chances of that? I mean, that's powerful odds, probably, wouldn't you think? Yes. I read a story one time in Genesis chapter number 24. I got to reading this thing. I got to thinking about this, and I got to thinking back about that. There was a man one time trying to find a man, a wife. And he went looking for his servant's boy or wife. And he said, God, I don't know what kind of girl you want her to have. And God, I don't know what she should look like. And I don't know if she can cook. And I don't know if she knows how to keep house. I don't know, God, if she's a a pretty girl or she's an ugly girl. God, I don't know all this stuff, but God, if you would, just let me, let her be, let her be one that'll come out to me and say, hey, if you don't mind, I'd like to get some water for your candles. Now that's a long shot right there, boy. You hear me? That's a great odd to find something like that. But did God not do it? Did God not get Eleazar to the right place where there was a woman that was willing, where there was somebody that was a servant, where there was somebody that would do exactly what He prayed to do? I believe with all my heart this morning, Elisha stood out in the field and plowed over and over and heard good reports about the man of God, how he'd helped people and how he stood up to the enemy. And there ain't no telling what all Elijah did do that's not recorded. As a matter of fact, as we look in the life of Elijah and Elisha, We see a typology of Christ, of John the Baptist, Elijah. They say John the Baptist had the spirit of Elijah. And then he's the forerunner of Christ. So we see Elijah coming along and preaching with power and boldness and stern and hardness. And then here comes a man with tender mercies. Oh, boy. He says, Remember this, he said, they said, if you would, they said, let me go kiss my father, my mother. I don't think that's unreasonable to ask. But I don't know what Elijah had in store in his training. And Elijah told this, he said, he said, let the dead bury the dead. And so while But Elijah has went and found the young man that God wants him to call. Actually, what the Bible says, told him to anoint him. And now, he takes his plow. Brother Colton preached on that. He broke up his plow. And he killed his oxen. He wasn't going back to that field no more. There was a greater job ahead. And he gets over here. He makes that sacrifice. That's a sacrifice, neighbor. He walked off of his job. You know what they told me? You know what they told me 18 years ago? They said, you better not leave your job. Are you crazy? I mean, you don't have to do nothing around here, Harlan. That's some more. They said, obviously, you don't. And that's kind of a poke at me, you know. But I had as much seniority as anybody there, except for about two or three. And I wasn't going nowhere. They said, you'll be hungry. Might I say, however God wanted to feed me, He was more than welcome. If He wanted to use ravens, that was fine. If He just wanted to have a brook that would flow by where I was, that was fine. I'm saying God has provided. And Elisha left it all behind now now Elijah's faced with some more things now some more things starts to go on and I think we're just probably going to wind up right here because now after God has let Elijah pass through the life of Elisha chapter 19 after he's wanted to die and he meets Elisha, things still takes place. Do you realize that while Elijah, the man of God is alive, have you ever thought about this? While Elijah, brother Darnell, the man of God that cut the water off at his word, was alive and had just dealt with Ahab, just prior to Ahab and Jezebel having Naboth killed. God didn't give him liberty to get in the way of that. He didn't give him liberty to pursue that vineyard issue. And then we see that there's an issue with Ahab and Jehoshaphat trying to take Ramoth Gilead, verses chapter 22. And God didn't let Elijah get involved in that. You see, here's what... Listen to me. Listen real close, we'll stop right here. God gave Elijah a ministry. And Elijah was fulfilling his ministry. You listening? He was doing what God told him to do. But that one woman wounded him. If you ain't never been wounded, you just hang in there, friend. There's a wound that a pastor can get that'll just about wind him up. There's things that can happen to a pastor that most of the time biblical proof is going to come out of the mouth of a woman. Am I right? All the hurt and all the heartaches that I've ever been through as a church, 95% of them has come through a woman. Amen. Every woman's not like that. I thank God for precious Christian ladies that serve God and have a holy life. I thank God for that. We were talking about Sister Frances Cooper this morning. Thank God for folk like that. But Elijah's ready to die and that was the only confrontation he had that would wound him. Now I'm going to say this. I've seen men do the same thing. It's not all women. Men can do the same thing. To wound a pastor. To wound an evangelist. To wound a missionary. You never forget a wound. Over in the Old Testament there's a scripture that said that He's talking about them wounds that he had. He said, I got them in the house of my friends. It's the Lord. You know what an old preacher used to say, David? He said, it wouldn't surprise me a bit. He said, when we get to glory, if there still ain't some wounds there for us to see. You know why, Les? We forget. He said, it just wouldn't surprise me. I don't know if you remember him saying that or not. He said, it just wouldn't surprise me. if they were still some wounds there for us to see because that was the price of us being there God wants me and you to fulfill our ministry but if you lay down and quit God is going to begin a process in your life listen to me he's going to begin a process in your life to replace you with another ministry working person. And that's what we'll look at tonight. Because this young man, listen, what God showed me about Elisha, following Elijah, you don't want to miss it. It'll help you. It'll help you. Let me just leave you with this thought. The questions that was asked, Elijah asked them. The commands that was given, Elijah gave them. The only thing he asked out of Elisha was, he told him two things. He said, number one, he said, carry ye here. He said, I've been directed to go across Jordan. We're going to see why. He said, I ain't leaving you. He said, OK. The old man of God didn't argue with him. He said, come on. He said, you think you can handle the trip, son? You come on. It ain't going to be easy, I promise you that. But you come on. And then he asked him this, Brother Gary, because Elijah knew 40 days of fasting, God's been talking to the man of God. You know what Elijah knew? Nobody, I ain't never heard nobody say this. This ain't nothing new, I promise you. I ain't got nothing new. But you know what? I believe this. God showed Elijah you fixing to die. He took him to a place to go out. That's the only thing that happened when he went over there. And there had to be a young minister to get what he needed to be in the ministry. Why didn't he ask him for a nice home? Why didn't he ask him for a nice chariot? Why didn't he ask him for a nice trade to be a worker of brass or silver or gold? No. You know what he said? He said, I want a double portion of what you got. He said, you've asked a hard thing. I've never thought about this until I've gotten to reading this. He's asked Elijah. He said, would you give me a double portion of what you've got? He said, you've asked a hard thing. He said, nevertheless. You're talking about a man that was close to God. He said, because you've stayed faithful and you've walked with me and you've stayed in the way and you ain't tried to change nothing. You've listened and you've been obedient. You've been submissive. He said, here's what will happen if you'll do this. God let Elijah lay the plan out for Elisha to receive it. Would you do me a favor? Would you come back tonight? Because you ain't going to know how this story turns out. And you ain't going to read your Bible and get what you will get tonight. There's nothing better than this. God, show us something, Father. I pray that you bless this church.