Okay, like I said, it is a real blessing to be with you. It is a privilege. It really is. And I appreciate your preacher inviting us over. Thank you for having us out. We've enjoyed having some good times going out to lunch and I got to go to Waffle House. I got to eat this delicious heavenly southern dish called cheese grits. Oh man, that was some good stuff right there. I gotta figure out how to smuggle some of that back. That was some good stuff, I enjoyed it. And we really enjoyed the fellowship and you guys have taken excellent care of us. I guess there's a reason they call it southern hospitality. And so thank you so much. We have enjoyed ourselves So far, but now for the best part now getting the getting the Word of God and so go to 2nd Kings chapter 13 2nd Kings 13 and So just so you know, when your preacher comes out to California and preaches for the camp out there, a bunch of us churches get together, and one of our favorite things to do is to bombard him with questions. We try to find the toughest Bible questions we have. We ask him all sorts of questions. So I know you guys get fed a lot. I know that your preacher studies the book. Many of us outside of your church have benefited. from the studies that your preacher has done. So I'm not going to go deep with you tonight. I just want to give you something to really encourage and stir you up. And the title of my message is going to be called Missed Opportunities. Missed Opportunities. And I'd like to read 2 Kings 13 verses 14 to the end of the chapter. Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness, whereof he died. As I was preparing for this message, I had a New Living Translation open just to see what they might say. And they said in there, now Elisha was sick of his last sickness. But that means something different where it says he was fallen sick of his sickness, whereof he died. And you're King James Bible, you know that the sickness is what took him out in the New Living Translation. It's like he had a last sickness. Who knows what took him out later on. The object lesson is the King James Bible is better. Now, Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness wherever he died, and Joash the king of Israel came down unto him and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, put thy hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it. And Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands. And he said, open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, shoot. And he shot. And he said, the arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of the deliverance from Syria, for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek till thou have consumed them. And he said, take the arrows. And he took them. And he said to the king of Israel, smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice and stayed. And the man of God was wroth with him and said, thou shouldest have smitten five or six times. Then hast thou smitten Syria till thou hast consumed it. Whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. And Elisha died and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming end of the year. And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men, and they cast the man into the sepulcher of Elisha. Amen. And when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood up on his feet. But Haziel, king of Syria, oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. And the Lord was gracious unto them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy them, nor neither cast he them from his presence as yet. So Hazael, king of Syria, died, and Ben-Hadad, his son, reigned in his stead, and Jehoash, the son of Jehoahaz, took again out of the hand, out of the hand, can you hand me my phone, hon, just in case, I can have a little flashlight, out of the hand of Ben-Hadad, the son of Hazael, Haziel of the cities which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoahaz his father by war, three times did Joash beat him and recovered the cities of Israel. Now if you're a Bible reader, you have read across this passage, and you know it, and what has happened here is Elisha is going the way of all flesh. He's about to die. And if the Lord tarries, we're gonna do the same thing. And he was going to die very soon. And it's obvious that Joash was connected. He felt for Elisha. He appreciated Elisha. So he comes down because he doesn't want Elisha to go without having said some words to him and being there with him. But something happens, and when Joash gets down there to the king, even though Joash follows everything to the letter of the law and does exactly what Elisha had told him to do, and actually says some of the very words that Elisha had said years before, Joash misses out on an opportunity to defeat his enemies. If you remember back in 2 Kings 2, Elisha was walking with Elijah, and he wanted to have a double portion of Elijah's spirit. So about that time, Elijah says, well, that's a big thing you're asking, but if you see me when I go, then it'll happen. And the Bible says that he saw him when he goes. And when he goes up, he says, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. So Joash and Elisha say the same exact things. Joash does everything he's told. And have you ever read this passage and said, well, you never told him? to hit it five or six times. So how was he supposed to know? I mean, he's literally following everything to the letter of what he is told to do. But even in following everything to the letter, he misses an opportunity. And so I would like to take this passage here today and examine it and find out how you and I can find out how not to miss an opportunity to get victory over enemies that we have in our life, specifically three of them, the world, the flesh, and the devil. But first, let's go before the Lord in prayer, real important. All right, now, Father, I want to thank you for the blood of Christ. We've sung about it, we started off the meeting that way. And Lord, we realize that what we're about ready to do, look at your words, is the most important thing that we could possibly do. And so Father, all is vain, as the song says, unless the spirit of the Holy One comes down. So I pray, Lord, that you wash me with the blood of Jesus Christ. Please hide my sins under the blood of Christ and fill me with the Holy Spirit, Lord. And Father, as always, without Thee we can do nothing. So Lord, please, these people didn't come to hear Josh Stevenson, they came to hear from you. So I pray they wouldn't go home disappointed. We ask this now in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Now here we have Elisha. Elisha's sick and I don't know where he is. Maybe he's laying down in his bed and here comes in the king and the king comes walking in and he's got a heart for Elisha and he walks right up to him and he sees him right there laying on the on the bed and they have a connection. So the first thing I'd like to point out is notice in the text that there is a common appointment. It says, Elisha was fallen sick, whereof he died. Like I said in the beginning, even though Elisha was a great man, he died. And you and I one day, doesn't matter how good of a person you are, doesn't matter how much influence you have in life, one day you're gonna die. Now, I was preaching the other day. It was our Resurrection Sunday. We had a bunch of lost people there in a church. And I said, now, when you tell the Christian that they're going to die, and I couldn't even finish saying it, all my people start saying amen. And I said, unless some of you think we're crazy, let me explain to you why. When we say, hey, cheer up, children, you're going to die, let me explain to you why us Christians get excited about dying. Now, I'm not necessarily looking forward to the actual death process, but I know what happens at the end of that thing. If somebody say, how would you like to go? I have no special way of dying. I just want to go out in a rapture. I think Paul wanted to go out in the rapture because Paul said, and we which are alive and remain. I think Paul wanted to go out in the rapture just like we want to go out in the rapture. But like David said, there is but a step between me and death. The old verse goes, I go the way of all flesh. The Bible says, and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this, the judgment, one day you and I are going to die. When you're laying on your deathbed and you look back over your life, and you look at the opportunities that God has put in front of you, will there be some opportunities for victory that you had missed out on? So notice there's a common appointment. The second thing I want to point out is there's a spiritual connection. He calls them here in a verse, verse 14. He says, oh my father, my father, end of the verse, see that? Oh my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof. Notice there's a spiritual connection. Now old Elisha, as I pointed out before, had said the exact same thing to Elijah. Now Elijah was not his father in the sense of a physical father. As a matter of fact, go over to 1 Kings 19. 1 Kings 19 at verse 20. He says, and he left the oxen 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? Now, this is Elijah and Elisha when they first meet. And Elijah comes by and he casts his mantle on Elisha. And Elisha says, Hey, I'll follow you, but let me tell my father. That's his physical father. Let me tell him goodbye. But when he talks to Elijah later on, he says, my father, my father. So there was a spiritual connection that these two guys had. Joe Ash looks at at Elisha and he says the same thing. He calls him. He says, my father, there's a spiritual connection. Now go over to first Corinthians four and I'll show you where I'm getting at, what I'm getting at. First Corinthians chapter four. In 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 14, he says, I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons, I warn you. Now, Paul doesn't have a bunch of physical kids running around. This is a spiritual connection. They're spiritual children. Verse 15, for though ye have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I have begotten you through the gospel, wherefore I beseech you, be followers of me." Now, notice two things here in the text. Notice, first of all, that Paul had a part in their conversion. Despite what the Calvinists teach, the Lord will give, will use human instruments to help see people get saved. And if you ever have an opportunity to lead somebody to Christ, boy, that sure is a blessing. When I first started pastoring, I was telling your preacher and his wife The first day that I started preaching was Father's Day, and that really meant a lot to me because I was close to my dad. Well, the Sunday before, I got to lead a guy to Christ, or the Saturday before, I got to lead a guy to Christ. And there is nothing like being able to lead someone to the Lord and just seeing them trust Christ right in front. It's a blessing. If you've never done it, man, you ought to try it. It's a blast. You know a lot of times you'll witness to somebody and they don't always get saved and some people get discouraged about that And they say man. You know I keep trying and trying well eventually you'll catch something It's kind of like going out fishing now. I got to be honest. I'm a city boy So you have to have a lot of patience with me. I'm a city boy, and I am horrible efficient I mean absolutely terrible, and I was out there fishing one day. I took my I'll tell you how bad I am I'm out there fishing on the dock and Out on the ocean. I'm out there fishing on the dock. I have my kids out there. And this old man comes walking by, and he's trying to help us out. I didn't realize what he was doing at first. But he walks up, and he looks into our tackle box that we have there. And I got to be honest, my tackle box was not like probably some of yours, like all organized. It was just everything all tossed in there at once. He looks in there, and he looks at it, and he goes, nope. You ain't got nothing to catch anything. That's how bad of a fisherman I am. I am really bad. I don't know what fish like. I mean, worms, I guess. I don't know. I have to have somebody tell me, this is what you got to use. I'm a bad fisherman. But every once in a while, even as a bad fisherman, I have caught some fish. And those fish that I have caught, just to show you how much of a fisherman I am, was about that big. All right. I'm learning how to be a fisherman. I want to tell you something, if you'll witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, and even if you're bad at it, eventually one day you'll catch a fish. Boy, there's nothing like that. It sure is a blessing when you get to lead somebody to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the Holy Spirit is the one that produces the new birth. John chapter 3 and verse 8, it says, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. But the Lord gives the soul winner partial credit. Now, you look back at the times in your life when before you were saved and you had people trying to witness to you. Maybe somebody got saved a little bit later in life. And you know what the Bible tells us? The Bible says that he that planteth and he that watereth are one, but God gives the increase. Man, it's such a blessing to know that it doesn't matter if you're just passing out tracks or if you're being a witness at work. I grew up in a church where it seemed like if you didn't get them to pray with you and ask the Lord to accept you, then it was just all for naught. But it's not that way. I mean, there's how many of how many of you in here you got saved the very first time you witnessed to the first time anybody like that? There's not a whole lot of people that it was the first time they got witnessed to they got saved. Sometimes it takes a little bit of time takes a little while people get discouraged about that. Don't get discouraged, man. Keep on going for the Lord. Now, a soul winner is a spiritual father who has begotten someone through the gospel. That's what Paul said here, I've begotten you through the gospel. Now, no Catholic priest has ever led anyone to the Lord Jesus Christ, so you should not call them father. And though the soul winner is a spiritual father, he would never allow his converts to call him father. Because the Bible says, call no man your father upon the earth for one is your father, which is in heaven. So the first thing in this text is notice that there's a spiritual connection and that Paul had begotten them through the gospel, making him like a spiritual father. The second thing I want to point out is that Paul told him in the verse 16, wherefore I beseech you, be followers of me. Be followers of me. In Ephesians 5, 1, it says, be therefore followers of God as dear children. Go to 1 Thessalonians 1. 1 Thessalonians 1. And verse 6. 1 Thessalonians 1, 6. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost. Now notice in the text, notice what happens first. And ye became followers of us and of the Lord. Many times the new convert follows the example of the person who led him to Christ. Or he follows the example of other individuals that are older in the Lord. I'm sure when you first got saved, you didn't know what to do. And so you just found an older Christian and you just did whatever they did. If they showed up at church, you thought, well, that's a good thing. I think I'll go to church. If they read their Bible, you read your Bible. If they prayed, you prayed. It's kind of like, hey, like Paul said, follow me. Follow me you just do whatever he's doing now ain't it something and you probably already know this that in the new Bibles They change that word be followers. They change it to another word. You know what that word is is imitate imitate Be imitators of God be imitators of me Don't imitate Let me take your Bible and go over to Matthew chapter 4 Matthew 4 an imitator is different than a follower and Matthew 4 Now we're gonna flip through a couple of verses real quick. I want to show you something pretty cool Now this is Peter let's look at Peter Matthew 4 and verse 19 and he saith unto them Follow me now. I'll make you fishers of men one of the guys that he's that Jesus says to follow him and Is peter you see that in the previous verse follow me and I will make you fishers of men by the way If you want to be a soul winner, the lord's the one that's got to do it. He says I will make you fishers of men so notice the command was Follow me. That's what he told him now. Let's go to the end of christ ministry go over to john chapter 21 john 21 John 21 and verse 19. Now, this is when Peter gets right with the Lord and after he gets right with the Lord, he can't just be the center of attention. He has to drag someone else into the conversation. So he sees John standing there, and so here's what he says, and after the Lord tells him in verse 19, he says, This spake he signifying by what death he should glorify God, talking about Peter. And when he had spoken this, he said unto him, Peter, follow me. Then Peter turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following. You gotta love Peter. Here Peter is, he's getting corrected, kind of like kids at the house. You get onto one kid, and you say, hey, hey, don't do that. And what do they immediately do? Well, Johnny! And they point over like that. So here's Peter, the Lord's saying, hey, follow him. Peter looks over, he sees John there, which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayed thee? Peter saith unto Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? I guess in the modern vernacular it is none of your business. And he ends by saying, Follow thou me. Follow thou me. That was Peter's lesson. Follow. We're supposed to follow. We're supposed to follow the Lord. And there's nothing wrong with following a man as long as that man is following the Lord. And there's going to be things in life that you don't know everything. So you're going to have to find someone who does and just do what they do and just follow their example. It's kind of like the electrician that I worked for when I was down at PBI. And I just, whatever he told me to do, I just had to do whatever he said. How was I going to learn any other way? You don't just come into the Christian life knowing everything. I don't know if you've ever had this. I've seen some guys that struggle with being taught. They struggle with being taught. They think, especially guys that are smart. Guys that are smart struggle with being taught and they have to know everything. And if they don't know everything, they tend to put up a wall and kind of guard themselves because they don't want you to know. that they don't know everything. But here's the truth. Everybody already knows you don't know. So just, you know what that wall is? That's a wall of pride. That wall of pride will keep you from learning so much. And the only way you're going to be able to learn, you've got to humble yourself and admit you don't know. Like Dr. Ruckman told us, have a humble mind and a believing heart when you take an approach to this book. How many men have messed themselves up because they came at it with, I know everything. Now the new Bible say to imitate. They say to imitate, but our King James Bible says to follow. So I'm going to run that rabbit trail. Go over to Matthew chapter 26, Matthew 26. Peter was told to follow the Lord, Matthew 26. Matthew 26 and verse 57. Now this is when Jesus gets led away and they're gonna take him into Caiaphas and Peter is gonna now warm his hands by the fire. But he's been following Jesus Christ up to this point, but notice there's a couple of words that I wanna point out. Verse 57. They that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest Where the scribes and the elders were assembled, but Peter followed him notice afar off So there's a little distance little distance that got in between him and Jesus Christ Now I personally think that Peter was just bitter. I think he was upset. Here's why I Peter loved the Lord so much, he was the kind of guy that would open mouth and insert foot. He would just act first, think later. Like, oh, you want to take Jesus? Let's go. I mean, that's the kind of guy he was. And he has that sword there, and now here come these soldiers, and what a great way now. What a great way for Peter to show the Lord how much he loves him. We are going out in a blaze of glory. I mean, you may take me, but I'm going to take a whole lot of you. And of course, you know, since there were only two swords, Peter got himself one of them swords. He's got that sword strapped on his side, and all of a sudden he sees those guys coming up to grab a hold of Jesus Christ. He takes that sword out, whips that thing out, and old Malchus ducks like that, and that sword hacks off his right ear, and Peter's ready. And the Lord says, put up your Put up your sword, Peter. Now Peter's disappointed. Like, what, are you kidding me? Don't you know what I have the ability to do? I could take these guys out. So something got between him and Jesus Christ. A little disappointed, kind of a little disappointed the way things turned out. A lot of Christians get disappointed because of the way things turn out. He started putting some distance. Now he starts to follow afar off. He's walking along and they take Jesus and they take him there in the castle. I'm guessing it's a little cold out because they got a fire. Peter goes walking over and he's standing there by that fire and he's warming his hands like that by that fire. A maid comes up and says something to him. Somebody else comes up, says something to him. And each time he's denying it. No, I don't even know the guy. I'm not. I'm not a disciple. I don't know. But then they say this. Notice what they say in verse 73, verse 73. And after a while came unto him they that stood by and said to Peter, surely thou also art one of them for thy speech bereath thee. Peter, you sure do talk like one of them disciples. I mean, boy, you sound like you're one of them disciples. Are you sure you're not one of them disciples? At this moment, Peter was not one of them disciples. But you know what he was? He sure was an imitator, but he wasn't a follower. There's a difference between being an imitator and a follower. You can talk like it, look like it, act like it, But following is different. That's why we're not imitators, we're followers. Now I want to say this by way of encouragement, or maybe not. Everyone in here has somebody that looks up to them. Somebody thinks you are the cat's meow. Somebody will base decisions off of what they do based off what they see you do. Every one of us has a responsibility, not just to live our life however we want to live it. We have a responsibility to live our life knowing that no man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. If all of a sudden you saw your preacher walk out of a gas station and he has a can in a brown paper bag, already you know what you're thinking. But he's not got alcohol. He's got Sprite or water or whatever. Who knows? But it's got an appearance. And people are going to see that. You and I got to watch how we live our lives, because there are people that are following. Here's old Joash, and he's looking at Elisha. And Elisha, he sees Elisha there, and he says, my father, he had a connection to him. But I want to say this, that eventually there comes a time where you might follow somebody and follow their example and do what they're doing, but you yourself have to get your own walk with God. You cannot live off of the spirituality of this church. Boy, I can already tell just walking in here, man, you guys, you guys get the book. I mean, you're singing about the blood. That's a blessing. If you're not careful, you can tend to ride on just the spirituality of the church instead of developing your own walk with God. You have to pray. You have to read your Bible. When I was a kid, my parents were very abusive to me. My dad made me read my Bible when I was growing up and drug me to church and made me do right. Teasing, I wasn't abusive. Well, I'm thankful he instilled that habit of reading the Bible in me. I appreciate it. You know why? It just has carried on. I still read my Bible. I read my Bible today. I couldn't imagine going today without reading my Bible. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm not going to stand up here and make you think that, man, I'm some really holy guy. Oh, don't look too close. You're going to find all the unholiness. Look at Jesus. You won't find any fault in Him. Well, I mean, I know there's times where I would, you know, you know how it goes. You start reading a Genesis. Man, you're reading along and you're bailing through and you're loving it. Then all of a sudden you come to Exodus and you're reading along and then you come to Leviticus. Then a week out of your Bible goes into two weeks out of your Bible, goes in a month out of your Bible. Then all of a sudden, the preacher gets up and the preacher starts reading your Bible. You're like, OK, I'm going to start again. So where do you start? Back in Genesis. And you get in Genesis. And you're reading along. You're doing great. And you get to Exodus. And then you get to Leviticus. I see you know what I'm talking about. I'd like to encourage you, man. Just keep going. Just keep going. Because eventually, all of a sudden, you start finding stuff in Leviticus. You're like, oh, wow. Look at that. You ever check out that candlestick? You're looking at that. Whoa. Then you start figuring out what are these loops and tatches and all that stuff, you know. Now, I want to tell you, eventually, you've got to develop your own walk with God. Now, Joash has a spiritual connection and looks up to Elisha. But even though he had a spiritual mentor, he missed out on opportunities for victory. The next thing I wanna point out is notice that Joash, go back to our text in 2 Kings 13. I was in Matthew, I'm like, why can't I find it? All right, 2 Kings 13. The next thing I want to point out is that Joash had a checklist mentality. So there's a common appointment, there's a spiritual connection, but notice there's a checklist mentality. What do you mean by that? Well, indulge me for a moment, look at verse 15, and Elisha said, middle of the verse, and he took. Notice verse 16, and he said to the king of Israel, put thy hand upon the bow, and he put his hand upon it. Verse 17, open the window eastward, and he opened it. You getting the point? He's doing everything he's told. Shoot, in verse 17, and he shot. Verse 18, take the arrows, he took the arrows. And then he says, smite upon the ground, and he smote thrice and stayed. Now notice he has a checklist mentality. He is doing everything that he is told to do as he is told to do it, but it is obvious that he missed out on victory. Now many Christians have turned Christianity into a checklist of do's and of don'ts. Do this and don't do that and you will be spiritual. I grew up in... Is it alright if I take my jacket off? It's getting hot. Okay. I grew up with that kind of idea, the checklist mentality, where it was like, if you'll just read your Bible every day, you'll be in church, you wear a tie, you wear a suit, you are going to be spiritual. And I can tell you that nothing could be farther from the truth if you live your Christianity by everything is just a checklist. including, if that checklist includes, read your Bible, pray, memorize scripture, you can still miss an opportunity for victory if your Christianity becomes a checklist. And that's all it was for old Joe Ash. Imagine if I were to give my wife flowers. All of a sudden I walk in and I said, here you go, here's flowers. I gave her flowers. And then I reach over and I say, okay, check, get the flowers. How's she gonna feel about that? Those flowers are probably not going in a vase. They're probably going in the other container that goes out in the trash. There's something missing. Take your Bible, go over to Matthew 23. Matthew 23. Now, I don't know if it's common, but many times all of us from time to time will fall into the checklist. where you're just, you're doing everything you know you're supposed to be doing, but something seems to be missing. Matthew 23, verses one through five, Jesus Christ talking about the scribes and the Pharisees. Verse three, all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do, but do ye not after their works, for they say and do not. There's something missing with these guys. Go to verse 23. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye pay a tithe of mint and anise and cumin and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith. These ought ye to have done and not to leave the other undone. You know what they were doing? Everything was outward, but those other things are inward judgment, mercy and faith. They had everything on the outside down to a T. Everything was just right. If you looked at the Pharisee, he looked right. He talked like he imitated. He had everything just right. But something was missing. You know, being in California, we like they like to use a lot of these catchphrases, you know. And one of those phrases is engage. We need to engage with one another, you know. Engage, you know. Did you know that that word actually only shows up one time in your Bible? The word engage. I wanna show you where it's found. Take your Bible and go to Jeremiah chapter 30. Jeremiah 30. Jeremiah 30. They'll talk about engaging the public and engage in the business owners and engage in your target audience. Well, here's something you ought to engage. Jeremiah 30 in verse 21 and their nobles shall be of themselves and their governor shall proceed from the midst of them and I will cause him to draw near and he shall approach unto me. For who is this that engaged his heart to approach unto me? Sayeth the Lord. You know what's missing in a checklist mentality? What's missing in a checklist mentality is that the heart is not engaged. And there's a big difference between going through a checklist and having your heart engaged in it. There is one thing that, man, my prayer has been. So I'm a second generation Christian. And we got our problems just like the first generation Christians have. And you first generation Christians, you came out of, you got saved later on in life, and man, you love the Lord, and you're on fire for God, and man, there's a love that you have for God there. And I don't know if I'm right about this, and I'm willing to be corrected, but there's a passage of scripture where the Lord is talking to this Pharisee, and he tells, he said, whom much is forgiven, the same loved much. And I often have looked at people who get saved later on in life and say, man, their love for the Lord just seems to come so naturally. And I wonder if that's because they look back and see what God saved them out of. And they remember those things and they see it. And sometimes they they're over. I don't know if overprotective is the word. I don't want to use that. But they tend to put up guardrails, which is good. They put them up around their children because they don't want to see their children go into the same hurt and sin that they were involved in. And so I see the first generation Christians and I I say, OK, well, they have a real love for the Lord's genuine. My dad was like that. My dad was an army sergeant. And so I grew up saying, yes, sir, no, sir. And he was a 20-year-old man in Honolulu, Hawaii. Wine, women, and song, living the single life. Away from home, but the first time, boy, life was great. Except something was missing. So he calls up his mom, had payphones back then. Calls up his mom on the phone and says, mom, his mom was, he was raised Methodist, so his mom was a good Methodist woman. Said, mom, something's missing. She's lost. She's religious, but religion can't save you. Because salvation ain't in religion. It's in a person. So there she was and she's doing everything she can to try to comfort her son. She said, son, she said, it's going to be OK. You know, I mean, her son's far away. And imagine as a mom, you're trying to help your son. So my dad hangs up the phone, he's got this emptiness inside of him and just feels like he's missing something. He's walking down the streets and just a few moments later, he hears some crazy guy standing out in the middle of the park saying, the Bible says you must be born again, a street preacher. So my dad heard that and the street preacher offered an opportunity for people to come down. My dad was the farthest one away, and he ran down there. They opened up a Bible, and they showed him how to get saved. Man, he got saved. My dad was on fire for God. My dad loved the Lord. He was a good man. He helped a lot of young men. He was a good man. And he wanted to pastor a church, and so he went down to PBI. And while he was at PBI, at 43 years old, he ended up dying of pancreatic cancer. And I said to myself, man, Lord, if I were choosing who would die, I could give you some people, but my dad? One thing about my dad I really appreciated, and that was his love for the Lord. I said, man, Lord, I want that kind of love. I want that love for you that my dad had. Now, us second generation Christians, we have our problems. You first generation Christians, you have yours, we have ours. Our problem is, man, we've been raised up, all this is normal. especially in a Bible-believing church. I mean, we're here, and mom and dad are doing family devotions with us, because we can't watch TV, we have to do family devotions, then we got to get in bed at night, and we're homeschooled, and all these, you know, we're going to Sunday school, and we're praying over our dinners, and we can't play sports on Sundays, we got to be in church. Rough childhood, you understand? We got our problems. Because somewhere along the line, it becomes normal. And what we begin to do is we begin to develop checklists. And that checklist begins to go. We think, man, I'm doing everything I'm told to be doing. Then you start getting to be around a teenager, and that world just starts to tantalize. And there's something in your heart that begins to pull you that way. You're like, what? What is that? You're doing the checklist. You're doing everything you're supposed to be doing. I'll tell you one day I came to a realization that even though I wasn't in all that stuff to get saved out of it, God still saved me from getting into that stuff. And the same love that my dad had for the Lord, I can have that same exact love because I've been forgiven. And I want to tell you there is a big difference between just going through the motions and then when your heart is engaged. There is a big difference. You don't have to be drugged to church. I mean, you actually want to go. You pick up your Bible, you want to read it. You don't have to be forced to or told to. Now, my parents, growing up, they made me read my Bible. There were times I did want to read it, and there were times I didn't want to read it. I know, I am a carnal Christian. But my parents made me. You say, why did they make you? Well, my dad's philosophy was, well, if you make them do their homework, you make them read a Bible. And that was just the way he did it. I know everybody has their own thing, but that was what he did for us. Man, I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful. And I want to tell you there's a big difference when the heart is engaged. Joe Ash's heart was not engaged. He was going through the checklist and just going through a checklist caused him to miss an opportunity for victory that I do not want to miss. Now, notice the next thing that complete victory is missed. He gets partial victory, but he doesn't get complete victory. In the text, in 2 Kings 13, he smote the ground thrice. He smote thrice and stayed. Now, as I said before, in the beginning, he was doing everything he was told to do. And when I first read that text, I thought, well, he didn't, why is he getting mad? He didn't tell him, oh, I want you to hit the ground, even, he didn't even say the word multiple. He didn't even say, why is he getting mad, you know, at old Joe Ash here, you know? He just, wham, he hit three times. He could have just gone wham and hit one time. He could have just done one, but he did three. I mean, at least give the guy credit for doing three times, and now you're getting mad at him? Oh, Elisha, he was angry. He was like, what do you do that for? You ever had somebody tell you that? What do you do that for? Man, okay, that's bringing back flashback PTSD. I've heard that too many times. You know what? Here's old Joe Ash. After he's going through all this stuff, Elisha tells him, take those arrows, smite the ground. I'm going to get an illustration here. I'll use my Bible. Takes those arrows. He walks over and he goes, Three times. Elisha gets mad at him. Why didn't you do five or six? We already went over this, right? You see, when he was there smacking the ground, he didn't realize what he had in his hand. You see, what the scripture told him, what Elisha said in verse, where is it, verse 17, he calls it the arrow of the Lord's deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria. So what he had in his hand was the answer to him getting victory. He had it in his hand the whole entire time, but he didn't realize the value of it. It was right there in front of him the whole time. But he didn't hear the words that the guy said. He was just, OK, whap, whap, whap, hit the ground without realizing what it was he had in his hand. Ladies and gentlemen, do you realize what we have in our hand? We have words from God that even Jesus Christ, when he was tempted of the devil, used to get victory. How much victory do we miss because we don't realize what we have in our hands? Boy, it is a blessing being a Bible believer. It is a blessing being able to rightly divide and see all the cool stuff in there. But this book is not just for intellectual purposes. This book is our life. It'll tell you how to be a good husband. It'll tell you how to be a good wife. It'll tell you how to raise kids, how to handle your money. It'll tell you how to deal with temptation. You know what this book will do? This book will take you in the hardest times of your life. When you feel like your heart has just been ripped out of your chest, thrown on the floor, and somebody has stomped on it, this book will get you through. How close are we to victory? But we miss the opportunity because we don't realize the value of what we have in our hands. You know what, this Bible, this Bible, I like that. You guys got Bibles in your lap, that's great. I enjoy that, that's good. You know, in a lot of churches, people don't bring their Bibles? Now, it's foreign to some of us here. I have some folks that came to my church, and they came from kind of an evangelical church. And when they first showed up, they had no Bibles in their lap. And I'm like, okay, you know, take the Bible over to turn such and such, And, of course, they borrowed one of the Bibles there in the pew. And after a while, they started bringing their Bible to church. But what they told me is, when they had begun their previous church, they had been bringing their Bible to church. But all the verses are put up on screens and PowerPoints. Nobody actually flips through the Bible or it's written out for them on a little bulletin or something like that. And you don't actually open your Bible. And what ended up happening was is people just stopped bringing their Bibles to church. Because why bring it? I had another guy tell me. He said he had gone to a church in town in the morning. I came to our church at night. And he said when I went to that church in the morning, they used one Bible verse for the entire message. One Bible verse and it was like in a footnote off to the side in a PowerPoint. Everything else was just a talk on how to raise a family. If you're gonna raise a family outside of this book, you're in for trouble. Well, what they started doing is they had to actually develop the habit to start bringing the Bible to church again. You know what that book ought to be? It ought to be yours. You ought to have places in there that you have marked up that are just special to you. You ought to have some verses in there. How many ever do this? You say, okay, I can find that verse. I know it's on the right side. It's down here. There's a coffee stain like three pages later. You know what I'm talking about? You develop a relationship with that book. Ladies and gentlemen, why would we not forget what we hold in our hands? Now, last of all, and I'm done. Notice when old Elisha dies, He goes and he's buried in the ground. Now, Joash was promised victory three times for smiting the ground three times, and he does. He gets the victory, but he doesn't get complete victory. He gets partial victory. Well, when Elisha dies, Elisha's buried in the ground. Now, remember, when Elisha was there, he When he at first saw Elijah go up, he wanted a double portion of Elijah's spirit. And he says the same exact thing that Joash says later on, my father, my father, the charity of Israel and the horsemen thereof. But he put emphasis on the words that Elijah said, because Elijah said, if you see me when I go up and the Bible says he saw him. Do you ever think about that for just a moment? Here's Elijah and Elisha. Elisha wants something from Elijah. And Elijah says, wow, you're asking. That's a big one, you know. Man, nobody's ever asked that before. Well, I tell you what, if you see me when I go up, then you can have it. You know what Elisha's doing? Elisha's doing this. Man, nothing would get his eyes off of Elijah. I mean, you could have said, Elisha, look over there. Uh-uh. I got something more important. Oh, but Elisha, oh, look what time it is. Uh-uh, don't worry about that. Elisha, you got a notification on your phone. I ain't concerned about that. Oh, Elijah, he didn't care about none of that because he was listening to what the prophet said and he wanted that double portion. He wanted it and nothing was going to distract him from it. You know what I'm tired of? I'm sick and tired of every time I get under conviction. It's like maybe just a little conviction. I go down to the altar, I get right, then I get distracted by all sorts of things out there in the world. Man, may we be like old Elijah. May we be laser focused on what God has for us. Some of you are looking for answers in your life to things. You realize that you can find those answers yourself. God can show you while you are reading your Bible alone. I know your preacher studies. We all know that. But I'm telling you, God can show you things personally that he's not going to show your preacher. And he says, I got something for you. You ever had one of those? And it's just, man, that's exactly what I needed. Man, Elisha was laser focused. And boy, he ended up being a blessing. You know, he ended up being a blessing after he was dead. I mean, here they are, they're trying to bury a guy. A band of marauders come out, and they can't do anything with them, so they throw the guy into where Elisha was. And when they let the guy down, he touches Elijah's bones. Now, I know your mind has gone wild of what happened. There the guy goes. And I've been wondering, like, they lowered him down. There he is. He touches these bones, and he wakes up, and oh, get me out of here. I have a crazy imagination. He was a blessing after he was gone. You know, I want to be like that. I want to be old, like old brother Elisha, where I'll be a blessing even after I'm gone. But it's not going to come by living life for yourself. It's only going to come by paying attention to the word of God and doing what God's word says. Now, you could be like Elisha, who put a high premium on what God said. He gets angry when Joash doesn't listen and smites the ground not enough, only three times. He gets angry at it. Now, if you'll be more like Elisha, you will not miss the opportunities that God has given you for victory in this life. But your life will still be a blessing after you're gone. Which man will you be? I want to be like old Elisha. I want to put a high premium on God's words, not just on learning them and learning how to rightly divide, which I do. I study and I want to learn. I have your preacher's book and I, man, I'll go through that thing. I want to learn. I have Dr. Ruckman's books. I want to learn those. I want to know those things. I don't just want it to be up here. I want my heart to be engaged. Because man, when the heart is engaged, it's a whole different ballgame. May this week, as this three-day meeting kicks off, may the Lord have our hearts engaged in this service, and may we get something from Him, and not miss out on an opportunity to get some victory in our lives. Let's all stand. Father, thank you for the opportunity to preach tonight. Lord, your book is a great book. Father, I find no fault in your book. I find a ton of fault in myself. But I love your book. Lord, I ask you give us victory, Lord. Lord, I realize it's it's it's every day. Getting up, getting our nose in the book, engaging our hearts and Lord, I would be. It would be wrong of me to say that there are days even now that I don't get up in my heart is not engaged. There are times, Lord, I admit that. The Lord, you also know that I ask you to engage my heart. I want to love you. I want that love like my dad had. I want to love you, Lord. Thank you for your book. Bless this meeting in Jesus name. Amen.