The Church of Eleven22 - Chariots of Fire - Elijah: Wk 8

Episode Date: September 7, 2025

One moment Elijah is standing in victory on Mount Carmel. The next, he’s weary, discouraged, and ready to quit. How do you finish well when life feels heavy and faith feels small? In this finale from 1 Kings 19 through 2 Kings 2, Pastor Joby takes us through Elijah’s last chapters where fear, failure, and frailty meet the faithfulness of God. From the still small voice in the cave to the fiery chariots of heaven, we discover that God is not finished with His people. He calls us to raise up the next generation, to walk in both Word and power, and to trust His promises all the way to the end. If you’ve ever wondered whether your past disqualifies you, or whether God can use you after your darkest days, Elijah’s story is a reminder: it’s not how you start, but how you finish. 📣 Episode Mentions: Scripture Passage: 2 Kings 2:1-14 Preacher: Pastor Joby Martin 📌 Supplemental Resources From This Week: Hope at Every Stage of Life - John's Story Elijah’s Legacy: Faithfulness, Fruitfulness & Finishing Well - Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin S22E8 Elijah Sermon Series About The Church of Eleven22 The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://coe22.com/donate

How we doing, chairs doing good? If you got your Bibles, you better get them. I'll make fun of you, apparently. First Kings Chapter 19 is about where we're starting. We're going to go First Kings 19 all the way to Second King's Chapter 2, so this ought to be fun. And we're going to wrap up on this series on Elijah, and I love that video so much for so many reasons.

First of all, would you join me in welcoming our 19 or 20 sites at elder care and nursing homes that are worshiping with us, right? Praise God. Praise God. And it's so appropriate for what we're going to study because it's not how you start, but how you end that matters, right? Also, would you join me in welcoming our newest outposts in case you're new to 1122? We have outposts of 1122 all over the place, and our newest one starts tonight in Clifton

Forge, Virginia at Long Star Christian Church. Can you welcome then? Now, let me tell you why that's really, really awesome. That's the church that great. Gretchen grew up in. That's the church that my in-laws go to, that my mother-in-law leads worship in, and that Gretchen's grandfather was the pastor of for most of his life. And that church is so kingdom-minded that on Thursday nights now, they are opening up to be an 1122 outpost.

So way to go. That's really, really, really cool. Praise God. All right. Happy September. You ponder by September? You should be. It's the best time of the year.

I love September. We get all kind of good things in September. Like football. Praise God. Right, we're all happy. All of us are happy. Our team's won. Bam, a lost.

We all love that. Praise God for that. All right. Roll that. The Jags are undefeated so far. How about that? Okay. But the best part of all, saturated begins on Wednesday night.

I hope you're ready. Let's go. Get ready if you're not. All right, here we go. We've got a lot to cover. This isn't like really even a sermon. This is kind of the finale of the life of Elijah, sort of. And the reason I say sort of is because we're going to get to the end of the part we're going to study here, and Elijah's going to leave.

But in the scriptures, he shows back up several more times because God's not done with Elijah. That he's going to leave the earth here in a couple of chapters. But if you go all the way to the New Testament, he shows back up again. If you go all the way to the book of Revelation, he shows up again as a witness. So he plays a key role in what God is doing. And one of my favorite things about this, Pastor Matt Carter talked to us last week about when Elijah goes into the cave. Remember?

Like the week before that, we talked about he's depressed. He's having these suicidal thoughts. And then God speaks to him. An angel shows up, taps him on the shoulder, gives him a cake and a nap. You need cake and a nap sometimes. And then he says, hey, I'm not done with you. I want to talk to you. It takes him to the cave.

And there's fire. and there's an earthquake and there's wind, but God wasn't in those things. He was in the still small voice. Well, here's what's really, really cool about this. Elijah's going to show up again in the New Testament. And he shows up in the New Testament in Matthew Chapter 17. Jesus goes to his disciples and he'll say, hey, boys, you stand out here. I'm about to go up on this place called the Mountain of Transfiguration.

And he takes Peter, James, and John with him. And again, people, you know, especially the younger you are, the more you're going to complain about this. He's like, that's not fair. Why does he always take those three? Are they his favorites? Not really. I think they can't be trusted alone, okay? That's what I think it is.

I did student ministry for 15 years. Some kids you just can't leave alone, all right? He's like, Peter Zamestine on, get in the truck, come with me. They go to the Mountain of Transfiguration. And on the Mountain of Transfiguration, two people show up. Moses and Elijah show up as Jesus transfigures himself. And the Bible says that they have a conversation together. And I wonder, okay, so like what are they talking?

talking about? Well, actually the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 9, says that they are discussing Jesus' return back to heaven, his departure. So Elijah, the prophet they were studying, Moses, the one that writes the law, shows up and they're like, hey boss, when you're coming back. That's what they're talking about on the top of the mountain. And for you, for you, like the gifted class Bible people, okay? Lisa Turker's, write this down. Ready? For this in one of your next books. Ready? I think what's happening on the mountain of transfiguration is the personification of what Paul writes in Romans chapter 3 versus 20 to 22. Here's what Paul says. Paul says, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight. In other words, nobody can be good enough to go to heaven on their own. Since through the law comes knowledge of sin, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.

that's Paul's complicated law your way of saying Jesus showed up the only way we can be made right with God is that God had to do for us what we could not do for ourselves and so God sends an alien righteousness someone that can live perfectly on our behalf that's who he's talking about Jesus but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law although the law and the prophets bear witness to it guess what's happening on the mountain of Transfiguration. Who wrote the law? Moses. Who was the greatest of all the prophets? Elijah. And what's happening on the mountain of transfiguration is the law and the prophets are bearing

witness to this righteousness that God has sent on our behalf. And boom, your head ought to explode. Now what are they talking about? Listen, if you grew up watching veggie tales or learn your Bible via flannel graph, you can't pass by this stuff too quickly, okay? You got to pray and ask God to give you a spirit-inspired imagination a little bit because this is not a story. This is an actual event where they were talking. Again, Luke chapter 9 says they're discussing the departure of Jesus. And I imagine Elijah, I guess this is a little bit of conjecture. I imagine Elijah and Moses are standing there with Jesus and they're like, well, this is neat.

Last time I was on a mountain, some really cool things happened. And Moses is like, fire? Did you get fire? Elijah's like, oh, I got fire. And Moses was like, I had a lot of fire. I talked to a bush on fire one time. That was cool. Turned out to be God.

Changed my whole life. And then I went up on to Mount Sinai. You can read it in Exodus chapter 19. And God appeared on the top of the mountain. And fire was there when he gave me the Ten Commandments. And Elijah was like, that's cool. I was freaking out. Thought I was done in ministry.

God took me to a cave. And then he spoke to me. And then a big old fire came blazing through the outside of the cave. That's crazy. And then I bet they go, well, what about wind? Did you get wind? And Moses is like, oh, I got wind. I mean, again, up in Exodus chapter 19, I'm standing on Mount Sinai,

and there was like a whole hurricane blowing around because the power of God, the presence of God, like a tempest sat on top of that mountain. It was windy. And Elijah's like, oh, I had some wind too. I mean, I'm standing there in that cave freaking out a little bit. God's talking to me, and a hurricane blew by the side of the mountain and ripped some of the rocks off. It was crazy. And you go, what about an earthquake?

Elijah's like, I got an earthquake in that same cave. And Moses is like, I had an earthquake up on that same mountain. And then maybe Jesus pokes in and be like, hey, guess what? That wasn't even the point. The point of the fire, the point of the wind, and the point of the earthquake was to point to what I'm about to do here in just a few more chapters in this book, Matthew's writing. He goes, you want an earthquake. Maybe Jesus leans in and says, let me tell you about the earthquake of all earthquakes.

In just a little while, I am going to go to the cross, just like Paul says in Romans chapter 3, and I'm going to push up on my nail-pierced feet, and I'm going to say, it is finished. And the moment I give my life for the payment of sin, an earthquake is going to crack right through the middle of Jerusalem, and it's going to go all the way through the temple, and there's this little room. You know about it, Moses. You wrote about it. It separates the Holy of Holies from the people of God, and there's that curtain of separation. and when that earthquake hits, that curtain of separation is going to be torn from the top to the very bottom

as an invitation to come into the very presence of God. And you want some wind, boys? Let me tell you about some wind, okay? Here's what's going to happen. One day when I ascend to the right hand of God the Father, when I come back to hang out with you guys up in heaven, then God is going to breathe the wind like a hurricane, and it's the wind of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And you want some fire. I got some fire coming because fire is going to descend from heaven like tongues.

of fire and it's going to land on every single believer. And then Elijah and Moses may be like, that sounds like a lot. Because when that happened to us, God was so good to us that he hid us in the cleft of the rock so we didn't get taken out by the wind and by the fire and by the earthquake. And Jesus maybe looks at him as like, well, I got good news, boy, because now I am here. You see, before, when you were experiencing God, you could not come face to face with the almighty sovereign, perfect God, because the redemption had not been made for you. You'd get burned up like a marshmallow and a campfire. But now that the son of man is here and dies in your place, and guess what?

You get to come face to face with me, and because you are face to face with me, you get to come face to face with him. Maybe that's the conversation that happened on the mountain of transfiguration. You see, last week, again, Elijah, he thinks he's done. He's just sitting by the brook under a broom tree thinking that he's done. God taps him on the shoulders since you're not done. I'm not done with you. Takes him into the cave and he speaks to him.

Please don't miss this about the life of Elijah, okay? Is that it's not how you start that matters. It's how you finish. And some of you think God's done with you, and I'm here to tell you, God's not done with you. You see, because we've still got chapters and chapters and chapters of the life of Elijah being used by God. The voice of God comes to Elijah,

speaks in a still small voice, which, by the way, if you hadn't heard from the Lord lately, do you think it's because he's not speaking or because your life's too loud to hear it? My favorite seminary professor, and my favorite, the only one that liked me at all. The only one I liked back. He told me this when I graduated.

He said, if the devil can't make you bad, he'll make you busy. In John chapter 10, Jesus said he's the good shepherd, and he said, my sheep, hear my voice. The voice of a stranger they will not follow. Is your life so loud that you can't hear the still small voice of God? Well, if that's the case, then God might quiet some things down so you can hear his voice. And he comes to Elijah. He says, but I'm not done with you.

He speaks in the still small voice. It's a whisper. That word there is a quiet ruah. That's what it is. And then he begins to give Elijah some more instructions. He's like, all right, buddy, I'm not done with you, okay? Your worst days don't define you. I get to tell you who you are.

And so you're about to do some more stuff. You're going to anoint new kings. And you're going to anoint a new prophet. Because what you're doing is not new. It's just your turn. And in the kingdom of God, Elijah, success may not be what you do. It may be who you raise up. You ever thought about that?

I think about this all the time. God is moving in a miraculous way in 1122 right now. There's no doubt about it. Okay, no doubt about it. But what if the really big thing God wants to do isn't even in us? It's in all those youngans sitting over there right now. You know what I'm saying? What if we are only the platform by which God raises up the next great awakening from here to go into the entire world?

So you're going to, you're going to anoint your successor. That's what you're going to do. And by the way, Elijah, you're not alone. I've heard you whining many, many times. I keep hearing you say, I'm the only one left in Israel. Well, guess what? You can't see everything. You don't know everything.

You ever tell God some information and you turn out you're not right? You ever do that? God, I'm the only one. No, you dummy. I got 7,000 more Israelites over here that have yet to bow their knee to bail or worship him. You see, a part of the reason we pray like idiots is because we have the perspective of idiots. You know why? One of the reasons a sheep needs a shepherd?

Because a sheep is only this tall and can't even see over the hands. hedge. But a shepherd is taller and has a different perspective and can see things that the sheep can't see. And so he's like, so hang in there, okay? I've got 7,000 fateful brothers and sisters of yours who have not bowed their knee to bail. And so listen, I need you to trust God's more than you trust your own eyes. I need you to trust the promises of God even more than you trust your own feelings. Because one of the things that began to happen in the life of Elijah is that he was gripped with fear, and fear will cause you to assume things

that may or may not even happen. This is why fear is so dangerous. Fear will cause you to be paralyzed by things that might not even happen. Fear is looking into the future and thinking the worst things that could happen are in control. Fate is looking into the future and knowing that God's still got the whole world in his hands.

And how many of you? Okay, gifted class. When do new mercies come in the morning? So the reason I think Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow is because he hasn't give you the mercies that you need for tomorrow. He's giving you everything you need to accomplish, everything he has called you to accomplish today.

And if you need that kind of mercy for what you're scared of tomorrow, he will give it to you. But to begin to presume that the worst thing might happen will paralyze you. And so Elijah leaves the cave. We can just cruising through a bunch of chapters here real quick. Elijah leaves the cave. He finds Elisha.

It's very confusing. The Bible didn't check with me on what to name people. But Elijah is like the senior guy and Elisha is going to follow him, all right? And God says, all right, that's your guy. That's the guy I want you to anoint and to appoint and to a point, and he's going to follow in your footsteps. And so Elisha is out there plow in the field. He's got, I think it's 12 oxes out there, right? And then Elijah just rolls up on it, takes his coat, and throws it on him, says, you're my guy.

I want you to follow me. And Elijah's like, let me go kiss my mom and daddy goodbye. He's like, all right, no problem. So he kisses him goodbye. And then he comes back and he just burns the ships, man. I mean, he was in the oxen business. You know what he did? He used the yoke to build a bonfire, and he slaughtered the 12 oxons, and then they had a big cookout.

That's how he knows it's a godly man. They had barbecue for everybody. This is like I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. If you burn all of your product, you ain't into ox business anymore. Makes sense? And so, meanwhile, our guy Ahab that we've been talking about for weeks after weeks after weeks, and Jezebel, they're still doing their thing.

There's chapters upon chapters about how they're fighting people and how they're into battles and they're doing their thing. And by the time you get to First King's chapter 21, Ahab, remember, he's a wuss. He's got a backbone like a jellyfish. remember Jezebel's controlling and and Ahab's greedy I mean he's the king of the whole place and he looks at his neighbor's place his neighbor has got a little a little piece of land out there and he begins to think I wish I had that land his name is Nabath and so Ahab goes to Nabath is like hey can I buy you

property or maybe I'll give you a good price or I'll give you another property and Nabath is like I can't do it it it's not mine to give I inherited it from my people and I'm going to give it to my people, just like God has commanded me to. And so then Ahab, the Woos, he goes home and he does what Woosges do. He complains. He whines. He gripes. He cries. He sends the pastor gripey emails. That's what he does. And so then Jezabelle comes in. It's like, what's wrong, baby? You know, because remember she's controlling? I don't know if you've ever met the married couple. And it looks a lot more like son and daughter and husband and wife, but I mean, you know, whatever. And she's like, what's wrong? And he's like, well, I wanted that land. I didn't get that land.

And she's like, oh, I got this. And so she goes out and she makes an accusation. She says, here's what I want to do. She does all kinds of falsifies documents and seals them and sends them out. And she gets some people to make some accusations against Nabath who owns the land. And then sure enough, I don't know if you realize this, every accusation isn't true. Did you know that? Sometimes people put out misinformation.

Can you believe that? And sure enough, they have him killed. They have him stone. And so then Jezabel comes in and is like, hey, you got good news. is the guy Nabath, he doesn't own that land anymore because he's gone, and so here it is. And now God's going to show back up to Elijah, and he's going to enact justice. enact justice. And Elijah gets his courage back. And God shows up to Elijah, and he's like, hey, there's some shady stuff. It's our friends, by friends, I mean enemies. Ahab and Jezebel,

and they're back at it again. And so he taps Elijah on the shoulder. Elijah stands up, and he's filled with courage again. And the Lord says to him, we're in chapter 21, verse 19 at this point. And he says, you shall go and say to Ahab, thus says the Lord, have you killed and also taken possession? And he's talking about Nabath's land. And you shall say to him, thus says the Lord, in the place where the dogs licked up the blood of Nabath, shall dogs lick your own blood. I bet y'all didn't learn that in Sunday school, did you? Yeah, man.

You see, Elijah's got his groove back. He's talking smack again, that good, glorious smack talk. And then Ahab says to Elijah, have you found me, oh enemy? And he answered, I have found you because you have sold yourself to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord. And behold, I will bring disaster upon you and I will utterly burn you up. All right, pun intended. Last time they were there, what did he do? He called down fire from heaven.

I love that so much. And I will cut you off from Ahab every male bond or free in Israel. That's a promise of God. And he says, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, and like the house of Bashah, the son of Ahijah. These are evil kings, and it didn't end well for them. For the anger to which you have provoked me and because you have made Israel to sin and of Jezebel, I hadn't forgot about her, the Lord also said that dogs shall eat Jezebel within the walls of Jezreel.

It's another promise of God. It's amazing what happens when you listen to the voice of God instead of your attractors, is it not? And he says, anyone belonging to Ahab who dies in the city, the dog shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the open country, the birds of heavens shall eat. And the reason he's talking about dogs eating the body is that when you were a king or you were a queen and you died, you would honor them by having this elaborate celebration, this elaborate funeral. But to let the dogs eat the body meant you were disgraced. And so Ahab, it kind of looks like he repents.

He says he's sorry. He tears his clothes. He's like, that's on me, my bad. And for a while, he does great. For like three years, he stays in line and he stays quiet. But the difference between repentance and just being remorseful will show itself over time. So he goes good for like three years because he's sorry, but he's not surrendered. You see, repentance isn't being sorry for yourself.

sin. Repentance is being surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And Yahweh is not his Lord because by the time you get to chapter 22, he starts listening to some false prophets again. He starts reading his own mail again too much. And so he wants to go to war. He wants to take over. And he's afraid to go on his own. So he's going to get another king to come help him. And so he assembles his own prophets. He's got some own prophets. I don't know if you know this. But back in the day, politicians used to surround themselves with people that would say, what they wanted to hear. Can you believe that? So he gets all these prophets together and he's like, hey, I think I think I should go take over another country. What do y'all think? And they say

exactly what he wants to hear. And so that he goes down at this point, the nation of Israel has been divided into two. It's very complicated. I don't have time to get all into it. But Jehosephat is the king of Judah. And so he goes to him and says, hey, bro, how about help me out? Let's go take over in another country. Will you help me? So chapter 22, verse 7, Jehosephat says, well, he hears from all the false prophets, he's not convinced, and he says this, is there not here another prophet of the Lord of whom we may inquire? And the king of Israel, that's Ahab, says to Jehoshaphat, there is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Makaya, the son of Imla, but I hate him. Why do you think that politician hates him? For he never prophesies good concerning me, but evil. Let me ask you,

Do you surround yourself with people that only tell you what you want to hear? Or are you wise enough to surround yourself with some people that are going to tell you some things that you don't want to hear? I hope and pray you've got some people in your life that love you more than they love what you think about them. I hope and pray you have those kind of people. And even more importantly than that, what is your relationship with the Word of God? Because here's the thing, man. It's just going to tell the truth. every single time.

And I've talked to us about this before, but I just want to warn you because we're living in a day when there's a lot of people that come to the scriptures with this kind of relationship, they think, in authority over the Word of God.

Like Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers. Do you know you can go see the Thomas Jefferson Bible in the Bible Museum? And guess what? It's real thin. You know why? Because he cut out all the parts

that he did not like. Do you know what that means? That he thought he had authority over the Word of God. And we live in this kind of world today where people think they can stand in authority over the Word of God. Let me tell you, if that's going to be you, you're not going to like it here. Because here at the Church of 1122, we stand upon the trustworthiness of the Word of God because God is faithful and true, and we stand under its authority. And of course there's parts of the Bible you're not going to like. You know why? Because you're a wretched, crooked, and a brave,

black-hearted sinner. That's why. And if you're offended, it's because you're a wretched, crooked, and to pray, black-hearted sinner. That God is the author of life. Of course he knows how to live life better than you and me. Some of us needed two tries at the eighth grade, and we think we can tell God how to live this life. And so here at 1122, what we're going to do is just, I don't write it, I just deliver it. I'm the mailman, okay? And so we're just going to tell you about life and sex and marriage and sexuality and justice and love for people and money.

And if you're like, I am so offended, again, you can email me at Jimmy Cracks Corn at I Don't Care.com. Because this is not a popularity contest. And I know. And listen, if you ever find yourself at a church and they are not teaching the Word of God and they put current culture or their own opinion above the Word of God, then jot this down. Get your stuff, get your kids, and leave, because you're not at a church, you're at a cult. because churches are under the authority of the Word of God. We hear news all the time, X amount of churches shut their doors every day. Praise God.

There's a bunch of churches that left the Bible a long time ago, and to walk away from the Word of God is to walk away from Jesus. And Jesus writes some letters to the seven churches in the book of Revelation. And he says he is the one that walks around among his churches, but he does not mind removing his lampstand from a church that moves away from the Word of God. And we live in a day. Paul talked about it. Paul said in the last days, people will surround themselves with people or preachers that tickle their ears. They feel really good about themselves on their way to destruction. But we are just going to do what the word says.

So Jehoshapheth says, so maybe we can get one out here that will tell us the truth. And so Makaya, he's a true prophet. He stands up. And after a a little interchange, he's like, all right, here's how it's going to go down. As the Lord lives, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak. By the way, that's my job, okay? And so again, if I say things that are offensive to you, I don't know. Buckle up. I don't know what to tell you. One day, I, according to the book of Hebrews, will stand before the Lord and have to give an account for every word that comes out of my mouth, okay? And so the decision I refuse to have is one day to stand before the Lord and be like, oh, well, God, I didn't want to do that part because it was hard,

people didn't like me. Okay? And so Makaya just tells the truth. That's what he does. And he says this. He says, as the Lord live, what the Lord says to me, that I will speak. He goes on to say, here's the thing. You may win the war.

If you go to battle, you may win the war. But if you do so, you're going to lose your life. That's the prophecy he gives him. And so what Ahab does, he does what he's always been doing. He disobeys the word of the Lord. So he comes up with this little trick. He goes, here's what I'll do. Instead of dressing like a king,

I'll dress like all the other soldiers and I'll just go to war and nobody you will know. Guess who always knows? You know what it reminds me of? The amount of times Christians want God to see and bless this area of your life, but you can hide in this area of your life. God is not surprised. And so sure enough, he dresses up like one of the other soldiers and he goes riding out into battle. He's just going to hide in the back. And then verse 34 of this chapter, I love this verse.

It says, but a certain man drew his bow at random, wink, wink. and struck the king of Israel between the scale armor and his breastplate. You know what that means? There is nothing random under God's sovereign hand. And guess what happens to Ahab? Exactly what the word of the Lord said. He dies and the dogs lick up his blood. Amen.

Second Kings, chapter one. By the time you get here, Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, becomes the king. Jezebel still has a hand in what's going on. It's getting worse and worse and worse. By the way, the progressives are wrong. You know what they think? They tell us all the time.

No, things are getting better and better and better. Do you have the news? It's not getting better. Now, technologically, things are getting better, but do you think people's hearts are getting pure and pure and pure and no, no, it gets worse and worse? And so, Isaiah is a king and he's on some lattice. The Bible doesn't tell us. He falls.

He gets hurt. It's why old people shouldn't climb up on. stuff. And so he's laying, hey man, you can say out your amen, but it's just true. All right. So God gave his kids. Get over and get me that thing, boy. That's what it is. So he's hurt. He's laying in his bed. And instead of asking the prophet of God to pray for him, instead of asking God to pray for him, what does he do? He does exactly what his parents did. He asked for bailzebub. That ain't good. That's the devil. You know what it literally means in Hebrew, the Lord of the Flies. By the way, all throughout this whole series, we've

talked about there's the same demons we're just in different days, right? Well, if you remember in Matthew chapter 12, Jesus is doing miracles and the Pharisees come up and they're like, he's casting these things out in the name of Beelzebub, same demons, a thousand years later. And so he asked for this demon to come and help him. And so Elijah shows back up on the scene. And he goes to these messengers and he's like, hey, I got a word for your boss. Go tell him, he's going to die. And they don't like that. So word begins back to the king. They're like, hey, we talked to this crazy guy out in the mountains.

And they're like, who was he? It's like, I don't know. He had like a camel jacket and a leather belt. It's just spitting fire. Oh, that's Elijah. And so the king's like, I got him. He gets 50 armed men. Think about this.

Like the SWAT team. He's like, hey, SWAT team, you go get him. So they'll get out to found him. He's hanging out on this mountain. And they look at him and go, you come down here because they can't climb up there. And guess what Elijah does? And Elijah's like, you know who I'm talking to? And he says, if I am a man of God, fire will come down from heaven and burn you up.

And guess what happened? Fire comes down to heaven and cooks 50 men. And then the king's like, send 50 more. 50 more men come up and they go, something smells like burnt hair around here. Come down here. Fire again. Burn those men up too. Somebody should jot that down until the next group, right?

Then the third string finally gets there. And by that time, the Bible says that the angel of love. the Lord comes to Elijah and says, why don't you go to the king face to face and he goes to the king face to face and he's like, hey dude, you're going to die. And guess what happens? Exactly what the word of the Lord said and he died. And now by the time you get to second king's chapter two, this is one of the most famous things about the life of Elijah. God is finished with Elijah's assignment. I hope you know this, that only God can number your days, right? and the empty tomb and your alarm clock are empirical evidence that he's not done with you yet

and so he's going to he's going to take Elijah home in a supernatural way second king chapter two says this now when the lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a whirlwind Elijah and Elijah were on their way from Gilgale so from the moment Elijah anointed elisha elisha has been following Elijah say that five times times real fast. You know what this is called in the Bible? Discipleship. Discipleship in the Bible went in a bunch of classes. It wasn't simply Bible knowledge. It was, you're going to follow me and I'm going to show you how to do life. Paul says it this way in 1st Corinthians the 11-1. Follow me as I follow Christ. This is the example of Elijah. Elijah didn't make it about himself.

Elijah spent serious time raising up somebody that was going to take his place. Verse 2, and Elijah said to Elijah, please stay here, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel. But Elijah said, as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel. Bethel is a very significant place. This is where Jacob meets God for the very first time. And then he kind of goes a little crazy. And then he comes back to that place and repents and begins to walk with God.

It's a place of worship in Israel. Verse three, and the sons of the prophets who were in Bethel came out to Elijah. and they said to him, do you know that today the Lord will take away your master from over you? And he said, yes, I know it. Keep quiet. So the word is out that Elijah's days are over. Verse four, and Elijah said to him, Elisha, please stay here for the Lord has sent me to Jericho. Jericho is a big deal. Jericho is where Joshua and the people of God march around the city. It's the first city to fall when he takes over the promised land. And he said, as the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you. See, it's hard to let go of what you know, right?

And so they came to Jericho and the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho, drew near to Elisha, and they said to him, do you not know? Today, the Lord will take away your master from over you, and he answered, yes, I know it, keep quiet. I don't know if you can know this. Church has never been good at secrets. Do you know that? By the way, that's why here at 1122, we don't have secrets. I just tell you what I know as I know it.

I'm not smart enough to know what I'm supposed to know depending on the group I'm standing in front of. So I just leak true rumors all the time. And so sometimes those things change and okay, that's what I thought was going to happen. Now it's not going to happen. Make sense? That's how we do it. Verse six, then Elijah said to him, please stay here for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan. This is a really good big deal.

The Jordan is a place where they cross on dry ground. And essentially what you'll see here is Elijah is taking Elijah on a reverse tour of the faithfulness of God. That's what he's doing. Why? because in just a few verses Elijah's going to be in charge and guess what Elijah has been in charge of so far nothing

and so what Elijah is showing him over and over and over is this, all my life you have been faithful I love when we sing that song sounds like George Strait write it right all my life you have been faithful that's how we ought to sing

and sometimes when he can't distinguish where God might be going what the Bible will teach us is to look over your shoulder at the faithfulness of God over and over and over, and if he has been trustworthy every day of my life, then I can trust him for today and tomorrow. That's what he's showing him. And he says, as the Lord lives, as you yourself live, I will not leave you. And so the two of them went on. 50 men of the sons of the prophets also went, and they stood at some distance.

They probably heard about the other 50 that got burned up, but these are good guys. And as they both were standing by the Jordan, then Elijah took his cloak, and he rolled it up, and he struck the water and the water was parted to the one side and to the other till the two of them could go over on dry ground, just like Joshua did, just like Moses did. You see, part of what Elijah is showing Elisha is look, dude, this isn't new, it's just your turn.

Looking back can help you trust what God will do in the future. And when they had crossed, Elijah said to Elijah, all right, this is it, this is kind of the final conversation. Ask what I shall do for you, for I am taken from you. And Elisha said, please let there be a double portion

of your spirit on me. And what do you think he means? I want to be twice as powerful as you? No, no, no, no, no. That's not it at all. In antiquity, in Jewish culture, guess who got the double portion? The firstborn son got the double portion.

This is what he's saying. He's saying, Elijah, you've not just been like a mentor to me, you hadn't just been like a prophet to me, but you were like a dad to me. me and I want to be like a son to you, a spiritual son. I want you to treat me as a firstborn son with a double portion. Listen, what the church needs more is fathers. Paul's going to tell the church in Corinthians, you've got plenty of teachers. And he said this before to YouTube and podcast. Think about that. But what you need is more fathers. And so what is happening here is Elijah didn't just teach

a discipleship class, Elijah raised up a spiritual son in order to pass on his ministry to. That's what he's doing. And he says, you have asked a hard thing, yet if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you. But if you do not see me, it shall not be so. And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire. That's where you get the movie title from. Chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them.

And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. Guess what? If you're in Christ, by the way, this is how we go up to. That the fire of the judgment of God will separate those that don't know him from those who do and that we will be caught up in the air with him. And Elijah saw it and he cried. Look what he says. Not boss, boss. Not rabbi, not even prophet prophet. He says, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen. And he saw him no more. And then he took hold of his own clothes and he tore them to pieces. He's very sad. It's very appropriate, even though it's God's plan. And he took up the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him, and he went back and he stood on the bank of the Jordan. And here's what he's going to do. He's going to basically go, well, let's see if this works. Let's see if this works. And he begins his ministry in both word and power. You see, some people are just word people. And the word is very, very important. And some people are just power people. And they try to attribute things to God that the Word does not. But we need to be, we need to be word and power people.

This is Spirit and Truth people. Same thing. It's like a sail and a rudder. You got it? If you don't have a sail, you're just stuck to the dock. You ain't going to where. But if you don't have a rudder, you're just going to be lost at sea, just blowing around wherever you go. And so he is going to begin his ministry. And he is going to walk in the footsteps that Elijah paved for him and he's going to do even bigger and greater things. Listen, as I read this and was praying about this, I thought about it. Two weeks ago, I thanked Gretchen for being that angel that spoke some truth into me when I was about ready to tap out.

But somebody else I got to thank, too, if there was not a pastor Jerry sweat at Beach Church, there would be no 1122, okay? Because not only did he raise me up, I got to serve under him for 10 years, but he gave me a double portion of the blessing. I mean, what pastor in his right mind says, you know what you should do? You should plant a church three miles where I have a church. You know who thinks about that? People that think about their little kingdom.

You know who says you go and plant the people that are more about God's kingdom? And so that's exactly what Pastor Jerry has done for us. And this is why we're here today. And so now what Elijah is going to do is he's going to give it a shot. He's going to do what God's called him to do. Verse 14, he took the cloak of Elijah that had fallen from him, and he struck the water saying, where is the Lord the God of Elijah?

And when he had struck the water, the water was parted to the one side and to the other, and Elisha went over. And from then on, Elisha walks in the same power that Elijah walked in. He does miracles. He like feeds this widow with a little bit of oil, sound familiar.

He brings a dead boy back to life, sound familiar. He goes to confront kings, he anoints new kings, and he just does whatever the Lord calls him to do. Let me ask you this. What is God calling you to do? We only be talking about it for seven weeks. And here's what I know.

Some of you, like on week two, you know the Lord tapped you on the shoulder and it's like, hey, you need to start that group. You need to go on that trip. You need to quit that job. You need to throw that phone away. You need to start that ministry. What is the thing that God is calling you to do? And then my next question is, and why are you not doing it? And so what Elisha is going to do for the next several chapters in Second Kings is he's just going to be about the father's business.

Whatever God tells him to do, that's what he does. And one of the things that he never forgets is he never forgets God's promises. God's already used Elijah to take out Ahab. But remember there was one other promise. You remember that one? He also promised he was going to take out Jezebel. And so this is what he does. In 2nd King, chapter 9, he anoints a new king.

This king is named Jahoo. Pick it up in verse 30. It says, and when Jahoo, again, who was appointed by Elisha, came to Jezrael, Jezebel heard of it, and she painted her eyes and adorned her head and looked out of the window. She is back to her old seductive ways. Ahab is dead, and she thinks, maybe I can seduce another king, and I can do what I want to do. Doesn't go so good for her this time. Ready?

Verse 31. And as Jahoo entered the gate, she said, is it? is it peace, you Zimri, murderer of your master? And he lifted up his face to the window and said, Who is on my side? Who? And look who was surrounding Jezebel. Two or three eunuchs looked out at him.

You see, she loved to surround herself with castrated men. That's what Jezebel does. And so Jehu says, throw her down. And so they threw her down, and some of her blood splattered on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled on her. and then he went in and ate and drank. I love this so much. They throw her out.

She splats on the ground. The horses step on her, and he's like, I think it's happy hour. Let's go get something to drink. He went in and he ate and he drank and he said, see now to this cursed woman and bury her, for she is a king's daughter. But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than her skull and her feet

and the palms of her hands. Remember that, veggie tails? I don't either. And when they came back and they told him, look what he said. This is the word of the Lord which he spoke by his servant, Elijah, the Tishbite in the territory of Jezriel. The dog shall eat the flesh of Jezebel, and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field and the territory of Jezreel so that no one can say this is Jezebel. He is saying her life ended up exactly where the past she was on led to. and this is the events of the life of Elijah.

So here, what do we learn from Elijah? I could do 25th of these, but, you know, they don't want me to turn this into a lock-in, okay? Here's six thoughts I have that we've studied over the last seven weeks in no particular order. I'd love for you to write them now. Some things that I've taken away from the life of Elijah. Number one, doesn't matter how you start.

But how you finish? Please, please, please, don't let your worst days to find you. There's a time in Elijah's ministry where you're sitting under a tree asking God to kill him. There's another time where he's gripped by fear and he's running away from God instead of to God. And yet I'm here to tell you over and over and over what we see in the scripture is that God's not done with you. That in the kingdom of God, there are no second chances. You know, people sometimes you'll hear this, right? God's the God's second chances. They mean well. They're just, they're just, don't know where they're

talking about, okay? Because if you had a second chance at life, how do you think you would do? A lot like the first chance, right? Right. Because the problem is not that we don't have enough chances. The problem is us. And so in the kingdom of God, there aren't our second chances, but there is the blood of Jesus and from now on. And guess what? The blood of Jesus tells a totally a different story. The blood of Jesus tells us that we are valuable because God placed his love upon us and proved it at the cross, that this world does not get to tell us who we are, that only Jesus gets to tell us who we are. And the Bible does not try to define you by your scars. Guess who does? The devil tries to define you by your scars. The devil tries to tell you that you are your

worst day. The devil in this world tries to tell you that your addiction and that you're your sin and you're your abortion and divorce and bankruptcy and whatever that darkest day is. Every time God tries to move in your life, the enemy comes along and points your, you're in your abortion. And points at your scars, but I got really good news. Jesus does not define you by your scars. He wants to define you by his scars. That's right. That's right. You see, sometimes the brook dries up. And when the brook dries up, here's what you do. You just do the next thing God has called you to do. Because the brook drying up does not define you. That's the first one. Doesn't matter how you start. Second one, this. God makes a living out of using nobody's willing

to tell anybody about the somebody that wants to save everybody. Amen. Where's Where's Elijah from? Tishby. You know where that is? Nobody knows what that is. Tishby made Dillon look like a metropolis. He's a nobody from nowhere, and out of the woods, he comes walking, and God makes a living out of using nobodies. You know what that means?

He can use you. Trust me, man. Exhibit A is right here. The Bible says that God uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. That's the only reason I can I can figure that God would use me in this world. Let me tell you what this means. On next Sunday, a week from Sunday, Sunday saturated.

I'm going to preach the gospel, and we're going to have this place every campus. We're going to have lined with baptism tubs. You should ask God to use you the way he used Elijah. And you're like, I can't call down fire from heaven. That was neat. You know what's eternal? You get your one more here, and let's pray. and let's pray and let's pray that God uses nobodies like me and you to take people that are far from

God and through the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ, God does the only eternal miracle and he saves a whole bunch of people and we get to see miracle after miracle after miracle of people rejecting the sins of their past, the ways of this world and anything darker demonic and proclaiming Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. What if God uses you that this week to get them here next week? Let's do that. So God's made a living out of using nobodies. The third one is this, is God's word is true and trustworthy. I told you at the very beginning, the key to understanding the life of Elijah is even though he had a hiccup here or there because he's an actual human being, is that he did what the

word of the Lord told him to do. He wasn't ruled by his feelings. He wasn't ruled by his emotions. He didn't let his worst day define his next day. He did what the word of the Lord told him to do. And then he just trusted God with the consequence. Was it dangerous to stand in front of 850 prophets of bail and talk smack to their God and say maybe he's relieving himself? It's very dangerous unless the God of the universe was in charge and that's who he believed was in charge.

So let me ask you, what's God calling you to do? Because the thing that you need to do, I'm telling you the thing that you need to do is do whatever he has told you to do and trust him with the consequences. My fourth takeaway is this. we need men of God to stand up. We need strong men walking in the spirit of God to stand up against the Ahabs, the people that tolerate evil, against the Jezebel's, that are evil, against the Obadiahs, just to go along to get along people. And we've got to stand on grace and truth. Because when men lead in love well, everyone flourishes. You see, when a man of God, a strong man of God walks into the room, people don't feel.

feel scared or scarce. They feel safe and secure. And we live in a culture, especially the last five years, that has tried to beat men down. Why? Because there's an enemy that wants to steal, kill, and destroy. And men, you were God's idea, and he has called us to provide and protect. And if he could take you off the wall, then by definition, those people that you love and you cherish are defenseless. And the enemy wants to take them out. And so we make no apologies about it, okay? Around here, I've told you before, we're saved, not soft. That you don't have to be a wimp to follow Jesus.

In fact, I don't think you can be a wimp and follow Jesus. That we need some meek men. Meek means a bit bridled horse, strong men, driven men. But men that understand, I can't really trust me with my own strength. So, God, I'm going to turn the reins of my life over to you, and I want to be used in a way that would bring you glory. glory and when I do that, when I lead in love well, I know that everybody around me will flourish. We need some men like Elijah that will stand up and be a troubler to this evil world.

So where do you need to trouble this world? My fifth takeaway is this. Is that success in God's kingdom isn't just what you do, but it's who you raise. So let me ask you. So who are you raising up? Okay. Who are you raising up? Let me say a word to the mammas real quick, particularly the stay-at-home moms that live

in a world that might try to come at you and say somehow you're less than, there is no greater calling in this life than the disciple than little babies at your house, okay? And we are for you, 100%. And I am convinced of this, man, that whenever God wants to do something great, the enemy comes along and tries to take out a generation. And I'm telling you, success according to the Lord, may not even be what we do in our lifetime, but I want us to be the kind of church that stands on that wall to defend and protect and raise up a generation of boys and girls that turn into men and women that are filled with the spirit of God that are ready to push back darkness.

And when the enemy comes at our children on our watch, we're not going to talk down to them. We're not going to beat them up. We're going to lift them up and we're going to speak life into this generation because God, I believe, has a special calling and a special purpose for these kids under our watch. In the kingdom of God, it may not be what's what you do, but who you raise. And the sixth thing is this. Prayer changes everything. Prayer changes everything. And woe to the political leader out there that says, we need, what are prayer is going to do? We got to pray like our lives depend on it because they do. We got to pray like we believe if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. This is what Elijah does. He prays for rain and it rains. He prays for it to stop and it stops.

He prays for fire and fire falls down. He prays in times of need. When he feels like he wants to die, he goes to God about it. He prays in disobedience. He goes through the cave. And guess what? Prayer isn't just you talking all the time. Oftentimes your best prayers are going to be,

Lord, what do you have to say to me? And it was in that still small voice that he heard the voice of God. Yeah, prayer changes everything. And if you're like, I've been praying for a while, do not give up on a God who has never, ever given up on you. I mean, it's amazing, man. I don't know if you read a lot of the book of Revelation, but I'm a professional. I can tell you parts of what it means. In Revelation chapter 8, there's a lot going on.

It's loud. Like one thing you can take away from Revelation, it's loud. There's horses, there's war, there's trumpets, there's seals, being broken, there's a lot going on. The Bible says in Revelation 8 that God looks at all of heaven. I mean, there's Michael, the archangle, just blowing a trumpet, and they're wiping out people, and there's wars and earthquakes. I mean, there's a lot going on.

The God in the universe goes, shh. And the Bible says that for 30 minutes, the consummation of all things, heaven is completely quiet. And you said, why? It's because the priests have lit the incense in the temple and the prayers of God's people are making their way to the Father. Now, we know that God is outside of time and that for him, a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like a day. And so what that means is no matter where you are or what your situation is or how loud

and crazy your life is around you. And no matter how busy you think God might be on his throne, ruling and reigning over all things that when his children, gather together or even in their secret place, get on their face before the Lord and say, Father, I need you. Then the king of the universe says, everybody be quiet. One of my kids is talking right now. That's what I take away from Elijah.

Is that prayer changes everything. And do you realize when we close our services, this is what we do? Like I preach to this point. And the reason we do this, listen, the reason we sing is that all of our campuses, and all of the folks worshipping online and all of the outposts, that all of us together are going to pray through song, the same prayer as God's people. And we're going to say, we need you.

And then we invite you to come and kneel before the king of the universe. And the book of Hebrew says we get to walk in to the throne room of God, not with timidity, but with boldness. Because when Jesus says, it is finished, the curtain was ripped, and we get invited in. And we say, God, I need you. I mean, I know there's wars all over the place, right? And there's political upheaval.

And there's all kinds of needs all over the world. And the God of the universe, when his people humble themselves and pray, he shuts it all down and he hears you. The book of James, chapter five, talks about our guy, Elijah. And James says this, the prayer of a righteous man of Veileth. much. And you know who he points to? He points to Elijah. And then he says this. He goes, But Elijah, he prayed for it to stop raining. And then he prayed for God to turn the rain back on. And then he has the audacity to say, and Elijah was a person just like me and you.

You know what? Elijah believed prayer changed everything. And I hope you do too. And so as we close, that's what we're going to do. We're going to sing. We're going to join our voices together. And we're going to make much of the one who sent his son for us. And we're going to bring our ties in our offerings because we're going to say, this world didn't get to tell me who I am. I'm not going to chase after stuff. I'm going to trust you with first and mess. Maybe there's something going on in your life. Maybe you're in the highest high when Elijah was calling down fire from heaven, and you just need to come and do nothing but pray a prayer of gratitude and say, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, God. That's a great way to pray. Or maybe you're in that dark night of the

soul. And you need to come and get on your knees. because the king of the universe hears us when we pray. And even a bigger deal, it moves the sovereign heart of God to act on our behalf. So we just stand, let me pray for you. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we thank you for your word. God, we stand upon the truth of your word. God, we stand under the authority of your word. God, may we never, ever be a people like those wicked and worthless kings

that just surrounded themselves with people that would just tell them what they wanted to hear, but may we be like Elijah, that we hear your word and we just do what you tell us to do. God, I thank you that when you show up in big ways, God, we can sing you praise. And God, when we're afraid because of our circumstances, we can run to you. We don't have to run from you. God, we thank you for the wind of the Holy Spirit. God, we thank you for the earthquake that tore that curtain of separate. into. And God, we thank you for the fire of the spirit that dwells inside each and every one of us.

And God, we thank you that you're a father. You're a good, good father. And you're the same God that heard the prayers of Elijah and you moved. And so, God, we know that you are the same God that hear our prayers today and you move. And we can boldly come into your presence because of the life, death, and the resurrection of your son. Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. So church, we're going to close this entire series. We're going to sing to the same God that we've been studying in the last seven weeks that moved on Mount Carmel and in the cave. And we're going to bring our ties and all offerings to say, God, you are first in my life. And we're going to pray. And so if there's something that you need to pray about, I would invite you to hustle down here, get on your face before the life. And we're going to believing God, and you cast your cares upon him because he cares for you.

Let's sing, let's bring, let's pray. Let's respond.