Elisha Hard Lessons For Hard Times — 2 Kings 2

0:00 Nice talking with you. Bye. See you later, alligator, after a while crocodile. Alright. Nine seventy BC to five eighty six BC is the times of what the Jews would say in their Bible, their canon, the kings.

0:23 So, it'd be first and second kings. So wherever that is on this thing... Right there. Right here. Okay.

0:30 First and second Kings, a little approximately about four hundred years, which is a long time. It's longer than The United States has been around. And so this is the time of the kings in which you have the division. You have David at the beginning and then you have his son Solomon and then you have the division of the kingdom. You have the Northern Kingdom with 10 tribes, and then you have the Southern kingdom called Judah.

1:04 The Northern kingdom's called Israel, the southern is called Judah. Okay? That's two two of the 12 are in Judah, and then you have the rest of the 10. In the 10 tribes in Israel, it's called Israel after the division, not one king was good. He was...

1:26 They were wicked. Very, wicked. And that's the stage in which Elijah and Elijah minister. They minister in that realm to those 10 tribes. Now it's an interesting fact.

1:44 I didn't know much about either of the prophets. I know this, they didn't write anything. They were not authors of any any books like like Joel or like Obadiah, like the prophets that you have been looking at. But these two guys were linked together, but they had different type ministries. It's an interesting interesting very interesting.

2:13 So I hope you find it interesting. So when we look at this in the kingdom from 979 actually yeah about 970 or so you have the division actually by 09/31 takes place 971 and 09/31 about forty years they were together and then they split. And from 09/31 to 07/22 which is somebody do the math on that one that's like two hundred and some years is that right? The two hundred and some years. In 07/22 after two hundred years of being a kingdom they were taken into captivity.

3:03 They were taken into captivity and then in 586 the fall of Judah took place. So that rounds it out. That's the whole time and that's the whole time of the Kings. You have 586 and that with the I don't want to call them pre, you have some pre exilic, but you have some, they're all pre exilic, I guess, but and then you have them being put into exile. They're taken away.

3:38 Both nations of 586, they're gone. That whole area. There were some people left back there by Nebuchadnezzar but gone. They were taken away. And then you've got the stories of Daniel.

3:53 You've got all these incredible stories that we look at while that's seventy years of captivity. Seventy years. And there's reasons for it in which we're not going to go into because we are going to be looking specifically at Elijah and I wanted to when we talk about Elijah he did approximately nine miracles in his short time. He had a short time. He did nine, approximately nine miracles.

4:28 And you remember the situation, I'm sure you did, you've read Kings before. You got where Elisha is the mantle is thrown on top of him by Elijah. He's plowing with 12 oxen. He's plowing with 12 oxen. So he's kind of a man of the earth, Elisha is, but he's really not.

4:50 He's more metropolitan than than Elijah. Elijah was a rough and ready type wilderness guy, loner type guy, not Elisha. Elisha is a guy who is very cosmopolitan in that one sense, bald head. Good looking. Very good looking, very good looking.

5:13 Yes, very good looking. Yeah, you don't want to cover it up, do you? No. But it's an interesting interesting fact that when... Do you remember the time when Elisha is is chosen, God tells Elijah to choose Elisha.

5:34 It's tough to these names, I'm telling you. First grade especially. And so you remember you remember that. He goes to him and he says to him in second Kings chapter two, he goes and he's he says, you know, hey, actually he's going to be about to be taken up by the Lord, right? Remember this?

5:55 And he goes and he says to, he says to him, Elisha says to Elijah, give me please, father is like a son to him, give me double portion of the power that you have, give it to me. I that double portion. Now it's an interesting fact. It's an interesting fact. Why the double portion?

6:24 He wants more power. Give it to me. I want to see it. No, that's not at all yet. His length was double the time of Elijah's.

6:38 His miracles that he did were 18 compared to Elijah's nine. Everything was double. So he needed the double portion. The Lord led him to ask for that double portion so he could have a longer ministry, double the time that Elijah had, and double the miraculous. Now there are only three guys in the Old Testament that did the miraculous.

7:05 Elisha being one of them, Elijah being another, and then also Moses. And that's it. Just those three. And it's an interesting when you transfer or you come into the New Testament, the same word that is used with those three guys doing the miraculous is put on to the apostles, the technical 12, not just any apostle, but the technical 12 that really started the church. So those...

7:40 If there is a... Like a not a transference but they had the same kind of miraculous situation. I want to give you some interesting facts. Elijah's name, Elijah's name is mentioned in first king three times and in second kings 55 times. 55 times for a total of 58 and then you got the fifty ninth time his name is mentioned in the Bible in Luke.

8:13 Luke chapter four verse 27, the Lord Jesus talked about him. They put his name, if you're looking at the old King James in the Greek, Elisha, Elisha, and that's really Elisha. Most translators put that right into Elijah. Elisha. A couple other thing, his name means, what does his name mean?

8:37 His name means God is salvation. God is salvation and the scope, his scope of ministry is from first Kings nineteen:one to second Kings thirteen twenty one in which you see him die at that time. He dies at that particular time. Striking differences between Elijah and Elisha, they both labored in Northern Kingdom. I've got to read this because I don't got the memory.

9:13 Elijah's name means Jehovah, Elijah's name is Jehovah my God because in this suggests the law where Elisha, God is salvation suggests grace. The grace of God. Elisha left a peaceful occupation to become a model spiritual leader. Elijah prepared Elisha for his commission and they became devoted to one another. Elisha's character is marked by mercy.

9:48 You're gonna find out the difference as you read through, if you've read through, I hope you have, if you've read through Kings especially that 19 through, you'll see marked differences between the two guys. And it is an interesting thing. You have not only was he marked by mercy but disinterestedness and he was tolerant. He earned a wonderful posthumous influence. He was victorious in his death.

10:46 Yeah you guys know this right? And he hits the bones and he revives. So even in death he's got he's got incredible incredible power in his physicality. He was a man of incredible faith. He was swift to action, spiritually powerful, dauntless and courage, deep sympathy.

11:14 You can see this and as you read through it. He was a man of God willing to help, merited blessing, clear understanding, force and might. And let me just say he knew secrets, remarkable foresight, unerring counsel, and tears and sorrows. Now, let me just say this, there's a story about him where he was walking with his cloak on and his staff, and he's walking and he's about 42, it says children, some translated children came and bald head, go up, bald head, go up, bald head, go up. And he turns and stares at them and curses them.

12:06 Alright, do you know this story? Curses them. What happened? A bear comes out and... Two she bears.

12:13 Yeah. Yeah, females. Don't mess with a female bear. Right? And what happened?

12:20 Maul to maul. Maul to maul, yeah. Doesn't say in the Hebrew, doesn't say that they died, but they got got mauled. You get the impression in the King James that they were wiped out. Doesn't say that in the Hebrew, however.

12:34 But what it does say is that they took some damage, big time damage if not died. Right. What were they saying? And were they little kids? No.

12:45 No. The Hebrew again tells us they were young men. And what they were doing is they were mocking God. They were mocking God and they were saying to Elisha, why don't you go up just like Elijah did? Go up.

12:59 Go up. Go up. Just like Elijah. All of a sudden, I'm thinking to myself, this guy hates kids. He hates kids until you start to understand that these weren't kids.

13:11 Those words in the Hebrew can be used of little children, even infants, but not these guys. They were mocking God and he he took exception to it. He took major league exception and these guys really paid the price. They really paid the price. Now Elijah was a prophet of the wilderness.

13:34 Elisha was a prince of a court. Elijah was had no settled home. Elisha did. He had peace of a home. He knew it.

13:47 Elijah was known with his long shaggy hair. Well you know the story about the baldness, okay. He had a staff and bald head. Elijah was mainly prophetic, Elisha's work was mainly miraculous, double the miraculous than Elijah. He was one of the stern, Elijah's stern denunciation.

14:14 Elijah's task was that of teaching and winning. Elijah was a rebuker of kings and here's an interesting fact, Elisha was a friend of kings. Northern Kingdom all of them were bad but he was friendly with them. Not that he was compromising at all but yeah, he had another, and an admirer. Elijah Elijah was a messenger of vengeance, Elijah was a messenger of mercy.

14:49 Elijah was a representative exclusiveness and Elijah stood for comprehension. He wanted to understand. Elijah was fierce, fiery, energetic. Elisha was gentle, sympathetic and simple. Elijah was a solitary figure.

15:10 Elisha was social, more social. Elijah was an extraordinary, extraordinarily, he had an extraordinary disappearance, I'd say so, it's rapture. Elisha, his death was ordinary. So we look at this and we can look at the difference, the differing situations that Elijah had in his life. We can look at those situations all the time, we don't have the time So for I looked at this and I titled this little talk today is, when did I title it, Hard Lessons for Hard Times.

16:38 Well, this is the same type of thing that's taking place and you have theocracy, you have God wanting to be the ruler, the God of Israel, and he didn't want them to split but they did. Their whole purpose, Israel's purpose. Do you ever ask yourself the question, what was the purpose of Israel? Why Israel? And we get this even to today.

17:06 God's chosen people, there's ministries called God's chosen people. There's also friends of Israel, etcetera. Why them? They were chosen by God to be a blessing to the nations, to glorify God and to be a blessing to the nations, to tell the nations you want to know how and what it is like to live in a theocracy that God would rule over your life, look at us. And it's a wonderful thing.

17:42 But the nations wouldn't have it. They wouldn't have that. And so you have... And then also the northern 10 tribes did a very, very poor job. A very poor job of it, of that.

17:58 Very, very hard. So when we look at the life and ministry of Elisha, it teaches us three lessons. Because when you look at all this stuff, I did a lot of reading, I did a lot of homework on this, I really did, and I thought to myself, how are we gonna bring it to you? How are we gonna bring all this to you, the saints here at Westlake Bible Fellowship, and how does it work in my life? How does this work in my life?

18:25 Well, a couple of things. A couple of things. I know one thing, life is short. Isn't that right? Life is very, very short.

18:38 I have a friend of mine, his name is Don Munson, and I think he's in his eighties. He's dying. The hospice is saying that he won't live till Christmas. And, I talked to his son last night about about that whole situation. Great guy, wonderful person, but his life is over.

19:01 It's ending. They're they're end... You know, they're they're helping him and that kind of thing, but understand something, that's us. That's us. In fact, that's what Paul Munson told me last night, his son, he said, you know, it's gonna happen to every one of us.

19:18 So what in the interim timing of our lives, how we're doing it, you know, congratulations by the way on going to have a baby. Yeah, I love it, you know, I love it. You're gonna have a baby. That's fantastic. And, you know, joy comes in the morning.

19:38 Right? Joy will come in the morning when that when that blessed child is born, and you'll be going so happy, but you won't believe how fast it will go. Isn't that right? It'll it'll zippity doo dah so fast it would be unbelievable. I remember when you guys were little guys.

19:59 I remember that young lady over there next to Douglas right there. I remember her when she was a little girl, you know. And it's going by so fast. You and our youth group at Calvary Bible Chapel, right? I mean, that was...

20:13 I mean, boom. Now it's 2023 and I'm old. And I look at this and I say to myself, wow, what what's... When is it life? What is Elijah?

20:27 What can Elijah teach us? What does his life and ministry teach me? What does it teach you? Because we can't go into... I'm not gonna read the whole thing and not gonna do it, but what does it teach us?

21:21 As we're not placed here to have a degree from any college and you know, the thing that is the greatest thing we could possibly do is to let God use us to declare his glory across the world. That's it. Simple. I had a friend of mine, he was slated, or they asked him, the insurance industry, which is based in New Jersey for the whole nation, they asked him to be the commissioner of all of the industry for the insurance, which is a very big deal, which is a very big deal. He turned them down.

22:08 He said, no way. He says, that's not my job. They were shocked. He said, I got a job to keep the ketchup tape... Ketchup on the table.

22:18 That's it. I serve the Lord. He had a regular secular job, insurance, but that's not why he was there. He taught bible study after bible study during the week. He led many people to Christ.

22:34 You'd be interested in this one, led Rose Barrett. Rose Barrett to Christ. Remember Rose? You don't remember Rose in in New Jersey? Rose and Ken Barrett?

22:47 Anyway, she led Rose to Christ. She's an avid soul winner. She is incredible. And her husband is as well. So knowing the will of God, he seeks to know the will of God.

23:01 He goes after Elijah and he said bless me. I wanna be with you and God, you know, God said to Elijah, choose him. He's gonna take your place. And... But Elijah was willing.

23:20 Elisha was willing to be step into that place and humbled to do it too. Humility, incredible humility, seeking the face of God, seeking his face. I like it with this... I don't like this. It's gone now.

23:39 Okay. What happens with with this is not this, but what happens is I I I like it what David said. I love it what David said. In Psalm 27, seek ye my face. God says to him, seek ye my face.

23:59 Psalm 27 verse eight, seek ye my face. Thy face, Lord, will I seek. And it's just not like I I have a fifteen minute quiet time. It's a hard disposition in which we say to God, I'll do whatever you want me to do. I will...

24:19 I wanna come after you with every ounce that I have. Everything that I am, I'm coming after you. Lord, show me. And for us, as Christians, for us to have this, it's right here in the word. It's right here in the bible.

24:39 And I love this. This is fantastic. This is fantastic because now you're gonna start Luke. Right? Am I correct in that?

24:48 Luke? Know the word. Study the word. Read it on a daily basis. First year...

25:00 First part of the year is coming up, make that resolution and then stick to it. It's life. It's not something that Christians... Oh, you became a Christian? You have to have a quiet time.

25:15 No. No. We wanna seek... The quiet time helps us to seek his face. What does God want you to do?

25:25 What is his will for your life no matter what the cost? No matter what it cost you. And when we look at the cross and we we have, you know, and do this in remembrance of me, the lord Jesus said that. And so what do this in remembrance of me? What do we remember?

25:46 We remember the sacrifice he made on our behalf. That we could live not only have eternal life but our life would count for him. My friend Don Munson, he was a giver boy. Not of money, I'm sure he did that too, but man, the guy who was a pipe fitter, if you needed a gas line, he'd run it and wouldn't charge you a penny. The guy was incredible.

26:12 The guy was just so selfless and still is because he's still with us. And then seeking the face of God to obey his will, to do what God would have us to do. So I seek his face. Why would God... By the way, you look at this, and is this electronic?

26:32 Okay, does it go up and down partially as I turn the switch? You just have to say the word. Okay, just say the word. Okay. So yeah, let it go up a little bit.

26:45 You know, you look at this, why why in the world would God show you his will for your life if you did not have a heart to obey it? What's the point for it? Why would he show you what you... He wants you to do? And by the way, seeking his will, you know, don't ask the question, am I gonna die doing this?

27:12 Don't ask that question. You might, you might not. I want that to be in the dark. I really want... Okay.

27:18 You can stop. You can stop it? Okay. We say, god, show me your will. Why wouldn't...

27:25 Okay. So he shows you his will. He shows you this much of it. He expects you to obey it. He expects you to obey it.

27:37 It's incremental. Go down, will you? And so it it goes down, then he will show you more. He doesn't lay the whole thing out. Stop.

27:48 And then what happens is he shows you that and then you obey that. And you do that. Please hit it. Down. And then he shows you more.

27:59 And as you do this, you continue to obey him. All of a sudden, and when you get to be older, and we know that olderness says you got gray in that thing, you know. In that beard, you know, you get older and older and older and then you look back. When I think of this illustration, I think of my friend T. Ernest Wilson, who had...

28:24 I think he was in his nineties when him and his wife Elizabeth passed away. He was a good friend. And so you look back and you say, I did the will of God. I did the will of God. DL Moody had one of his favorite verses, he that does the will of God abides forever, first John.

28:45 He that does the will of God, that that doesn't mean that you don't that you're not gonna lose your salvation, but what it it doesn't mean that. What it does mean though is that your life had counted. Your life had counted. I want my life to count. I'm 71.

29:06 You might be a different age, you know, younger, older, I don't know. But there's still time if you're sitting here breathing that God would like to use you. And then when we get to heaven, when we look back at our life, we say, he that does the will of God abides forever. Seeking him. Elisha did that.

29:29 His life counted. He could have said, well, you know, I like the metropolitan lifestyle. I like plowing and making money and selling the grain and all that. I like that. That stuff's cool.

29:42 And can I be a blessing that way? God doesn't look at it that way. He looks at, were you obedient to me or not as a believer? Your salvation is secure if you've trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior. You've recognized that you're a sinner and that you can't save yourself from your own sin and recognize that Jesus Christ died on the cross, rose again physically from the dead, and you've asked him to come into your heart and life to be your personal savior after you recognize that you can't save yourself from your own sin.

30:22 And then recognize that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and that he did all that for you, and then you ask him to be your personal savior. Then you get into the family of God. And now it starts the living for him. The start, it starts that moment. That very moment, you start living for him.

30:44 And this is when we start to really let our lives count. I want my life to count, don't you? Don't you want your life to... The only way you can do this, the only way is to seek his face. Seek ye my face, thy face, Lord, will I seek.

31:06 And so this is what Elisha did and that's one lesson that he has taught us. There's many lessons. I mean, I'm not the definitive on this one. I got three points, you know. This is...

31:49 Double the time from from Elijah in terms of miracles and time of ministry, span of ministry. God has given you certain gifts, certain items in your life, certain things, and you're required from that. God wants to use you. And we... In fact, here's the deal.

32:15 We really, except for the bald head, we don't know what he looked like. We don't know if he took speech class or if he went to the, you know, he, you know, took... Went to Bible college and all that kind of stuff. We don't know anything about that. We just know that he sought the face of God and obeyed God, and God blessed his life.

32:36 God wants to do that with you. And why not? Why not that God would powerfully use you? It's not it's not Elisha that was powerful. It's his god that was powerful and he was a willing vessel to be used by god.

33:07 And why wouldn't god wanna use you? God does. God wants to use you. You know, he had the right portion of God's power. He had the right motive, and he had the right respect.

33:25 One of the things... You know, I've been a full time Christian worker for almost fifty years. And I've noticed some things. I've gone to Moody Bible Institute to get further training, and now I'm going back to school to get some more training, that kind of thing. But one of the things that I have been impressed with when I played college basketball, high school and college basketball, I saw guys with talent.

33:52 In basketball, I saw guys with talent, and they didn't make up, they didn't do well. It's the guys, maybe with talent, that give their whole selves to basketball that made the difference. In basketball, It's the same thing. It's the same principle. We give our lives to the Lord Jesus and we receive Christ as our personal savior.

34:18 We're born again. And now he gives us the power and the giftedness to do what he wants us to do. And it's up to you. He doesn't infringe on your free will in the sense of you must be saying to him, I'll do whatever you want me to do. Use me for your glory.

34:39 Use me for your glory. If you've got an incredible intellect, don't take pride in that. Thank God for that. But by the way, God can use the simplest of terms. The simplest of men.

34:52 You're looking at one. Simpleton. But you look at this and you say, not me, but you look at this and you say to yourself, I want God to use me. I want God to use my brain. I want God to use my physicality.

35:08 I want God to use everything that I am. Everything that I am and everything that I possess for your glory. Whatever that means, you show me. Do you think that God do you think that God wants to... You know, it's it's like I can't imagine this.

35:29 I can't imagine. You got a little little kid, and a little kid comes up to you and says, Mommy, Daddy, hi, love you. They hug your leg, you go, Aw, isn't that sweet? I love you. Get out and get a job and make 85,000 a year and come back and you take care of us and our old and all that kind of stuff, right?

35:56 I want you to go to the mission field and be miserable. Do you think that god would do that to you? We often think that way. We think if I turn my life over to god, it's going to be the hardest thing that's ever happened. It's gonna be terrible.

36:14 It's gonna be an awful situation. No. Not at all. Not at all. You're gonna delight in doing his will.

36:23 And he is too. And you're gonna look at this and you're gonna say, Lord, put it on my heart. That's when we say, God put it on my heart to do whatever God would have you to do, whatever that is. And by the way, in this this sense, and this is very true, it'll be impossible for you to do what he wants you to do. What?

36:49 I thought you just said he gives you the giftedness, he gives you the power, he gives you all that kind... No. No. No. No.

36:54 No. No. It is going to be impossible. You know why? Because he wants you to come to him and trust him in that that he gets the glory.

37:09 That he gets the glory, not you. So when you look back at your life and you look back and you say, man, that that happened, this happened, this happened, this happened, and I didn't even know it. It was God that had to do it. Amen to that. Amen.

37:29 And so this is exactly the lesson. Two lessons. Seek him and then serve him with his power. It's his power that He gives to us. He gives it all to us.

37:43 You lack nothing. You lack nothing but I don't know how to make a PowerPoint. Big deal. But I don't know how to turn the computer on. So what?

37:57 You lack nothing. God's given you everything you need and he will give you everything you need to do whatever he desires of you. This is exactly what it is. And then we see not only does he, you know, teach us the lesson of seeking God's face and serving with God's power, but also speaking God's word. Speaking God's word.

39:09 And so what happens is notice this is soundness of mind. This soundness of mind. That's exactly what it means, a soundness of mind. It makes sense. By the way, I love what what the elders have done in terms of designing a curriculum, if you please, from the pulpit to do this.

39:31 This was hard for me. I had to do so much work it was unbelievable. I mean it. I mean a lot of work just to get... Who is this Elisha guy?

39:45 But when you speak for God, and that's exactly what you are doing when you quote the word of God. You're speaking for God. You need to be accurate. You must be accurate. And if you start thinking, well, I'm no theologian.

40:01 I'm no... Well, yeah, you are. And number two, study. Have no excuse not to know. We have no excuse.

40:13 I mean, we've got so many programs, we got it on our phones, the word on our phones with study helps. I mean it's ad infinitum and definitely not nauseum. But this is... We've got so much. We're so rich in that regard.

40:30 We have we have so much and I'm amazed. And so be accurate. Be accurate with this. Accuracy. Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

40:52 Second Timothy two fifteen. When I was a student at the Moody Bible Institute, I thought... I was 25 when I got there, 27 when I graduated. And I thought to myself, you know, I had already started the ministry. I already started as in the ministry, full time ministry for three and a half years prior to ever going to Moody.

41:19 And I thought to myself, you know, it took me a while to get my style. And I realized when I got to homiletics, which is the art and science of biblical preaching, the guy that walks in, he walks in, my teacher, it was all guys, guy walks in, and he looked like a bowling pin in a suit. He opens his mouth and dust flew out. And I'm sitting there going, And I wasn't the only one groaning. You got all the other...

41:58 A guy behind me, I thought he was going to have a baby. And he's going, Oh, no. Oh, no. And I thought to myself, Oh, this is this is... I hope he doesn't I hope he doesn't change my style.

42:16 And I hope I have a certain style. I hope he doesn't change my style. And as he talked, I'm just, man, I am whining and complaining because of him. And then as we're doing... And a whole bunch of guys back there too, like Grownsville, that class, first class...

42:37 You know, it's unbelievable, right? Right? The Lord spoke to my heart almost audibly but not audibly. Here's how the conversation went. Is it my will that you be at the Moody Bible Institute?

42:55 Definitely was. I begged my way in. I did. That's a whole another story. But I I did.

43:02 I begged my way in, literally, to Moody. I go, You know it's your will. He said, then is it your will, is it my will that you be in the evangelism major? I said, absolutely. Is it my will then that you take speaking courses?

43:24 I knew where he was going. I knew exactly where he was going. I said, Lord, forgive me. Whatever you want to do with my speaking style, you do whatever you want to do to my life. Change me.

43:46 Whatever you want. I am so sorry. Forgive me. The man in the bowling pin in the suit didn't change, but we became good friends. He taught me how to craft a sermon.

44:04 He taught me how to study for an expositional sermon. He changed everything. I threw away the old style of preaching and went with his because it made so much sense and it was just so it was wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. And I say to myself and I say to you, and he taught us how to look at the Word and accurately interpret the Word that you give it to other people.

44:36 By the way, when you do that, you're responsible before God for what you say. Absolutely responsible. So when somebody comes up and speaks behind this pulpit, famous or not famous, we get the good teacher, God, what do you have for me this very moment? What do you want me to know and help me to obey it? Help me to do your will and use him to show me.

45:11 And then in a bible study with ladies, Lord show me, guide me, minister to me, help me, help me to be the best you want me to be. And then also we speak with power and with love. Notice this, for God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. What we have here and what we preach here and all this stuff, this makes sense. There's a lot of differing views on Elisha and timing and all that.

45:48 So so what? What does he want you to do? Know the word and speak the word. Speak it accurately. Know what you're talking about.

46:00 People are not... They... Then they'll know. They know. Barb and I were listening to J Vernon McGee, my beloved, coming down.

46:09 He died in 1988. And they still got him going through the Bible in five years and he keeps doing it through the Bible in five years. It's been way longer than... My son's 34 and 19... Thirty five years ago that J.

46:26 Vernon McGee died and he... I don't know how many now times he's gone through the Bible. He did... 11? Seven times.

46:34 Seven times. Thank you. Oh yeah. I went to I went to MBI not MIT. Okay.

46:44 So you you look at it. I'm a brilliant, oh man. It's just incredible. But, you you go through it. And you know, Barb made a great observation.

46:54 She goes, you know, he's not giving us everyday observations or illustrations. He's giving us the word. He's giving us the word of God. Give the word of God. Preach the word.

47:12 Be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come and they will not put up with sound doctrine. They won't do it. And we see this.

47:26 We see this happening even this very moment we see this happening. People compromising on the word of God. It doesn't really mean that. This word doesn't really mean this. Oh yeah, it does.

47:40 It does. No compromise on the word of God. No matter who likes it or doesn't like it. What does it say? What does it mean?

47:59 We're really soft. I think the American church is really soft in this regard. We haven't... I don't know anybody that has died for their faith. I don't know that personally.

48:11 I know some guys have gotten beaten up, and I knew one guy got stabbed, but I don't know anybody that's died for their faith in The United States. But I understand that there's plenty of people who have died and been beaten up and stabbed and all that for Jesus Christ in other countries. And they stood up and said, I am a Christian. I serve him. How about you?

48:42 Elijah, his life was excellent in the sense that God really used him and he didn't back down, he didn't soft sugarcoat anything. Neither did Elijah and neither did these prophets. You got Jonah who ran at the run. You've got all these different guys, Amos, who went around in a big circle, big thing and came and narrowed it down. It's very similar to what you see with Acts one eight, but he did it in reverse fashion.

49:17 You see you see all these different guys. Ezra, the priest that came up and spoke the word of god. People were standing for hours and that's where they got the pulpit idea because there were so many and they wept when they heard the word of god because there was such a dearth of it. They didn't have it. And now they're listening to it.

49:41 I have a friend of mine that went to Bulgaria, Sofia Bulgaria, and he he spoke and he spoke for forty minutes and he stopped. And then the saints go, What are you doing? What are you doing? Why are you stopping? He went on for another two and a half hours.

49:58 I'm not doing that. You're probably going, praise God. Praise God. You're overtime now, so stop it. Listen, God wants you.

50:48 You talk about and commits with people about what's really on your heart. Is he number one? Father, we thank you and we come before you and we give you our hearts. We give you our lives. We give you everything that we have.

51:16 We... First of all, I pray that those who have not trusted your son that they would. That they would trust in him. That they would know what that means in the sense of understanding that they're a sinner, that they can't save themselves. Understand that Jesus Christ came to save them from their sin by dying on the cross and rising again from the dead and understanding that now once we trust in him, that he did those things for us, we want to live for you.

51:52 Help us, Lord God. We want to seek your face. We want to know your will. We want to know your word, and we want to be about doing your work while it is yet day, for the night comes when no man can work. We ask you to help us, we pray.

52:14 Dismiss us with your blessing, but Lord, we want to bless you by giving our lives to you in that sense. Do with us what you want. As the poem and the poet said, Only one life will soon be past. Only what we do for Jesus will last. Let that be in our hearts and in our minds till we see your son face to face.

52:49 In Jesus' name, Amen. Thank you.