Mentoring Relationships — 1 Kings 18-19

0:00 Okay. Yeah. It's been great to be with y'all. Thought we'd start with some jumping jacks this session. Get excited.

0:07 Turn your Bibles to first Kings chapter 19. First Kings chapter 19. And we're gonna be thinking together about, mentoring relationships. So let's get the setting here. In chapter 18, the prophet Elijah has been drinking from his own ministry, so to speak for three and a half years.

0:42 There's been a drought. God took him way up in Zarephath. He's been living with a Gentile widow. He wants there to be revival in Israel. Finally, the time comes where he's to confront King Ahab about his carnality and idolatry, and there's a showdown on Mount Carmel.

1:01 And at... During that time period, there was a challenge given to Baal, and the prophets of Baal prepared this altar and bullock, and we know the story how they they chanted, they yelled, they jumped on the sacrifice, they cut themselves trying to get Baal to answer with fire out of heaven. That was a test. The the true God would, consume the sacrifice on the altar that was built from fire from heaven. All day long, nothing happens.

1:32 Elijah just has a simple prayer. Fire comes from heaven. I don't know if there'll be any instant replays in heaven on some of these things, but that's one I'd like to see. Fire comes down, takes the offering, takes the wood, takes the stone. The water is drenched over.

1:49 It takes the water too. And 450 prophets were slain that day, and the people say, Jehovah, he's god. And I bet Elijah was so excited. Revival's on finally. They're gonna turn for master Oth and build.

2:06 And the rain comes. Ahab goes to Jezreel about twenty five miles away. Elijah girds his his robe and he runs ahead of the chariot. He gets there before Ahab. Again, he's a spiritual man.

2:20 This is power of the holy spirit in his life, and he's waiting to see how Jezebel's gonna respond. And Jezebel makes a death threat on Elijah. That wasn't anything new. Ahab had been searching for him for three and a half years. But it says this, in verse, chapter 19 verse 13, when he saw that, he rose and ran for his life and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah and left his servant there.

2:48 So he's headed south. God didn't tell him to go. Says when he saw, he had this great expectation for his ministry that there'd be revival in the land, and there wasn't gonna revival. And so he enters into what I call spiritual depression, and any servant of the Lord can enter in spiritual depression when their expectations aren't met for their ministry. He says to the Lord, I'm no better than my father's.

3:15 Well, he was no better than his father's. He's no different. And so the Lord is going to be teaching him a few things. All this to say that when we start our study today now on mentoring, we're going to see that god's gonna bring Elijah and Elijah together in this mentoring relationship somewhere around ten years in duration. Elijah's in a bad way when we start this story.

3:41 He goes all the way down to Mount Sinai. God meets him there. And, in the still quiet voice, Elijah interacts with the Lord. And the message is Elijah, it's time to get back to work and so he tells him to go to Damascus. He's going to anoint Hazael, king of Syria.

4:05 He's going to anoint Jehu, of Israel. And he says, then you're going to, anoint Elijah from Abel Mejoya, which was in the, kind of the Jordan Valley, a very fertile farming area, as your replacement. And I think that really perked up the ears of Elijah. He's got about 250 miles. It's gonna take him a while to get back up to where he needs to go.

4:44 There's going to be 10 points, and I'm mainly going to be talking to the mentees this morning, but there's application toward the mentors also. Got a lot of young people here today, which is exciting for me. And I think these points will be very helpful. I know anytime a preacher says 10 of something, you think, oh, this is gonna last for a long time, but it really go quick. Yeah.

5:12 Yeah. By the way, mentee is in the dictionary. Recording in progress. Recording Recording the mentee. Mentee is the receiver.

5:23 It's discipleship in the sense that you got the mentor that's investing in the mentee. But one of the things I want you to take home from this session is it's bidirectional in ministry. Oftentimes, we think of the mentors, the one that's just pouring in the mentee, but today we're gonna see that's not really the biblical case. Yeah. And thanks, Christian.

5:48 If there's anybody else that has a question, just raise your hand. I may not see you. Just yell at me. Verse 19. So he, Elijah, departed from there and found Elijah, the son of Shaphath, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the 12.

6:10 Then Elijah passed by him, mark this, and threw his mantle on him, and he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, please let me kiss my father, my mother, and then I will follow you. And he said to him, go back again. For what have I done to you? So Elijah turned back from him and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh using the ox oxen's equipment and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah and became his servant.

6:53 Alright. From these three verses, 19 through 21, there's gonna be seven points that we'll go through, and then we'll pop over to second Kings chapter two. First point is be faithful to what God has given you to do. God calls working people into his work. As we look through scripture, I don't see any time where God calls a lazy person into ministry.

7:21 What he does is he looks for faithfulness. We all have a stewardship. And when somebody is faithful in the little things, then they get more responsibility to be faithful in the big things. Elijah is plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. That's like John Deere 9,600 tractor in those days.

7:40 Okay? Which tells us that he was probably wealthy. And one of the things that's interesting is as you see God pairing Elijah and Elijah, they are about as opposite as you can can be. Elijah is from the Transjordan area, Gilead, rustic Gilead, not the greatest farm ground, probably a poor family, but Elisha is from probably a well-to-do family. He's got acreage, 12 yoke of oxen, plowing.

8:15 Elisha is prone to emotional ups and downs, but Elisha is really flat, very even tempered. Elisha, he has this ministry of of rebuking his countrymen in Israel, trying to approve them, rebuke them for idolatry. Three times he calls fire down from heaven. Very public displays of god's power in trying to get the nation to come back to Jehovah. But Elisha's ministry is going to be, he's a champion of the people.

8:55 He's he's working with the people one on one and blessing. In other words, the ministry of these two prophets really is a picture of John the Baptist and the Lord Jesus. John the Baptist confronting the nation of Israel, calling them to repentance, the Lord Jesus coming along, meeting personal needs, blessing people. Elijah is a baldy. Elisha is not.

9:22 Sorry. Elisha is hairy, and, Elisha is a baldy. So, again, quite different temperaments, people, ministries, and yet god brings them together in this relationship for about ten years. So, we see Elijah being faithful. He's a working man.

9:40 Gideon was threshing wheat when God called him. David's among the sheep. Peter, Andrew, James, John were fishing. We're cleaning their nets after a night of fishing. God calls working people into ministry.

10:00 I heard Boyd Nicholson tell a story about twenty five years ago. He said he was... I had a conference weekend. He was staying in a home of a family he knew very well. And he said there was an older daughter.

10:13 She was in her latter teenage years, and she came up to him and shared something that she thought was quite important. The Lord had answered prayers. She said, mister Nicholson, I know what God is calling us for my life. I'm gonna be a foreign missionary. And he looked at her and said, I doubt that's the case.

10:35 Wow. And she goes, what do you mean? I prayed so much about this that the lord would use me as a missionary in a foreign field. And he said, I know for a fact that you don't help your mother in the home, and you don't keep your, bedroom. You don't help with the dishes.

10:49 Why would god call you to a more important ministry when you're not being faithful to what he has called you to do. So wherever you're at, be all there. Do your very best for the Lord. Mike Atwood told me that when he was going through training up in Wisconsin at new tribes to go in the mission field, he said for a whole month, he was assigned this one bathroom. He had to clean it every day, including taking a little brush and cleaning all the walls.

11:16 And one day, he said, was there with that brush cleaning it. I said, this wall is clean. I cleaned it yesterday. Nobody is gonna know if I don't clean this wall today. And he paused, he looked up, and he said, almost.

11:35 Almost nobody will know. But the Lord's always watching. Right? And so whatever he's put you in, be completely faithful to that, and he'll broaden your ministry. And we see Elisha was a working man, and the Lord was calling him into ministry.

12:12 The mantle represents the work of god and he just throws it on Elijah and he's like, off he goes. And Elijah stops plowing and he runs after Elijah and he says, let me go and kiss my father and mother, then I'll fall you. And the the idiom of Elijah's response, go back again. What I have I done to you is... It's like, I'm not stopping you.

12:44 That would be the modern vernacular. In other words, Elisha had a right relationship with parental authority. And god... If you think of authority, there is home authority, church authority, and governmental authority. These are the authority structures that God's put in place to teach us submission and kind of picture each one like a funnel.

13:13 God is pouring down blessings blessing through these funnels, these structures that he's put in place to teach us submission. Now they're not perfect. Right? Wives, your husbands aren't perfect in their authority. Sheep, your elders aren't perfect in authority.

13:36 I think everybody will agree with this one. Our government authorities aren't perfect in their government governing authority. But yet we're to, as the army says, salute the uniform, not the person. We're we're saluting the structure. So for example, a wife who says, I'm not gonna submit to my husband anyway...

13:55 Anymore, and she runs away. She has not escaped authority. There's only two authority structures in our our rule today, god ordained and satanic. So if someone is saying, I'm not gonna submit to the authority that god has put me under anymore. They haven't escaped authority.

14:15 They put themselves under satanic authority. There's not gonna be any blessing there or any joy. And so we we remain under these right channels of authority, understanding they're not perfect, but god flows blessing down to us. And so Elisha was in right relationship with parental authority. Number three, respect the work of the Lord.

14:40 It cannot be received without proper preparation. I love what Elisha does here. Shalak is the Hebrew word for throwing. It really means to hurl or cast. And the work of the Lord was never meant to be thrown on to the next generation.

15:00 When we're thinking about discipleship and mentoring relationships, the focus is not directly to the generation that we're pouring into. Discipleship always has a view of the next generation. We're equipping this generation to reach the next generation. Right? So it's always two generations ahead.

15:24 When Paul tells Timothy, Paul poured into Timothy, Timothy pours into faithful men that will teach others. Four generations of disciples in one verse, second Timothy two two. So the... Elisha, he throws the mantle, which represents the work of God on Elisha. Elisha says, no.

15:45 I I can't accept this. Having the mantle isn't the work of the lord. I need to be trained. I need to be prepared and so he runs after Elijah and Elijah says, go back. I'm not stopping you.

16:28 He knew that there would be training. It would be work to be properly prepared for the work that god had called him to do. So God calls working people in the ministry remain in proper authority, relationship to authority over us. The work of God must be handed off with care. And Elijah wanted the mantle.

16:59 He appreciated the opportunity, the privilege to learn. Notice what Elijah does next. Says in verse 21, he became his servant. Elisha became Elijah's servant. Now in second Kings, after Elijah's taken up into heaven, we see Jehoshaphat, the king of Israel coming around the South Side of the Dead Sea.

17:31 They pick up the king of Edom and his army, and the three armies are gonna go up and teach the Midianites a lesson, but they run out of water. It's a desperate situation. And so Jehoshaphat says, is there any prophet of God, Jehovah, that we can call on? And they said, well, Elisha's nearby who poured water on the hands of Elijah. So even after Elijah had been taken to heaven, Elijah was still remembered as someone who served Elijah.

18:02 Now this is very important because oftentimes the mentoring relationship, it's thought of as just the mentor pouring into the mentee. And that's not the case. We see this bidirectional ministry. The mentor is pouring into the mentee, spending time, those two goals we studied the last time, perfecting character, using the word of god, time, correcting bents, and so forth, and coming into the work of ministry. What god has called them to do, seeing them come into the good of it.

18:35 But the mentee, as he he or she receives, needs to be thinking, how can I bless the person who's blessing me? And that's a very biblical that's a solid biblical principle. Paul says in Romans 15, he tells the Gentile believers, listen, the Jews, they came from Jerusalem. They bought you brought you the gospel. It's your duty to bless them back.

19:00 Galatians chapter six. Think it's like verse six. The teacher who's blessed you, bless them back. So if someone is a good principle, if somebody in the body of Christ is blessing you, think, what do I have that I can bless them back? It may be your spiritual gift.

19:19 It may be something you have. Maybe your time. Maybe you can help babysit children or mow their grass or whatever. We live in a day where there's a very strong entitlement mentality in the younger generation. Like, I deserve this.

19:37 But that's not biblical mentorship. Biblical mentorship is it's a privilege to be trained. It's a privilege to... For my mentor to spend time with me. How can I bless and serve them back?

20:09 Call them away from Baal and Asherah for worship. And as I said, his ministry was very public, calls fire down from heaven three different times. His name means Jehovah is my God. Okay? That really his name marked his ministry.

20:26 But Elijah's name has the idea of of a soothing and encouraging effect. Elijah, Jehovah is my god. And Elijah, the god is my salvation. It's this idea of helpfulness, soothing, encouraging. And so god is using Elisha's in this bad emotional way and he's bringing this younger believer that's very steady in his emotions who's gonna serve Elijah, and the lord brings them together in a way that Elijah benefits Elijah, and Elijah also benefits Elijah.

21:18 It helps restore Elijah to ministry. We see Elijah later going in and confronting Ahab by pronouncing judgement on the house of Ahab. Elijah will obey what god told Elijah to do at Sinai. He's the one that will actually anoint King Hazael as king of Syria and Jehu, king of Israel. But the point here is that Elijah encouraged Elijah.

21:50 And then the seventh point, be willing to make personal sacrifices in order to be mentored. Look at what Elijah does. He takes a yoke of oxen, slaughters them, and he burns the equipment. He's not going back to farming. Right?

22:07 He he... He's cutting the tie. One of the most frustrating things for me is to have those that I'm working with make all kinds of excuses for not devoting time for bible study or ministry. And there's so many things out there that can rob our time. We talked about that last night that everything that we grab on to this world is like an anger, anchor.

22:37 It keeps us from pursuing the lord. You have to forsake to follow. And so, if you are making a commitment to study with somebody who wants to spend time in you, it's it's a great privilege, treated as such, and be committed to, spending time with your mentor. It means doing your studies. It...

23:03 For me, it's really hard to hear some of the excuses for not committing to a study, and it's it's heavy. And I think, oh, you're trading that for this? So again, the mentor should be encouraged by the mentee, Make the personal sacrifice if somebody is going to invest into you. K. So seven points out of this text from verses 19 through 21.

23:34 Now let's go over to second Kings. Chapter two. And that reference that I spoke of earlier is in second Kings three eleven. Elisha, the son of Shaphat is here who poured water on the hands of Elijah. If you want the reference for that, second Kings chapter three and verse 11.

24:12 Alright. So in chapter two, Elijah and Elijah have been together for around ten years. It's hard to tell. I'm assuming that two or three years have gone by before Elijah pronounces the famine lasted three and a half years. So maybe Elijah was called in the sixth or seventh year of Elijah's ministry.

24:39 We're not exactly told. One thing we do know, chapter 13 of second Kings is when Elijah dies, and we know the king that was reigning when he died. He had a ministry of over seventy years, one of the longest prophetic ministries in the Bible. So my thinking, he was probably called at 17, 18, 20 years of age. Jeremiah, called to be a prophet, probably around 17, 18, 20 years of age.

25:08 So often God... David was 14 or 15 when when God initially called him. So, he had a long prophetic ministry. They were together for probably around ten years and now it's time for Elijah to be taken up to heaven. Second Kings two verse one.

26:06 Not not spiritual map, my imaginary map. Okay? And here's here's Israel. So here's Galilee, here's Samaria, here's Judah. And I'm trying to reverse this.

26:17 So here's the Jordan River. Here would be Jericho and Gilgal, and here's Bethel. Jugilia would be like this. So I think the route was like this and over, probably around 21, 22 miles. If it was ancient Gilgal, then they would be starting here.

26:37 It was, like, 13 miles up to Bethel, 14 miles, and then back to the same place to get to Jericho. Well, that makes much sense. You're gonna walk 26 to 30 miles, and you you basically end up almost where you started. So I think it was probably Jugilia. That's a distance that they could cover in one day.

26:59 Then Elijah said to Elisha, stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel. But Elijah said, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they went down to Bethel. Elijah knew this was the day that his master was gonna be called to heaven, and he was gonna stick right with him. So they they walked to Bethel, which is uphill.

27:25 And verse three, now the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came to Elijah and said to him, do you know that your Lord will be taken away? Your master over you today? And Elijah says, yes, I know. Keep silent. Then Elijah, he tells Elijah, stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to Jericho.

27:48 But he said, Elijah said, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you. So they came to Jericho. So this is a long day. It's 20, 22 miles they've walked. Now the sons of the prophets who are at Jericho came to Elijah and said to him, do you not know that your Lord will be taken away from...

28:11 Take your master from you today? And he says, yes, I know. Keep silent. Then Elijah said to him, you stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me on to the Jordan. But he said, Elijah said, as the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you.

28:27 So the two of them went on. And 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood facing them at a distance while the two of them stood by the Jordan. Now Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water, and it was divided this way and that way, so the two of them crossed over on dry ground. And so it was when they had crossed over that Elijah said to Elisha, ask, what may I do for you before I am taken away from you? And Elisha said, please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.

29:10 So he said, you have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if not, it shall not be so. Then it happened as they continued on and talked that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with the horses of fire and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Elisha saw it. And he cried out, my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen.

29:38 So he saw him no more and he took hold of his clothes and tore them into two pieces. He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and struck the water and said, where is the lord god of Elijah? And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that and Elijah crossed over. That'd be another one I'd like to see on replay if if there is such a thing in heaven.

30:29 All right. Mentor mentee relationships aren't forever. As I look over the years of the studies and so forth I've done with some men, some remain for a few years, some a few months, some move on, and now they're being mentored by someone else or they're teaching others. And that's the dynamic within the body of Christ. There are comes that just as children to grow up and they move out of a home.

30:55 There's times that the mentor mentee relationships, that person is taking you as far as they can. Somebody else, God will use to take you further. Or there may be a time for you to start in your mentoring relationships. One of the things that's been exciting to me, we have four kids, and we've had young men's and young women's studies in our home for, I don't know, the last twenty years or so, weekend type studies. And our son, Matthew, down in Georgia is working with another young man, and they have a discipleship program very similar to what Matthew had growing up with about 15 young men clear down the age of 12 to about 20 in the Martinez Bible Chapel.

31:41 And they meet once a month on Saturday and they're going through systematic study. Great investment. Our daughter Kelsey started meeting with four teenage girls this last year, taking them through key topics and investing in them. So wherever you are, there's somebody that you... That's less mature than you that you can invest in and help out.

32:05 And so it's very possible that you might be mentored by someone, and then you can take what you're learning and pass it down to someone else. And so all of us need to be involved with this edification using our spiritual gifts coming into the good of our ministry. We'll never be happier and more fruitful than fulfilling what God has designed for our lives. Again, he's writing a poem of grace, Ephesians one ten, for each of us. So the mentor must go for the mentee to go, and that's the case here with Elijah.

32:41 Before Elijah departs, Elijah stuck with him all day, wouldn't leave. He says, what would you like me to do for you? And Elisha says, I would like a double portion of your spirit. He says, you've asked a hard thing. But if you see me when I'm taken up to heaven, it'll be granted to you.

33:06 I think based on Deuteronomy twenty one thirteen, what Elisha was requesting is, Elisha, I wanna be considered as your firstborn son. It's not likely he was married. We don't read of that or had children. And so Elijah is saying to Elijah, please consider me your firstborn son. The firstborn son got a double portion of inheritance, then got the clanship or the leadership rights.

33:35 And so he's saying, I want a double portion of your spirit. Very high accolade to his mentor, and I think God honored that. And what is interesting is that Elisha sees Elijah go up into heaven. He gets the mantle of Elijah. He comes over to the Jordan, strikes the Jordan, where's the God of Elijah?

33:58 And it parts and he walks across. And that's the first of 14 miracles that'll be accomplished by Elisha. Elisha does seven miracles. Elijah does one resurrection. Elisha does two resurrections.

34:14 Now the last one is unique because he's already dead. Yeah. The Jews are carrying this body, and I think it's the Midianites or the Movites. I can't remember, but they're invading, and they see it, and they look around. They just throw the corpse on the top of Elisha's bones.

34:29 And when he hits Elisha's bones, he he raises up from the dead. Hey. Wait. Don't leave me here. You know?

34:37 And so that was the fourteenth miracle. So exactly double, the divine miracles. He got a double portion. Actually, his prophetic ministry was far longer than Elijah's. So the fourth...

35:10 We don't want to hold them back in any way. We don't want to put any selfish gains. We're there to invest and edify. We're not there to glory in ourselves. We want to see them who are investing and go further than we have.

35:26 And then the tenth point is pursue the ministry God has given you. You are not a clone of your mentor. Again, Elisha and Elisha are completely different people with different ministries. Elijah, he's confronting paganism in the nation of Israel. Elijah, personal ministry, blessing.

35:49 They look different. They had different temperaments. And yet they come into this relationship as... In a way that is fruitful and helpful for each of them, restoring Elijah to ministry, encouraging service given back to him. I think oftentimes we see, you know, fathers who maybe weren't...

36:12 Wasn't the quarterback on the football team in high school. They want their kids to be the quarterback that they couldn't be. And that's the worst thing you can do in a mentoring relationship is try to create somebody like you. Well, the person you... You're mentoring has different spiritual gifts.

36:31 They have a different calling in their life. And so the mentor is looking for inklings of what their calling is so they come into the good of that. Gina was asking me in the break about how... What's another example of how you can kinda see the spiritual giftedness or a calling of somebody you're spending time with. And I I said...

37:00 Suggested another way is what I call the backup mode. If you have stressful situation, oftentimes the spiritual giftedness of someone will come out in that situation. And I gave the example, let's say we're set up here in the morning for the Lord's Supper, and let's say that we got a couple young men up here and and one young man just reaches across aisle with a communion tray, and they don't make the connection and the tray hits the ground, makes a big mess. Hopefully, this doesn't happen too often in the Lord's Supper, but it's kind of a stressful situation. Right?

37:38 Yeah. Let's have some wet towels tomorrow just in case. So... Alright. The way people respond is oftentimes will tell you what their gift is.

37:53 So somebody, for example, with the gift of giving, they would take their cup and say, you know, I've got unconfessed sin in my life anyway. I was not gonna take this. Go ahead and take mine. The person with mercy would say, oh, don't worry about it. I do it all the time.

38:14 Right? The teacher says, You know, Tom, if you would use two hands to pass a tray across, you wouldn't drop it. Right? The person with administration stands up so that everybody just remain calm. Somebody with a gift of service has already gone to the kitchen to get a wet rag to clean up the mess.

38:31 We're going to fill the tray back up and as soon as that happens we'll just continue on the meeting. The prophet stands up and says, You klutz! Right? Not very gracious, but just cut to the truth. So you can see oftentimes the way people respond under stress, their giftedness comes out.

38:51 So the mentor is again developing that character, Christ like character, giving feedback, exhortation correction, using the word of God, relying on the spirit of God. Got it. I'm gonna talk about this in the spiritual nursery in our session after lunch. Not everything needs to be confronted at once, prioritized. Otherwise, you can overwhelm a new believer.

39:17 But again, you wanna see that godly character develop. You wanna see them come in the good of their ministry, this work of ministry that they have. But that's not... We're not making clones. If if your idea is, oh, I want to make somebody just like me in ministry, you'll be a total flop.

39:35 You... Evangelists can't take 30 young men through a training course and make them evangelists. Why? Because that isn't their spiritual gift. Maybe you got a few evangelists that will be evangelists, but you can't create something that God hasn't created.

40:03 Again, faithful in the little things. God will bless you with greater opportunities. Maintain right relationship with God ordained authority. Respect the work of the Lord. It needs to be received.

40:17 It can't be received without preparation. It's gonna take time, study, service, desire to be mentored by mature believers. Assist those who are mentoring you in doing God's work. Encourage your mentor however you can. Be willing to make personal sacrifices in order to be mentored.

40:43 Number eight, the mentor must go for the mentee to grow. Number nine, desire to be more for the Lord than your mentor was. And number 10, pursue the ministry that God's given you. Again, you're not a clone of your mentor. You know, hopeful...

41:01 Hopefully, this will be helpful in establishing mentoring relationships. Again, should be a gamut of people that are mentoring the next generation than maybe some that have the next generation less mature. So it's possible you can be mentored and a mentee at the same time. Father, we thank you again for this text. We pray you'd help us in these things that we look around and be willing to invest in those who can be helped and father, we also would be willing to commit ourselves to mentoring the next generation.

41:39 We just pray, father, that you would bless our time now as we have this meal together and pray that you bless our fellowship. We ask this in the name of the lord Jesus. Amen.