By Ronald E.
George Jr. at the Fayetteville Baptist Church
Passing the torch of God.
Scripture
Text: 2 Kings 2Kin 2:1 (NIV) When
the LORD was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and
Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. 2 Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay
here; the LORD has sent me to Bethel."
But
Elisha said, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not
leave you." So they went down to Bethel. 3 The company of the prophets at
Bethel came out to Elisha and asked, "Do you know that the LORD is going
to take your master from you today?" "Yes, I know," Elisha
replied, "but do not speak of it." 4 Then Elijah said to him,
"Stay here, Elisha; the LORD has sent me to Jericho." And he
replied, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave
you." So they went to Jericho. 5 The company of the prophets at Jericho
went up to Elisha and asked him, "Do you know that the LORD is going to
take your master from you today?" "Yes, I know," he replied,
"but do not speak of it." 6 Then Elijah said to him, "Stay
here; the LORD has sent me to the Jordan." And he replied, "As
surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you." So the
two of them walked on. 7 Fifty men of the company of the prophets went and
stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at
the Jordan. 8 Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with
it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them
crossed over on dry ground. 9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha,
"Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?"
"Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit," Elisha replied. 10
"You have asked a difficult thing," Elijah said, "yet if you
see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours--otherwise not." 11 As
they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and
horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to
heaven in a whirlwind. 12 Elisha saw this and cried out, "My father! My
father! The chariots and horsemen of Israel!" And Elisha saw him no more.
Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart. 13 He picked up the
cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the
Jordan. 14 Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the
water with it. "Where now is the LORD, the God of Elijah?" he asked.
When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he
crossed over.
Passing
the baton in the relay race at the state track meet every one is depending on
you to do your part and pass the baton or the race will be a failure.
Three things are required to have a relay race:
two runners and a baton.
Takes
three parts for today's story to be complete.>>
Part
one is God: (the torch/ flame) everything begins and ends with God he
is the alpha and omega. He is the first and the last.
Without Him there would not be a race...
The Lord is represented by the Mantle
that Elijah would give to Elisha. It
was the ministry that would display itself in the miracle working power of the
Lord.
He is the power.
He is salvation. To know
God is to know salvation.
He is the power to live by and become
the shining light that others may see their way.
He is the way, the truth, and the life.
He is the most important person you can know and have in your life.
What is the mantle /torch that you carry?
Is it a gift, a love, a service, or an ability.
Will you pass it on?
Part
two is a man , woman , boy, or girl (Giver) who has the Lord living within
them and wants to share Him with others who will in turn share Him
with someone else... This is our work, the work of the ministry.
Pass it on.
2Tim 2:2 (KJS) And the things
that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to
faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
Part
three is a person (Receiver) who doesn't have the power, ministry, or the
salvation that you have and wants it. They have to have a desire to
want God and a desire to follow God. This desire has to come from God.
Elisha didn’t want to leave Elijah.
The
Handoff....
What is the way to make the exchange?
The hand off is the most crucial part of the race. The
baton could be dropped or it could be handed off so the race can continue.
Three things must be done to have a successful handoff.
First,
You must plan for the inevitable...
Plan for our life and work our plan do
we know what is going to happen in the future. We know some things for sure.
We all are going to die. Some
are going to move, some are going to fall by the wayside.
1.
You
must be willing to share and to give. Take
them to make sure that the handoff is complete before going on.
2.
You must be willing to receive and continue.
When that happens who will be there to
carry on the work? We must plan
for the inevitable. Make our wills and plan for our retirement. Who will take
our place? Who knows where the
graves are? Do we want the work
to continue? We must make plans for it to. Tell someone else...v.11 they
continued to talk.
Second...Continue
on with the possible...
We must not retire from the Lord's
work. We might not be able to keep up the pace that we used to, but we have a
lot to give and to share. Even though we know that we are going to leave, die,
retire, we still have a work to do. Even
if we know that someone is retiring or dieing.
1.
We must not quit we must persist.
To continue on with the work this is our test.
2.
We must be willing to talk about it although it is painful.
The work of the ministry depends on us continuing...
Third,....Finish
up with the Impossible....finish well!
Allow the Lord to do the miracles that
we need to continue with His ministry. He
can do it. He can do the
impossible.
1.
We must believe that He can do anything but fail..
2.
We must desire to see Him work in our lives and in the lives of others...Fly
up to heaven in a whirlwind and leave the work for the next person to carry
on...
Are
you an Elijah or an Elisah? Do you have something to give to others or do you have
something to receive from others so that the ministry may continue...?
Box
of Kisses
The story goes that some time ago, a man Punished his 3-year-old daughter for
wasting a roll of gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and he became
infuriated when the child tried to decorate a box to put under the Christmas
tree. Nevertheless, the little girl brought the gift to her father the next
morning and said, "This is for you, Daddy." He was embarrassed by
his earlier overreaction, but his anger flared again when he found the box was
empty. He yelled at her,
"Don't you know when you give someone a present, there's supposed to be
something inside it?" The little girl looked up at him
with tears in her eyes and said, "Oh, Daddy, it's not empty, I blew
kisses into the
box. All for you, Daddy." The father was crushed. He put his arms around
his little girl, and he begged for her forgiveness. An accident took the life
of the child only a short time later and it is told that the man kept that
gold box by his bed for many years and whenever he was discouraged, he would
take out an imaginary kiss and remember the love of the child who had put it
there.
In a very real sense, each of us as humans, have been given a gold
container filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children,
friends, family, or God. There is no more precious possession anyone could
hold. Will you pass them on?