Burn the Plows

Intro

I tend to think the same way most people do...

How can I take where I am and what I have and make it better.

And it’s easy to think that bigger is better, right?!?

(Story)

Bike ramp when I was a kid.

If small jump is fun, then logic says bigger has to be better… Until it’s not.

boards fell, face plant.

Bigger.

Bank account, friends list, influence, job title, awareness of how great I am by the people around us,

So we look for better by always trying bigger… more.

But the reality is that God isn’t just trying to make your life a little bit better, He has created each of us and looks at us and calls us to something GREATER!

Far too often we actually settle for BETTER when God’s calling you to GREATER.

Ephesians 3:20

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us

We serve a Greater kind of God.

A God who is calling out more in you than you ever thought was possible.

We are going to spend a few weeks looking at the life of the prophet Elisha as an incredible example of someone who stepped into the greater mission God had for his life without looking back.

The Prophet of God in this time was Elijah. He was an incredible man of God who God had used to do miraculous things.

Now God had told Elijah to go and find his successor. He led him to this guy Elisha.

1 Kings 19:19–20 (NLT)

So Elijah went and found Elisha son of Shaphat plowing a field. There were twelve teams of oxen in the field, and Elisha was plowing with the twelfth team. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak across his shoulders and then walked away. Elisha left the oxen standing there, ran after Elijah, and said to him, “First let me go and kiss my father and mother good-bye, and then I will go with you!”

Elijah replied, “Go on back, but think about what I have done to you.”

Imagine this scene!

There is not a mention of Elisha before. So Elijah just rolls up, throws his coat over Elisha while he’s working and just walk off...

Ummm sir, I’m not a coat rack. Im busy here!

But Elisha would have known in this culture exactly what that means, and Elisha would have known who Elijah was.

Putting his coat on him was a sign of passing of a mantle of authority, it was a call to come and follow, it was a transitioning of power.

Immediately Elisha drop everything and runs, no hesitation.

Lez go! I’m with you.

I’m going to go and settle up a few things and then I’m all in!

He felt the call and ran toward it!

THERE IS A CALL TO GREATER

Most of the time we live our lives not even realizing there is a higher calling.

Meanwhile we waste our lives on lesser things and doubt even the meaning of the life we have.

We stay stuck convinced that our lives don’t matter, we lack purpose or that better is just somewhere out there..

Elisha wasn’t searching for something greater, he was in the middle of his everyday and it just hit him!

You don’t have to go out and search and hope that God has something higher and meaningful for your life.

His call is there, you have greater mission and purpose to your life than you realize.

Your life isn’t a waste sometimes we’ve just been wasting it on the wrong things.

Gods call to you isn’t about your greatness, it’s about his.

Dont miss the fact that God is calling out to you.

he has come to you.

John 14:12

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Don’t miss it, Jesus isn’t saying you will be greater than him, You will be greater through him!

He’s calling out to you right now exactly where you are, not matter what your life looks like.

You have to decide how to respond to the invitation.

Are you open to God’s greater plan in your life?

Responding requires you to follow.

have we settled for lesser things.

Trying to build bigger and better when God says there is actually greater.

IT TAKES A GREAT SURRENDER

1 Kings 19:21 (NLT)

So Elisha returned to his oxen and slaughtered them. He used the wood from the plow to build a fire to roast their flesh. He passed around the meat to the townspeople, and they all ate. Then he went with Elijah as his assistant.

Elisha goes back and doesn’t just say bye to his family, he slaughters the oxen he was working with and breaks about the plow he was using to make a fire to cook the meat!

Why?!?

He was so determined to follow after his God calling that he left nothing to go back to!

The scripture tells us he had 12 teams of oxen, meaning he was most likely pretty wealthy and had a lot to leave and lose.

But nothing compared to the greater call of God.

He didn’t leave a safety net in case this God thing didn’t work out.

There was not plan B.

He broke any tether to who he was so he could step into who God called him to be.

Elisha went on to do incredible things for Gods kingdom, even greater than Elijah, but he didn’t know that at the time.

He just trusted and went.

How often do we want all of the answers before we begin to trust God fully?

That’s not the way it works.

We wan’t to know all of the details before we burn the plows. but God wants your obedience to trust him not your understanding.

How often are we continuing to hold on to what we think is good, while surrendering the great?

There was nothing wrong with plowing fields with your oxen, but Elisha knew there was no going back.

Romans 11:33-12:1

Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?” “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

To worship and follow God it takes sacrifice and surrender.

Count the cost of burning the plows in your life and going all in with God.

But also count the costs of not doing it and saying in the field.

What greater do you forfeit by continuing to hold onto everything.

My life is not my own.

Anyone in here Sentimental?

yeah we like to hold on to things. keepsakes.

Helps us to remember.

I can’t seem to get rid of boxes...

When I buy something, I say I’m gonna keep the box for a while just in case.

But I have kept some for years.

Some of have collections and keepsakes.

WE can say God I want all you have for me, but I’m not willing to let go of what I’m doing and where I’m going.

God do whatever you want in me, as long as it’s while I keep plowing the field with these oxen, as long as I don’t have to give anything or change anything.

This doesn’t always look like abandoning everything and leaving, a lot of times I looks like surrendering everything and staying.

You don’t leave your marriage because there could be greater,

no you surrender your will and your marriage to find the greater in it right now.

In order for you to live out God’s greater mission and purpose for your life, what are some plows and cows you need to burn?

God is inviting you to escape the things that keep tethering you to a life that is lesser.

Maybe your plow is your mindset.

Could be your past.

Your hurt and pain.

Negative relationships

your sin

Excuses

Your safety.

Some of us have known that God has called us to leave things for a long time but have held on because it felt safe.

Surrender is to take your hands off. sacrifuce is leaving no room to go back!

When God gets our obedience he takes over the outcome!

CONCLUSION

The mission of our church is to lead people to full lives in Christ.

Help you walk in your fullness, live a fulfilled life.

But that can’t happen if we keep holding onto the very things robbing us of our freedom and fulfillment!

You’ve tried halfway in for too long.

What could God do in and through your life!

Hear the call, burn the plows.

God is calling you into greater not just trying to make you better.

Will you follow God into greater?