Take it up!

This is my first sermon back.

What a weird time.

The church has stepped up.

What a wonderful blessing from Helen, Johnny, Kenny, Dr. Campbell, and Doug Sala.

But now it is time to come back and I don’t know if I’m ready. I don’t but I am here.

There is a line from a theme song to a show,

“feels like your stuck in second gear”

An automatic, but I’m in grief and yet life continues. It isn’t that bad. I’m not ruined or anything and I share this with you not to feel bad or want to care but because God’s word guides me to boast in the fact that God has to have my back here.

2 Corinthians 12:9–10 CSB

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me. 10 So I take pleasure in weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and in difficulties, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I stand before you weak today but God is strong. Perhaps you come weak today. I know many are trying to continue with the realization every time they come that there friend is gone. Perhaps you want this weakness to pass away. I promise you it is okay to feel. God made us to feel. I feel. Whatever you feel today, let us follow Christ as we feel. Yet as I share with you we don’t have to be afraid of tears or stay in tears. When we talk of my mom we don’t have to weep like something is gone that will never come back. When you put your dishes in the dishwasher do you go around your house depressed that all your dishes are gone? Of course not, you know that in just a short time you will see your dishes again, clean and ready again.

We will see Linda Yates again.

1 Corinthians 13:10–12 (CSB)

10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end.

11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things.

12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known.

We will see again more fully, we will come out, for those who follow Jesus, full as we are fully known. Cleaned. Made Whole.

Yet that is in the future and this is the now. The now is hard. Before my mom passed my Mom gave me an amazing blessing of telling me how much she loved me, how proud she is of me. The gratitude was incredible.

I will tell you that the amount of gratitude and blessing I have had from this church family is real. And while I want to let life stop and at the same time get on with life, I shared at Mom’s celebration of life, about Rochelle being with us as we waited for Mom’s body to be taken by the mortuary.

I remembered the story of Elijah and Elisha. I said I wasn’t going to share it at the celebration of life, because it was a sermon I would save for another time, this is that time.

It immediately popped into my head because in this story is an old phrase that people may say, and not know where they say it. It’s this phrase that I want us as a church to live by right no. Its this moment that we have to live in.

The phrase is,

“Passing the mantle”

I have to introduce to the Prophet Elijah

He came up in a dark time among God’s people when the King and Queen of Isreal were worshipping other Gods and killing the leaders of the worship of the one true God.

It can complicated real quick so I just want to tell you that at this time, followers of God did not have the Holy Spirit inside of them, God spoke through the Prophets of which Elijah because of the murderous ways of the Queen of Israel became the last remaining one. In an epic stand at Mt. Carmel Elijah proved that his God, our God was real and the Queen’s god was false.

Elijah’s life is pretty epic and pretty tough too.

Elijah goes through miracles and intense loneliness. Finally, hiding from the King and Queen he says to God.

1 Kings 19:10–19 (CSB)

10 He replied, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Armies, but the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are looking for me to take my life.”

11 Then he said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the Lord’s presence.” At that moment, the Lord passed by. A great and mighty wind was tearing at the mountains and was shattering cliffs before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

12 After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper.

13 When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

The mantle was an outer covering, Elijah could use it to keep warm or for protection but for Elijah it also became a symbol of God with Elijah.

Elijah went through so much with God. He still was willing to tell God exactly what was up in his life.

14 “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of Armies,” he replied, “but the Israelites have abandoned your covenant, torn down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they’re looking for me to take my life.”

15 Then the Lord said to him, “Go and return by the way you came to the Wilderness of Damascus. When you arrive, you are to anoint Hazael as king over Aram.

16 You are to anoint Jehu son of Nimshi as king over Israel and Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah as prophet in your place.

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It was a whole plan on how everything would change. Importantly Elijah would no longer be alone.

19 Elijah left there and found Elisha son of Shaphat as he was plowing. Twelve teams of oxen were in front of him, and he was with the twelfth team. Elijah walked by him and threw his mantle over him.

Elijah was all in. He ends up killing the oxen, basically his livelihood in a great BBQ and a commitment to Elisha that there was no going back. Elijah and Elisha went to do a little more awesomeness with Elisha by his side until the end came.

2 Kings 2:1–15 CSB

1 The time had come for the Lord to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind. Elijah and Elisha were traveling from Gilgal, 2 and Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the Lord is sending me on to Bethel.” But Elisha replied, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. 3 Then the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?” He said, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.” 4 Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here; the Lord is sending me to Jericho.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went to Jericho. 5 Then the sons of the prophets who were in Jericho came up to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?” He said, “Yes, I know. Be quiet.” 6 Elijah said to him, “Stay here; the Lord is sending me to the Jordan.” But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So the two of them went on. 7 Fifty men from the sons of the prophets came and stood observing them at a distance while the two of them stood by the Jordan. 8 Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water, which parted to the right and left. Then the two of them crossed over on dry ground. 9 When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken from you.” So Elisha answered, “Please, let me inherit two shares of your spirit.” 10 Elijah replied, “You have asked for something difficult. If you see me being taken from you, you will have it. If not, you won’t.” 11 As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire with horses of fire suddenly appeared and separated the two of them. Then Elijah went up into heaven in the whirlwind. 12 As Elisha watched, he kept crying out, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!” When he could see him no longer, he took hold of his own clothes, tore them in two, 13 picked up the mantle that had fallen off Elijah, and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 14 He took the mantle Elijah had dropped, and he struck the water. “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” he asked. He struck the water himself, and it parted to the right and the left, and Elisha crossed over. 15 When the sons of the prophets from Jericho who were observing saw him, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” They came to meet him and bowed down to the ground in front of him.

What was Elijah’s is now Elisha’s the power from God to prophecy over Israel.

The phrase the Mantle is passed comes from this time in the history of Israel.

The Idea of continuing on, the work started by God in the previous generation, is very, very Christian. Because it is not our work that we are doing but God’s work. If we take on the attitude of Christ Jesus than we know that we are joining God in what He is doing. The Holy Spirit is God working things out right now. He makes us aware of How to Go, and the Holy Spirit, is Jesus promise of the passing of His wisdom into us after his resurrection and ascension.

John 14:25–26 NLT

25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.

After he was resurrected, He again promised that the mantle would once again be passed,

We have that power to take up the mantle and continue in the work that God is doing.

As Doug Sala told us last week, each and every one of us who follow the Lord Jesus, who are part of the body of Christ have a gifting.