God's Timing

February 23rd 2025

Series: Days of Elisha

Topic Tags: Holy Spirit, Elisha, Forgiveness, Leadership

Sermon Title: God’s Timing

Key Passages: 1 Kings 21: 17-29

Sermon Blurb: In this message, we will learn about the importance of following others and giving people a second chance. Preacher: Grace – Erik EBENEEZER – Keith S. REDWOOD – Adam Grill

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Sermon

Hello Family Church!!!

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Celebrate salvations / re-dedications / baptisms last week.

Welcome back to week #3 of our character study in our Holy Spirit series on a guy named Elisha.

The last two weeks, we learned that Elisha was a regular kid who grew up on a farm.

In 1 Kings 19, Elijah calls Elisha to follow him.

What was Elisha’s response?

Anyone remember?

What did he do?

Right, he left everything to follow.

He didn’t ask for the details.

He followed.

He left behind his life to follow the call of God.

But even more than that….

He killed his oxen.

Chopped up his plow and used it to cook his oxen!

Then he gave everyone in the community some good oxen steaks!

Then he left everything to follow Elijah and became his servant.

PAUSE

Our first image of Elisha is as a regular farm kid….

Who destroyed any chance of a plan B.

Elisha took a massive step of faith and left everything he knew in life to follow the calling of his life.

And that will make what you see today even more interesting….

Open your Bibles and turn with me to

1 Kings 21

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PAUSE

Let’s read this passage, and then we will go back and walk through it and see what God has for us today.

As you get to 1 Kings 21, let me give you a little overview of where we will pick up in verse 17.

For the last two weeks, we walked through 1 Kings 19.

There EliJAH called EliSHA to follow him.

1 Kings 20 happens on the heels of that, and that whole chapter is about the evil king Ahab and his evil wife, Jezebel.

They are going to war…

Attacking people.

And when we get into 1 Kings 21…

The evil king decides he wants the land of his neighbor.

And when the neighbor says, “NO!”

Then the king's SUPER evil wife goes and gets their neighbor killed and tells her husband to go take the land!

On the heels of that, we get to 1 Kings 21 verse 17…

Let’s read this story….

1 Kings 21: 17-29 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite:

18 “Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth’s vineyard, where he has gone to take possession of it.

19 Say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?’

Then say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, dogs will lick up your blood—yes, yours!’”

20 Ahab said to Elijah, “So you have found me, my enemy!”

“I have found you,” he answered, “because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord.

21 He says, ‘I am going to bring disaster on you. I will wipe out your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free.

22 I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat and that of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have aroused my anger and have caused Israel to sin.’

23 “And also concerning Jezebel the Lord says: ‘Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.’

24 “Dogs will eat those belonging to Ahab who die in the city, and the birds will feed on those who die in the country.”

25 (There was never anyone like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife.

26 He behaved in the vilest manner by going after idols, like the Amorites the Lord drove out before Israel.)

27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly.

28 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite:

29 “Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself,

I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.”

Stop there….

It is perfectly okay to say that passage is crazy.

Wow…

That story has some weird parts.

Let me ask you a question….

We are in a series on who church?

Whose name is on the slide behind me?

Elisha….

Was Elisha even mentioned in this passage?

Look in your Bibles…

Anything about Elisha?

Nope…

Nothing….

Why?

Well….

Remember last week…

Elisha is following Elijah to learn from him…

So, at this point, Elisha is a nobody.

He is just a follower of Elijah.

Here is the point church….

Write this down…

Great leaders were once great followers.

Repeat

Now let me clarify here…

It says GREAT…

You can absolutely be a leader and be a horrible follower.

You can absolutely become a leader without following anyone.

But if you want to be a GREAT leader….

Not just any leader…

But a GREAT leader…

Well, GREAT leaders were once great followers…

And let be real…

When you are following a leader you can learn as much from a good leader as you can from a bad one!

Followers can learn from GREAT leaders or horrible ones.

ADD AN EXAMPLE FROM YOUR LIFE LIKE THIS…..

When I worked in construction, my first boss was an X-NFL football player.

When he got mad, he would pick us up…

Hold us at eye level with him.

SCREAM in our face and then throw us into a wall…

100% TRUE story…

I learn a LOT of what NOT to do as a boss from Tim…

Fast forward years in my career, and I have worked for a guy named John.

John was known in the company for raising and releasing leaders…

I learned SO MUCH from John on how to lead in GOOD ways…

I learned a lot from my prior bosses…

I followed….

I learned from my good bosses.

I learned from my bad bosses.

I CHOOSE because it is a choice to learn…

I CHOOSE to learn.

Elisha is following now…

Learning now…

And he is not even a footnote in the story…

Some of you feel like you are not even a footnote in your company.

You feel like an afterthought at school.

You feel like you do not matter to your team.

You feel like no one sees you.

PAUSE

If that is you…

Let me encourage you to CHOOSE to learn.

Choose to learn in this season.

Choose to learn what you will NOT do when you become a leader later in life…

PAUSE

Let’s go back and walk through this passage…verse 17…

1 Kings 21: 17-29 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite:

18 “Go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He is now in Naboth’s vineyard, where he has gone to take possession of it.

19 Say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Have you not murdered a man and seized his property?’

Stop there…

Wow…

God says go call out the leader of the country!

Can you imagine if God called you to call out your:

Boss

Teacher

Parent

Pastor

President

What would you do?

PAUSE

Then God says….

Then say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: In the place where dogs licked up Naboth’s blood, dogs will lick up your blood—yes, yours!’”

WOW!!!!

Go tell the king you are going to die!!!!

And Elijah did it…

And verse 20, the king says…

20 Ahab said to Elijah, “So you have found me, my enemy!”

“I have found you,” he answered, “because you have sold yourself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord.

21 He says, ‘I am going to bring disaster on you. I will wipe out your descendants and cut off from Ahab every last male in Israel—slave or free.

22 I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat and that of Baasha son of Ahijah, because you have aroused my anger and have caused Israel to sin.’

23 “And also concerning Jezebel the Lord says: ‘Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.’

24 “Dogs will eat those belonging to Ahab who die in the city, and the birds will feed on those who die in the country.”

Stop there….

Ummm….

Anyone think these guys like each other?

No….

They HATE each other….

But I want to point something out here that is important for EVERYONE to hear…

Look in your Bible at verse 19….

Verse 19 is the ONLY thing God told Elijah to say…

Do you all see that in the Bible?

It does NOT say ANYWHERE in the Bible that God told Elijah to say verses 20-24.

PAUSE

But here is what happened…

Here is where EVERYONE listening to this message needs to lean in….

There is something here to learn…

Put verse 20 back on the screen real quick….

20 Ahab said to Elijah, “So you have found me, my enemy!”

Leave that on the screen….

Ahab said 7 words…

7 words…

And it triggered Elijah…

7 words send Elijah over the edge.

7 words sent Elijah on a really horrible tirade…

And one that God NEVER said to say…

I mean, look at verse 23…

Elijah…this GREAT man of God even drags the king's wife into it!

He says…God is going to have your wife be eaten by dogs…

THAT IS INTENSE….

Maybe went a little far on that one buddy…

PAUSE

Church….

Does anyone want to be real and admit that you have a person in your life that can trigger you???

Anyone want to raise your spouse’s hand… LOL

Your boss can trigger you…

A co-worker can…

A bully at school…

An X…

PAUSE

Can you imagine being Elisha right now?

Watching his GODLY leader go off…

Remember…

We can learn…

Even when your leader does not look like a perfect person, you can learn…

We can learn from our parent's good moments.

And in the moments when our parents fail…

Because we ALL fail at times!

Ask any of my kids…

I am sure they can share with you too many times when I have failed…

Ask my staff…

I am sure they would enjoy telling you about my failures LOL!!!

PAUSE

Let’s read the rest of the story…

27 When Ahab heard these words, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and fasted. He lay in sackcloth and went around meekly.

So, the evil king…

He listened to Elijah…

He changed because of what Elijah said.

And really note what comes next because I think it would have surprised Elijah…

28 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite:

Pause here…

Don’t read ahead…

If you were Elijah….

And you have dealt with this MESSED-UP king for YEARS…

You have dealt with his MESSED-UP wife for YEARS…

If God has called you to CALL OUT this messed up king…

If God TOLD YOU to tell the king he was going to DIE because of what he has done…

And you do it….

And you see the king act like he is sad..

Act like he is repenting…

But you KNOW the king does not mean it.

Just like how you KNOW your spouse does not mean he is sorry this time.

Just like you KNOW your boss is not sorry.

You KNOW your friend is NOT sorry.

You KNOW your coach doesn’t care.

When you KNOW a person..

KNOW how messed up they are…

Be honest….

What do you expect…

What do you WANT God to do to them?

LONG PAUSE

Verse 29….

29 “Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself,

God says what Church…will you read it with me…

I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son.”

God chooses to give the king another chance.

God chooses NOT to kill the king.

God does not do what Elijah said he was going to do….

God did bring disaster on the king.

God GAVE the king another chance…

Here is the point church…

God always will give us a second chance if we repent.

Repeat

And let’s be honest…

When we HATE a person.

We do NOT want to give them a second chance.

When a person hurts us…

We do NOT want to give them a second chance.

Are you not so thankful God is NOT like us!!!!

PAUSE

And don’t forget….

Elisha is just sitting on the sidelines learning…

Learning for what Elijah does GOOD and BAD.

Learning…

Learning how God does not respond how he might want.

Learning how God’s timing might not align with what he wants.

God’s timing….is not always our timing…

Elisha is a nobody…

Maybe you feel like a nobody…

Maybe God’s timing is not meeting your desires…

And if so….

You are going to want to see what happens next in the story of Elisha….

But….

We are out of time today….

So that means you need to come back next week to learn more!!!!

So, church, here is our life application for this week.

If you are new, or newer, to Family Church we LOVE to end our messages with something for you to talk about with someone else.

Something to help you apply the message to your life.

So here is this week’s Life Application…

Life Application: Who might you need to give a second chance to? As a result of today’s message, I will _________________________.

Let’s pray….

Prayer:

Make sure to do a salvation call!

Offering:

Thank you all for being here today!

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