God Markers

March 9th 2025

Series: Days of Elisha

Topic Tags: Holy Spirit, Elisha, Elijah, Faith

Sermon Title: God Markers

Key Passages: 2 Kings 2: 1-14

Sermon Blurb: In this message, we will learn how important it is to disciple other people by taking them to places where the can learn more about God and experience Him. Preacher: Grace – Erik EBENEEZER – Keith S. REDWOOD – Adam Grill

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Sermon

Hello Family Church!!!

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Welcome back to week #6 of our character study in our Holy Spirit series on a guy named Elisha.

Elisha was a regular kid who grew up on a farm.

In 1 Kings 19, Elijah called 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 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 on his life.

Elisha and you could be in the same boat…

Open your Bibles and turn with me to

2 Kings 2

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PAUSE

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

Today’s message is going to be life-changing! Today, we will see how the Bible is so interwoven and wonderful!

It is my hope that when you see how this passage ties to so many other parts of the Bible, you will increase your desire to study the word of God… our Bibles!

2 Kings 2: 1-14 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, “so be quiet.”

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, “so be quiet.”

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 from 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, it will 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 garment and tore it in two.

13 Elisha then picked up Elijah’s cloak that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.

14 He took the cloak that had fallen from Elijah 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.

Now let’s stop reading there for today.

This is one of my favorite passages in the life of Elisha and Elijah.

There is so much we can learn here.

So, let’s take some time and unpack this.

Today’s message title is God Markers…

And you will see why as we walk through this again.

Let’s go back and walk through this slower and see what we can learn. Verse 2

2 When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.

Let’s pause here.

Gilgal: I am sure most everyone has no idea where that is.

So, let’s put a map up on the screens.

Here is a map of the travels we are talking about today.

As you can see, Gilgal is just a little above the Dead Sea and Jericho.

This is in modern-day Israel.

But why did Elijah go there?

What was there to see or do there?

I tried to find a good aerial photo of it today, but there is still nothing there.

So why go there?

Does anyone want to guess?

He went to see stones…let me show you….

The key is from the book of Joshua in chapter 4.

Joshua 4:19-24 On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.

20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan.

21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’

22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’

Stop there…

Does anyone see any correlation to what happened in our passage with Elijah and Elisha today????

Hint…look at verse 8 & 14

PAUSE

Let’s keep reading in Joshua…

23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over.

The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over.

24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”

Stop reading there.

Gilgal was a very important place in Israel’s history.

It was a base where Joshua and the Israelites used to go out from.

It was also the very first place that they came to when they entered the Promised Land.

These stones were set up as monuments

As reminders.

So that anyone who looked at them would remember that God was alive and had performed miracles.

Gilgal is there to remind us that God is active in the life of his people.

I believe Elijah took Elisha there to make sure he understood that.

Elijah took Elisha to Gilgal to see some rocks placed there generations earlier.

Rocks that served as a reminder that God had done something CRAZY!

God had parted those waters to allow God’s people to cross.

Elisha was being taught that God has always been active in the lives of his people.

PAUSE

So, let me pose a question to you all here…

What markers of God’s activity in your life have you set up to use as a tool to teach others about God’s activity in your life?

Parents.

Grandparents.

Foster parents.

Aunts.

Uncles.

Spiritual parents.

How in your life are you identifying God’s activity in a way to show the next generation?

To show your disciples?

I encourage you all to ponder that this week.

PAUSE

Let’s go back to 2 Kings…Verse 2

2 Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here; the Lord has sent me to Bethel.” But Elisha said,

Let me just throw one nugget out here for those who were here during the Elijah Series last year…

Elijah did the SAME thing with his old servant.

He told him to stay behind…

And his servant did…

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, “so be quiet.”

Some prophets tell Elisha…hey man…your master is going to be taken away from you today!

And Elisha says he knows…

Interesting…

But why go to Bethel?

What is there to see in Bethel?

Anyone want to guess?

He went to see stones of course!

Let me show you. It is from

Genesis 28: 10-19 Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran.

11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set.

Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep.

12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

13 There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.

I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.

14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south.

All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.

15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land.

I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”

17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place!

This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it.

19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.

Elijah takes Elisha to another historical place to learn more about the charter of God.

Bethel means the ‘House of God’.

He called it the House of God because Jacob had this amazing time with the Lord.

He had been in the very presence of God.

Later in Israel’s history, during the time of Judges, Bethel was where the Ark of the Covenant was kept.

People always used to go to Bethel to inquire of the Lord.

It was known as the House of God.

Elijah was reminding Elisha how important it was to seek the presence of God.

So here is the question for you and me today…

Where do you go to seek the presence of God?

Repeat

Or, like our last question…

Where do you take others to encounter God’s presence?

PAUSE

Let’s continue with 2 Kings. Verse 4

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, “so be quiet.”

Yet again, he is told to stay…. and Elisha says NO!

But why go to Jericho?

What is there to see or do in Jericho?

Anyone want to guess why they would go to Jericho?

Exactly to see stones!

When you think of Jericho what immediately comes to mind?

Go ahead say it out loud.

Exactly, the walls come tumbling down!

It is a story that anyone who attended Sunday School knows.

Joshua 5: 13-15 Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand.

Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?”

14 “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.”

Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence, and asked him, “What message does my Lord have for his servant?”

15 The commander of the Lord’s army replied, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

I find this answer to Joshua’s question intriguing.

Joshua sees this guy with a sword, and he looks like he is going to be a real good fighter.

So Joshua obviously wants to know whose side he is on and if he is in trouble.

He says, “Are you with us, or are you with our enemies?”

To which the guy answers, “Neither.”

In other words, “I haven’t come to take sides. I have come to take over!”

The Commander of God’s Army was standing in front of Joshua!

A part of heaven was standing on earth, ready for battle!

That is why, as soon as Joshua realized who was standing before him, he fell face down on the ground!

The Lord doesn’t come merely “to help.”

He comes to do what we cannot.

Let’s have a look…

Joshua 6: 1-5: Now the gates of Jericho were securely barred because of the Israelites. No one went out and no one came in.

2 Then the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men.

Hold up right here….English major people….

Did you notice God just talked in the past tense….

He said he already delivered Jericho into their hands….

And the battle has not started!

Verse 3

3 March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days.

4 Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams’ horns in front of the ark.

On the seventh day, march around the city seven times, with the priests blowing the trumpets.

5 When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout;

then the wall of the city will collapse and the army will go up, everyone straight in.”

Israel’s commander was Joshua…

Joshua was trying to figure out how Israel could win this battle.

God steps in and says, Joshua…

You’re not going to win this battle or any battle.

I have already won it for you!

Just trust and follow me!

So, what did they have to do?

They had to walk and walk in faith… quite literally.

Their job was to do nothing besides walk around the walls of Jericho.

And at the end of the 7th day the walls of Jericho came tumbling down and the battle was won!

Here in the first battle in the Promised Land God was teaching them a new principle - and that was to walk by faith.

Here is Elijah is reminding Elisha to Walk by Faith.

So, let me pose another question…

How are you doing at walking by faith, even when it does not make sense?

Really think about that…

Repeat….

It's easy to talk about doing that, but it gets hard when we run into life’s issues.

When we hit problems.

When you’re facing a problem, it can be challenging to trust that God is adequate for your situation and to walk by faith…

Even though it sounds great, and it is so, so, so biblical!

Being in a situation where you cannot predict how things will turn out can be very scary!

But we need to trust.

We need to trust the Holy Spirit’s leadership.

Walk by Faith…….

Let’s jump back to 2 Kings…..

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 from the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan.

Yet again, he is told to stay and he says….NO I cannot leave you!

I am learning so much about God…

I cannot leave!

This poses yet another question… AND a REALLY important one….

Who do you have in your life that is pouring into you?

Repeat

Elisha became who he was because he had Elijah pouring into him!

If you do not have someone to mentor you, that needs to change.

We ALL need a mentor!

ADD EXAMPLE of a mentor in your life…

I have several older Senior Pastors who pour into me, that I do lunch with when I can, and I can reach out to for help anytime.

Kevin Harney, many of you have seen preach here occasionally.

Wes Dupin founded an amazing church in this area a long time ago.

Don Cousins.

Dr. Jim Wall.

Pastor Brian is discipling me weekly!

We ALL need mentors in life…

Who is mentoring you?

Who is coaching you?

Who is discipling you?

PAUSE

So why the Jordan?

What is the reason to go to the Jordan?

Why go see some river now?

Does anyone want to guess what they had to go see at the Jordan?

Yup, stones.

Read Joshua 3& 4 later this week, we do not have time to today.

The Israelites crossed the Jordan to get into the Promised Land.

God commanded Joshua to take 12 stones from the midst of the Jordan and to set them as a memorial for the sons of Israel forever so that no one would forget what God had performed there.

Now God is sending Elisha there to experience this FIRSTHAND!

He is going to move from secondhand faith to first-hand faith.

Elisha is about to move from someone who knows the story of God’s power to someone who sees God’s power!

PAUSE

Which poses another question…

Do you have FIRSTHAND faith of God’s power or SECONDHAND?

Repeat

Elijah took Elisha to this places so that it would not just be stories he heard as a kid growing up…

But that he could SEE these were REAL places with REAL people.

That they were not stories from a book…

BUT stories of a LIVING GOD!!!

That is why we, as a church, regularly go on teaching trips that take people to see where the Bible happened! We have taken people to see the Jordan!

We have taken people to Greece and Turkey to see this kind of stuff!!!

I would suggest ALL of you prioritize, instead of just going on vacations, going to places where you can see God, grow in your faith, and help your kids or grandkids grow in their faith!

PAUSE

Back to 2nd Kings 2 verse 8….

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.

Elijah takes the cloak.

The thing we learned would represent his power back in the Elijah series…

His anointing.

And he strikes the water with it, and it divides….

God’s anointing on Elijah causes the water to part.

God parted the waters again just like He did for the Israelites!

Elisha got to see the miracle happen right in front of his eyes!!!!

After going to all these places.

After learning all these things about God.

After seeing God show up and do a miracle!

And now…

Now we get to the BIG ASK that EliSha made…

But here is the deal….

We are out of time!!!!

So, guess what???

You have to come back next week! You have to come back next week to see why what Elisha asked for was SO important!!!

This leads us to our life application today….

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: Is your faith firsthand or secondhand? What could you do to grow in your faith like Elisha did? 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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