Dream BIG

March 16th 2025

Series: Days of Elisha

Topic Tags: Holy Spirit, Elisha, Elijah, Faith

Sermon Title: Dream BIG

Key Passages: 2 Kings 2: 1-18

Sermon Blurb: In this message, we will learn when a man of God asks you what you want; dream BIG. Preacher: Grace – Erik EBENEEZER – Keith S. REDWOOD – Adam Grill

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Dedication, Baptism, or Ministry Highlight (1st Sunday, even months):

Sermon

Hello Family Church!!!

Welcome to Family Church… whether you are in person or watching online…

Family Moment (Share something personal to help people get to know you and your family)

Celebrate salvations / re-dedications / baptisms last week.

Welcome back!!!

I hope you were all here last week.

Because last week we could not quite finish the passage we started and all the ways it applies to our lives.

So today, we will do that!

Now, for those of you who are new today…

Worry not.

We will catch you up so you do not feel lost or out of the loop.

We are in a series walking through the story of two amazing prophets in the Old Testament.

Elijah who did more miracles than any other person in the Bible before his lifetime.

He one day asked Elisha who was a regular kid to follow him and become his disciple.

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 to follow his calling.

PAUSE

But I want to point out one other thing about the life of EliSHA that is very important for today’s message….

And what will be coming after today’s message.

Let me make sure you remember something interesting…

If you remember after Elijah called Elisha to follow him.

We spent TWO weeks where the Bible said NOTHING about Elisha.

Two weeks we have we heard NOTHING about EliSHA?

EliSHA is following EliJAH…

And he is not even a footnote!

He is not even mentioned!

He was so unimportant not a single thing about him.

And let me say this…

If you feel like no one cares about you at school.

If no one cares about you at work.

If no one cares about you at home.

If you feel like no one notices you.

If you feel like your life does not matter.

If you feel like your life might never matter.

I want to encourage you…

Lean into this message.

Listen to this message.

Elisha and you could be in the same boat…

Open your Bibles and turn with me to

2 Kings 2

(New Person Bible Connection)

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Just go to (ADD YOUR CAMPUS PLACE) and get one for FREE!!!

PAUSE

Today we will re-read the entire passage to make sure no one is left behind…

And then we will jump into what God has for us today.

Today’s message is going to be life-changing! 2 Kings 2: 1-12 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.

There is so much we can learn here.

And I would encourage you that if you missed last week to go back and listen to that message….

Because we are not going to re-hash everything we learned last week.

Here is all I will say…and you can go listen to it…

Verses 1 – 7 are all about Elijah taking his disciple Elijah to places where he could learn about God and grow in his faith in God.

He took him to places where he could tell him stories about God’s activity in the lives of people long gone.

He took him to places where he could see remnants of God’s activity in life.

And everyone listening to this message…

It is important you ALL do the same for the people you are discipling in life!

For your kids.

For your friends.

For your family members.

For your co-workers.

For your neighbors.

You need to be investing in them and helping them to go places where they can SEE God and grow in their faith…

That is why we encourage you to bring people to church!

To bring friends to youth group.

To go on missions trips.

To go on teaching trips.

It is ALL important!

PAUSE

Today…

Today’s message is titled Dream BIG!

And you will see why….

Let’s go back to verse 8 and walk forward…

After all the places Elijah took Elisha to grow in his faith.

To know God was real.

To know God was active.

To know God was powerful.

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…

The BIG DREAM Elisha has for his life!!!!

And it all stems from a question from Elijah….

Verse 9 has the big question from Elijah.

Let’s read verse 9 and then I want to say something to the younger generation here…

9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”

The leader…Elijah…says to his follower…Elisha…

What can I do for you?

What do you want in life?

What is your goal?

What is your dream?

What are your hopes?

What an I, the leader, do for YOU?

PAUSE

Elisha had a LOT to learn….

Elisha had a LOT to experience before the time came when Elijah….his mentor….asked him this….

Remember where we started today…

For a LONG period of time Elisha was so LOW on the totem pole that he was NOT even a foot note in the Bible!

Not even noticed by people!

Younger generation…

Lean in for a second…

Here is the deal...

I know there are a LOT of you who think you are better than your boss.

Smarter than your manager.

More talented than your leader.

I know that because I was once young as well and thought the SAME THINGS!!!

The problem is that many people want to go from student to leader overnight.

When we graduate, we want to go from being high school students to being managers in a company.

We want to go from college graduate to manager overnight.

We do not want to have to grind for YEARS!

We do not want to submit for YEARS!

Take that desire…

And understand that is nothing wrong with the desire to be a leader….

But take the desire to be the leader NOW and contrast it to Elisha’s life.

Notice the life of Elisha.

He humbly chose to be a servant.

He left being a business owner to become a servant.

He left being independent to become dependent.

He humbly followed and learned what Elijah was teaching him.

He served Elijah for years before Elijah asked him this question.

Put verse 9 back on the screens…

9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?”

Here is where Elijah asks a question…

He says, “Ask me for anything!

What do you want?

How now can I serve you?”

Now think about this and apply it to your life….

If Elisha had left Elijah at any point before this…

He would not be standing now by Elijah being asked this question.

If Elisha had not persisted he would not be here for this question.

If Elisha had given up at any point he would have missed an INCREDIBLE blessing that is about to come….

And Elisha says,

“Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit,” Elisha replied.

What does that even mean?

Why would be ask for a double portion of a person’s spirit?

That seems REALLY weird.

What does that mean?

Well…Let me explain.

Elisha was asking to inherit double the anointing of God that his master Elijah had.

The servant was asking to have twice the power of God rest of him.

Would that even occur to anyone here to ask for that?

If your pastor asked you, “What can I do for you?”

Would asking for more of God’s Spirit than he has even occur to you?

PAUSE

Some of you might think…WOW, that is a really selfish thing to ask for!

He is telling his mentor…that he wants to be twice as powerful as he was!

If he was asking for double his wealth,

double his knowledge,

double his influence,

or any other worldly thing you would be right.

But he is asking for a double portion of God to rest on him.

As followers of Jesus, we know that the Holy Spirit lives inside us.

He wants to have twice as much God living inside him!

We should all want that!

See, if we understand our God….we will DREAM BIG!

We want MORE of God in our lives.

More of the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives.

More of the Holy Spirit’s anointing and leading.

Let’s see Elijah’s response…

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.”

Elijah is like WOW!!!

That is a deep ask!

That is a BIG ASK!

That is a BIG DREAM!

But…Elijah says…

If you hang with me…

If you do not give up…

It will be yours.

And I wonder if Elijah knew how close he was to going to heaven or not…

Because verse 11 says…

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.

Elisha got to see Elijah taken up to heaven right in front of his eyes!

It is easy to blow by this passage and not stop and think about it!

But can you imagine seeing a chariot of fire and horses of fire appearing in the sky!

Them racing strait at you!

Then your mentor hopping on the chariot of fire!

And your mentor being taken off into the sky on this flying chariot of fire!!!!!

Here is the picture to help the visual learners….

PAUSE

Elijah was one of only two people recorded in the Bible as NEVER dying!

The other was another prophet named Enoch and in Genesis 5 he was also taken to heaven without dying!

And if you want a fun rabbit trail for you deep Bible people…

Enoch wrote some books you can read in the Apocrypha that are quite interesting!

But God loved his faithful servant Elijah so much that he could not wait for him to die to take him up into heaven.

Incredible…..

And as this picture shows…

Elijah does NOT forget what Elisha asked for.

He leaves his cloak for Elisha.

And in verse 13….

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

Elisha is now alone for the first time since leaving his home.

Elisha is now alone for the first time since leaving his past as a farm kid.

Elisha now has no earthly mentor to serve or follow…..

So where does he go from here?

What will he do now?

There could be some of you here today who feel so alone.

Maybe you lost a loved one recently and feel alone.

Maybe you lost a job and feel so alone.

A girlfriend, a boyfriend.

A best friend.

Maybe you moved and feel alone….isolated….

What do you do now?

You act like Elisha.

Elisha is not alone.

Elisha has God.

Elisha asked for a double portion of God resting on him!

All of us who have given our lives to Jesus Christ have God living inside us!

We are NEVER ALONE!

So in verse 14…

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.

Can you imagine Elijah’s eyes?

He does what his mentor taught him to do!

And the WATER PARTS!

Can you imagine the shock?

The excitement!

The final miracle of Elijah became the first miracle of Elisha.

He went from learning about how God is still active and powerful in our lives.

To seeing places where God did miracles.

To seeing God do a miracle through his mentor.

To now having God do a miracle through him!

Elisha’s firsthand grows even more!!!!

And now we get to see how this new prophet.

This new Man of God operates in his life.

Will he be like Elijah?

Will he live up to that standard of godly living?

Let’s read a little bit more today..

Verse 15.

15 The company of the prophets from Jericho, who were watching, said, “The spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.”

And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. 16 “Look,” they said, “we your servants have fifty able men.

Let them go and look for your master. Perhaps the Spirit of the Lord has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley.”

“No,” Elisha replied, “do not send them.”

17 But they persisted until he was too embarrassed to refuse.

So he said, “Send them.” And they sent fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him.

18 When they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho, he said to them, “Didn’t I tell you not to go?”

Pause here for just one second…

When we first become leaders, we are not confident yet.

Neither was Elisha.

Yes…he just did a miracle, but…he was not confident yet.

He allowed himself to be influenced by others still.

And you will see that change over time…

Just like it will be for those of you who are new leaders.

PAUSE

And you want to know what happens next?

Next, we get to what I think is one of the funniest moments in the life of Elisha…

BUT…her is the deal….

Just like last week….we are out of time!

You have to come back next week to hear it!!!

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: What BIG dream has God given you? How could you step out in faith in that direction. 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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