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Lansing SDA Church

Wes Peppers

Beat Them, Don’t Hold Them

We're going to talk about arrows this morning.

So I just want to invite you to bow your heads where you are.

We'll ask the Lord's blessing to be with us.

Father in heaven, Lord, we are so thankful to be back here together to worship you.

This is 1 hour where we can all be together as your people at the same time and the same place.

It's a holy convocation, this worship hour.

We're not here for ourselves or for each other, but we're here to honor and worship you.

All the other things, the music and the fellowship, all those are added blessings.

But our true motive this morning is to seek our God, to seek your son Jesus, and to have an experience with you this morning.

So we pray Lord as we open your word that you would speak to our hearts, you'd bring conviction, you'd bring comfort, you'd bring strength and encouragement And Lord you'd bring power to our lives to overcome those things which so often ensnare us So now as we open your word Lord, may you grant us the Holy Spirit as your own personal gift to us May He bring an understanding of Your Word this morning, and may our lives be changed.

I remember a story of a young man who was 17 years old, and he had lived his life, actually no no I'm sorry he was 27 years old and he had lived his life pretty recklessly.

He was always drinking, always smoking, always, oftentimes on some kind of drug.

He would drag race up and down the roads with his buddies.

He would always seem to be getting in some kind of mischievous trouble.

And his mother had been pleading with him for many years to surrender his life to Christ.

And he knew that was the desire of his mother's heart.

He knew that it was the thing that would only give him true peace.

But his heart was raging with passion as we often so do in our youth.

And he was doing his thing and he kept telling his mother, you know, mother, sometime at a later date I'm going to give my life to Christ.

Sometime and another time, down the road, when I've done everything on my bucket list and when I've completed all the things that I want to do, when I've fulfilled my wild passions, then I'll give my life to Christ." And his mother pled with him year after year, day after day, son, we're never certain of the next day.

And so finally he told his mom, he said, look, I'm 27, my birthday is in a week, I'll tell you what, I'm just going to live my life like I want, and then the day after my birthday, I'm going to give my life to Jesus." And the mother thought, whoa, what a thrill.

He's going to finally surrender his life to Christ.

And the day, every night came, and the night before he was to do that, he was on his way to his girlfriend's house for 1 last party.

And the next day he was going to make that commitment.

And on the way, it was raining, and he went, was driving, and he went around a curve a little too fast, and his car lost control, and he hit a tree head-on, and his life tragically ended that night.

The day before, he was to give his life to the Lord Jesus.

You know, often times God gives us choices, doesn't He?

He gives us choices all through our lives.

And His ultimate will will be accomplished in the end.

But many times He gives us choices along the way to decide for ourselves which direction we're going to go, what blessings we're going to receive, how we're going to live our lives either for the glory of ourselves or for the glory of God.

And God allows us to make those choices, but always, always, always with those choices come consequences and circumstances that will often have a chance to impact the rest of our lives.

Think about your own life today, choices you've made in your past, and how that has led your life in various directions.

Often how we sit and mourn at some of the decisions we've made.

How many of you would agree with that this morning?

And you say, man, if I'd have just made this choice, or I'd have made a different choice, or if I'd have made just a 1 degree turn in a different direction, how God could have blessed me, how God could have sent my life in a whole another path, and my life would be much more glorifying to Him.

How many of you have thought that before?

Well, the hope is, dear friends, is that there's never a better time than now to turn in the right direction.

But sometimes we have to live with those consequences.

And such we find in a story in the Bible that's very brief, but very power packed.

So if you would this morning, turn with me and your Bibles to the book of 2 Kings chapter 13.

We're going to find a story of another young man that I think in many ways, many of us, if not all of us, would be able to relate to.

And The prophet of that time was Elisha, not Elijah, but Elisha, his successor.

He had lived his life full of pleasure and lust and of the flesh, and whatever he desired, kind of like Solomon, that's what he did.

And he didn't have much in way of accomplishment for himself, except that he just had done his own thing.

And he had basically led the entire nation astray from God.

So in 2 Kings chapter 13, we find that Elisha, the prophet, is actually at the end of his life.

He's lived a life very contrasted and very different than the life of Joash.

He, Elisha, had lived a life singly to the glory of God.

He had obeyed God in virtually everything that God had asked Him to do.

And as Elisha was laying upon his bed, here comes King Joash.

Maybe this could have been considered as 1 of the better things that he did.

And he came to visit the prophet Elisha as he was laying on his bed.

The Bible says, In the thirty-seventh year of Joash king of Judah, Jehoiash the son of Jehoiaz became king over Israel and Samaria and reigned 16 years.

And he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nechbat who made Israel sin, but walked in them." Now the rest of the acts of Joash, it says you find them in the books of the Chronicles.

Verse 13, "...so Joash rested with his fathers." Now I just wanted you to see that Joash did not depart from the sins of his fathers, Did he?

He just continued in them and continued to lead the nation astray.

And it says, "...Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die." So he was on his deathbed.

"...Then Joash the king of Israel came down to him and wept over his face and said, O my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen.

And would it not have been a better benefit if Joash had done that early in his life?

If he had come to the prophet for counsel, come to the prophet for guidance, come to the prophet with that reverence, seeking the will of God for his own life, how many of you think he would have been better off?

Some of us today spend our whole lives serving ourselves as we sit in the house of God.

Some of us spend our whole lives serving God while we have our membership sitting on the books.

And How much better would it be for you and I if we made a commitment in our youth to serve God unreservedly?

Doesn't matter how old you are now, if you're 95 years old, you're still young.

But how much better if we don't get to the end of our life and realize what error we have made in not making the Kingdom of God first in our lives.

Nonetheless, he comes to the prophet, and he's weeping, and he's showing him respect.

And verse 15, Elijah said to him, Take a bow and some arrows.

So he took himself a bow and some arrows.

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Beat Them, Don’t Hold Them

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