Based on 1 Kings 19:19-21, 2 Kings 2:1-15. Jesus meets you daily through His Word and sends you to mentor your Elisha. God empowered Elijah to disciple Elisha to go far beyond him. You can too!

AMEN Conference 2025: Touched By Grace

<p>Based on 1 Kings 19:19-21, 2 Kings 2:1-15. Jesus meets you daily through His Word and sends you to mentor your Elisha. God empowered Elijah to disciple Elisha to go far beyond him. You can too!</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Adventist Medical Evangelism Network (AMEN)

Morning Devotionals

Don MacLafferty

Grace in the Darkness

Grace for the Wounded

Grace for Your Elisha


Amen. Thank you so much. Good morning, everybody. Are you willing to do something a little bit out of your comfort zone? Oh, that's good.

Would you please stand up? And can we actually sit up here as if it's our last day to have freedom to meet. You know how people meet together, by the way, when I go underground for Jesus in this world church? They press together. But in North America, we usually spread out together.

So I'm inviting you to come come on up and let's pack up the front rows and let's actually sit together like we're going to do in heaven. We're all going to be together. Are we willing? Still stay standing though, just keep on coming up and let's pack in tight as family of God. This is good.

Keep on coming, keep on coming. We have plenty of rows up here. Sit beside someone that you want to be in heaven with for a long, long time. Okay. How does this feel?

Look to the person to your left and your right and tell them that God loves them way more than they think he does. Okay? Thank you. He loves you too. More than you think he does.

Okay. Brothers and sisters, now please, everybody needs a team mate. This is not permanent, don't worry. But please, turn to someone next to you, and if it's an odd number, it doesn't mean you're odd, just be in threes then. But turn to someone next to you and say, who mentored you to do something valuable to your life in the past?

Who mentored you to do something? So say who it is and what did they mentor you to do? You have 1 minute. Take all the time you need for 1 minute. Please smile at your neighbor and have a seat.

On my tie, does this show up on the screen? Probably not. But on my tie, there is a message here. The first strata is baby, and then kindergarten, elementary school, high school, college, and then of course, what you absolutely expect of every child, president of the United States of America. Okay?

It's a tie, it's a message. We need to be investing in the new generations. Not someday. We need to be doing that right now. Well we have freedom to do so.

We can move anywhere we want to in this country still. We can still speak up. Mostly. Well my friends, around the planet freedoms are going rapidly and they're also going rapidly here. I don't know if you agree or not, but things are changing rapidly.

I'm thankful for this country. I love being an American. I'm thankful for all the men and women who died so that you and I can have freedom here. But now is the time to pour our lives into the new generations right now because very shortly we're gonna have a hard time operating. We're gonna have a hard time going places and coming alongside of people as freely as we have access to now.

In the book of 2 Kings chapter 2 we have a marvelous story. Did anybody here read it? I gave you a challenge to read it in preparation for this morning. Anybody remember that? In the rush and crush of yesterday?

Maybe not. That's okay. Jesus still loves you a lot. In 2 Kings 2, you have an opportunity right now to turn to someone next to you and to read verses 1-8 and to answer this question. What does this tell you about Jesus Christ because remember he is the star of every chapter in the Bible okay, so what does it tell us about Jesus Christ and Secondly, what does it tell us about?

Mentoring an Elisha Okay, I'll give you just like a couple minutes. Please read right to the point. If you're by yourself, go join someone else and let's read this and answer those 2 questions. What does it tell us about Jesus? What does it tell us about mentoring our Elisha?

Again, if you finish reading it, please just turn to your neighbor and say, what does this tell us about Jesus? And what does it tell us about mentoring our Elisha? I'll give you just a few more moments. Okay, let's take the microphones around. Let's see.

First of all, if you could have a short to the point response What do we see of Jesus in this short passage this story? Okay, if you are willing to answer that please raise your hand. How does he show up in this story? Right here. We'll start right here.

Do we have a mic on this side too? Okay, good. If you can have somebody over here ready to go next. Just as the, just as Elijah said that he would not leave Elijah, Jesus will not leave us. Amen.

Good. Anybody on this side? Right over here. They kept reminding him that, did you know that the Lord will the mass will take away the master today many times we worry and the Lord will say stay still be still and that he is there thank you anybody else on this side anything else you see about Jesus Christ in this story there's something that it's not overstated it just is laced into the story. All the way right here, okay.

We have a mic, oh, okay. We'll go here and then we'll go in the back. Yeah, so in Jesus' ministry, there were times when he put his followers to the test and said, will you also leave me? And so I see that Christ is more exemplified by Elijah in this story and Elisha is representing more our response. Thank you.

Thank you. And right here in the back, did you have another person? I can't see because of the light. I see in this story where Jesus is preparing Elijah before Elijah is taken away he's preparing him before he's actually taken away just like he does for each 1 of us when it says before you call I will answer Jesus is preparing us before the experience occurs. Amen thank you thank you.

Second question now What does this story tell us about mentoring? Mentoring our Elijah. Anybody have a right to the point insight about that? Because this has a lot about mentoring. Any insight you have?

Right over here. I think 1, Elijah had to physically leave, but he knew that God would take over to continue the work. Sometimes we think that we have to do everything and we have to be there for everything, but sometimes you have to, you are there, you're encouraging, you talk to them through it, but then sometimes you have to step down or step to the side and trust that God's gonna take over in a second. That Elijah kept saying, no, I don't want to leave you, I don't want to leave you. So with our mentees, sometimes they say, I don't want to, I don't think I can, I'm not capable, I can't speak, or whatever.

And even though they say no maybe at the first time, like I don't want to leave you, I'm not going to leave you, that you keep insisting, because it was like 3 times he said it or something like that. So keep going and persisting, because sometimes you see, a lot of times, we see more in them than they see in themselves, because we were there, right? Amen, good. I'll take 1 more right over here. This whole time Amos 3 7 kept coming to my mind.

Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he refealeth his secret unto his servant the prophets. Elijah put Elisha in a position where he would be encouraged by the prophets knowing that God is in control because his master is about to be taken to heaven. Yeah, amen. Thank you all for sharing. If you go to Prophets and Kings you can see that this was not random places he was going.

There was something going on at each of those places. What was it? There was a certain kind of school? The School of the Prophets, right? So he's actually following through with those young people.

Does that touch your heart? Because he knew that he was about to be gone. So 1 last time he was following through with mentoring the young people that he had poured his life into. Isn't that awesome? But he has that 1 young man right beside him and he comes up to a place, the Jordan.

How many people, young people are watching him at this point? What does scripture say? 50. 50 are watching. He comes up to the Jordan.

He has an opportunity. He can say, come over here, 50. Can you build us a raft real quick? And then even to this day, we'd be talking about what a great raft that he, that they made for the great prophet Elijah or he could have said to Elisha hey you're the young buck you figure it out you get me across you know maybe you swim across first and make sure it's okay whatever and we'd be talking about how brave Elisha was. But what does Elijah do?

He takes off his mantle. And if this is the Jordan, he takes it and he slams it down on the water. And what happens to the water? The water parts. Elijah knows that's where he's supposed to go.

The Spirit of God is driving him, moving him, leading him. By the way, who's leading you? Who's leading me this morning? Are we just doing our own thing? If we're doing our own thing in these last days, there would be no reason for a young person that you and I are mentoring to want twice as much of the Holy Spirit as what we have.

Why would they want twice as much of the Holy Spirit in our lives if they don't see the Holy Spirit doing something in our lives that they know we could never do on our own? Am I making sense? Why would they? Well, Elijah goes with him. This is important.

Elijah doesn't just stand looking as if it's the Red Sea waiting for something to happen. We're in the very last closing scenes of earth's history. If you believe it, say amen. We're in the final times. How long is this final time?

That's not my business, it's God's, right? But it's all set up. The table is set for final events to happen very, very, very fast. If there ever was a time for God's people to cross Jordans, then the Jordan could be a huge opportunity that 1 of us here has. That we know the Spirit of God has brought us to over a lifetime of experience, resources, building, whatever connections that God has given you and you know he's called you to do something, but you're saying, but what happens if I fail?

A Jordan could be an opportunity. The Jordan could be like my wife getting cancer 3 and a half years ago. You know, the Jordan could be something that is a crisis, and you're thinking, what am I gonna do now? Whatever is your Jordan, we are at a pivotal point right now to cross Jordans by faith and not by sight, to go in the name of Jesus Christ, who has all authority, and to cross those opportunities, those crises, and sometimes they're 1 and the same, right, and to cross them boldly with our Elisha. Young people are watching, by the way, your leadership and mine, are they not?

They are watching. Unfortunately, many of them are watching from afar because we are going so fast, we are not investing in them. This morning is an appeal to invest in the new generations and to do it now. That takes time. It means we'll have to slow down a bit.

And it may actually not be good for our name, our reputation, if the world knows this is the 1 that you're mentoring and they mess up. Wow. But are we going to come alongside of them? Help them be all that they can be? Are we willing for them to go beyond us even?

And for Jesus Christ to shine more brightly through them. This is an opportunity that we have. So he says to Elisha, what do you want? And he's expecting I don't know what and he says I want a double portion of the Spirit that you have. Wow!

Well, you know what happens. Elijah goes up in a whirlwind and look up with me. Can you imagine a little speck way up there coming and what's what's coming down? What's coming down? The mantle, right?

The mantle comes down. And can you imagine if you're Elisha? Elisha's there and I imagine he's thinking, do I dare pick this up? There's no magic in it, but it's a symbol of the authority of who? The power of the Lord!

And it's a serious thing to take up that mantle and Elisha does pick it up. Praise God. By the way, are you investing yourself in a younger person not only to have your skill set but to have your walk with God and more than you have with God. Are you investing your life in someone? So he picks it up and look at scripture with me in verse 14.

He took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and struck the waters and said, where is the Lord the God of Elijah? And when he had also had struck the waters, they were divided here and there, and Elisha crossed over. And then look at 15, this is so moving. Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho opposite him saw him, they said, the spirit of Elijah rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him and bowed themselves to the ground before him.

They were not worshipping him. They were in awe that the same God who moved so mightily in Elijah now had rested upon him. Do you want the person that you're investing in the young person? Do you want our church in these last days to recognize that the hand of God is upon them? Are you okay with them being more effective than you leading more souls to Christ than you, making a bigger splash for the kingdom of God than you.

Are you willing? Because Elijah was willing to drop the mantle. And if you do a quick study, you can see that Elijah's ministry went way deeper, way broader than Elijah's ever did. Yes, Elijah's the 1 we talk about because he's up on the mountaintop, right? And fire fell.

Elijah didn't see that happen. We need Elijah's, but we also need Elisha's. Elisha's go deeper, have a more extensive work. There is double as many signs, wonders, I should say, miracles, you know, in the life of Elisha's ministry, than Elijah. Isn't that precious?

But we don't talk about Elisha near as much. I remember 1 day that in the last place where I pastored before God called me to my own Jordan experience of Leaving pay and salary and just being a full-time volunteer And that was such a crazy thing at that time for me to hear from God I had no idea what it would be I was not so sure about stepping into that Jordan and and God had to really really speak to my heart that morning, a little bit over 8 and a half years ago. But right before that happened, a couple years before that, I started in earnest getting children and teens to preach with me and preach the word. And I got resistance in my church from a whole sector because they weren't hearing smooth things. They weren't hearing something that tickled them just for adults.

I had children speaking the word, had teenagers speaking the word. And I remember 1 day, an elderly woman came up, and she said, pastor, she said, come down here. Now, she's a short little lady. And I said, yes, ma'am. And so I went down.

She said, further, further, further, further. She said, I need to speak in your ear and she spoke very loudly and she said pastor I have been noticing she's she's shouting in my ear I'm saying I'm sure you're noticing I she said I've been noticing that you have been having young people up there and teaching and preaching the word. And I embraced myself because I had had some people walk out of the church because children and teens were preaching often with me. And she said, I have something to tell you. I said, tell me.

They preach better than you do. And I said, hallelujah. And I said, can I give you a hug? And I hugged that little grandma close to my heart and I said, we need more of you. We need more of you.

Years passed just a few years ago when April my wife got cancer and everything or the stage was set in in the country of Zambia with the government of Zambia not the Seventh-day Adventist Church the government of Zambia was asking our whole ministry to go in our ministry only of volunteers I have no employees and invited us to go in and to train their public school teachers to disciple their students across the country Everything was set April gets the diagnosis the Spirit of God says done where you need to be is home. You need to come alongside of your wife big time, which I did. But then I had a problem. What to do? I called up a godly younger woman on our on our pretty extensive volunteer team around the world and I called her up after much prayer with my wife, and I said, sister, I need to ask you to do something for the glory of Jesus Christ.

She said, happy to help, thinking I was gonna ask her to write something, do some small thing. And I said, I need you to go to Zambia that I've been investing in for the last 10 years of my life. I need to go in my place to the government of Zambia and say you're here in place of Pastor Don to walk alongside the highest educators of Zambia as they go through a whole training for all their public school teachers. And she wept before God. She said, I cannot be you.

And I said, Hallelujah, you're not me. Shine for Jesus. I said, I and others have been pouring into you for years you go and shine for him and And God will use you more mightily and he did if I would have been there I would have gotten in the way of what God wanted to do on that scale As Mark sings I just have a simple last-moment Invitation as he sings who in this room would come before the Lord and humble yourself and surrender your agenda and your time and your schedules and all the things you have to do and say God give me give me a young person that I could mentor not only to do what I do skill-wise but to walk with you with what you've taught me but to go beyond me with for the glory of Jesus Christ If you're willing as he sings to give up all the busyness that you have and put it before the Lord and say, I want to be vulnerable, like bring a name to my heart. Even today on my way home, Is that fair enough to say? On my way home today, God, give me the name of someone that I can come alongside, pour into, so they can go beyond me.

Then if that's you, then please come and join me. You can stand or if you can kneel, you can kneel with me and I'll pray with whoever comes. Dear God in heaven, we come before you and we're on our knees. Forgive me and forgive us in this room we've been so busy about our Father in Heaven's business that we haven't had time for our Father in Heaven and we haven't had time to find our Elisha and invest our life in our Elisha. God, young people are going to do a work that we were too shy to do, too busy to do.

You're raising them up all over this planet now. Many young people are wondering, Who will mentor me to do what must be done? They are moved in their heart, they're called by you, but they are in desperate need of men and women who will come alongside of them, put an arm around them and say, I'm with you. Make mistakes, but go forward in the faith and power of Jesus Christ. And I'm with you when you have success.

I'm with you when you fail. I'm just with you all the way. Oh God, Thank you for your patience and your grace for us. All of us have been mentored at some time by somebody to do something. Now is the time for all of us in this room to give back way more to a young person that's in the world's most difficult time and blessed time to be alive, help us to give more than someone ever gave to us.

Pour our lives into them. Make these young men and young women and these children and youth have an experience deeper than ours. Give them more boldness than us, holy boldness, fearlessness and faithfulness. Give us the joy of having an Elisha. And then at the proper time, get us out of the way, God, and let them shine and let the world take note that they have been with Jesus.

Go with us now from this incredible weekend. Go with us on our journeys home. Give us safety, yes, but give us even more than safety, give us holy faithfulness. Bring to our mind who this person should be, but even on our long journey let us shine for you. Be led by your spirit into conversations that matter for the kingdom of God.

In Jesus' name, Amen. This media was brought to you by Audioverse, a website dedicated to spreading God's Word through free sermon audio and much more. If you would like to know more about Audioverse, or if you would like to listen to more sermons, Please visit www.audioverse.org.

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Morning Devotionals

Grace for Your Elisha

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Parent Conference

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Other Teachings in Series

Grace in the Darkness

16m

Grace for the Wounded

15m

Grace for Your Elisha

21m

Sound Doctrine