2nd Kings chapter 2 the book
of 2nd Kings chapter 2 I want to read verse 8 9 and then skip
over to verse 14 13 and 14 and Elijah this is 2nd Kings chapter
2 verse 8 and 9 and Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together
and smoked the waters and And they were divided hither and
thither, so that they too went over on dry ground. And it came
to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha,
Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee.
And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit
be upon me. And he said, Thou hast asked
a hard thing. Nevertheless, if thou see me
when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee, but if
not, it shall not be so." Now let me read verse 13 and 14.
And he took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him. The chariot of fire had appeared,
the horses of fire, and had parted them both asunder, and Elijah
had went up to heaven in a whirlwind. And so, Elisha now will go back
over Jordan. They had went over, and you remember
as we just read, Elijah had smoked the waters and they had parted
hither and thither. So the two had went over on dry
ground. Now, Elisha is coming back. And he took up also the
mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and went back and stood
by the bank of Jordan. And he took the mantle of Elijah
that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is
the Lord God of Elijah? And when he also had smitten
the waters, they parted hither and thither, and Elisha went
over." Now you're aware of the fact that Elisha was that one
chosen of God to be the successor of Elijah. And Elijah had gone
by his home place one day, and he was, uh, Elisha was plowing
with the oxen, and so he took his mantle and he cast it upon
him, and Elisha knew what it meant. And so he said, let me
go and kiss my parents goodbye. He went and kissed his parents.
And then he slew a yoke of oxen and burnt them as a sacrifice
unto the Lord and came and followed Elijah until this day when Elijah
was taken up in the whirlwind into heaven. Elijah is one of
those men who never suffered a physical death. He was taken
up, Enoch and Elijah, two men that were caught up and taken
up into heaven. But this prayer of Elijah in
verse 14 has often been a real challenge to my soul. And I thought
about it a good bit this last week. And I want this morning,
if I can, to say a few things to you about this in the allotted
time that I have. And I trust that the Lord has
prepared our hearts to receive a message this morning from Him. He took the mantle of Elijah
that fell from Him He smoked the waters and said, where is
the Lord God of Elijah? What a prayer. What words are
these? Now, Elisha, when he had asked
this question, was not simply asking about God in general. He wanted a particular type of
God. He wanted not any God, nor every
God, nor any aspect even of the true God, but the Lord God of
Elijah. But was the Lord God of Elijah
different from the God of other people? Well, the implicit doctrine
of this question seems to indicate that he was. The God of Elijah
was a different God than most of the religious people of that
day. You remember that Israel was
very idolatrous, and you remember that God used Elijah and the
power which he had put upon his life to turn the people back,
to turn their hearts back from idolatry to serve and to worship
the living God. And so the implicit doctrine
of this question seems to me to indicate that the God of Elijah
was not the God of the heathen, that he was the one true and
living God, the very name Elijah, means Jehovah is the Lord. Jehovah is God. And so we know
that Elijah represented this God of heaven. He represented
the God of heaven. Often he would say, thus saith
the Lord, thus saith the Lord. And we know that he said, thus
saith the Lord, to indicate that his message was from Jehovah
God. Others were speaking in the name
of their God and he wanted that men would know that he was owned
by Jehovah God and that he was speaking in his name. And so
when you read in the prophets when one says, thus saith the
Lord, then that's exactly what they're indicating. They're indicating
that they've heard from heaven, that they've heard from God,
and that they have a message from the true God, and they're
speaking it unto the people. Now, Elisha wanted the God that
he had seen manifested in Elijah. Now I want you to get that, I
want you to think about that a little bit at this time. Elisha
wanted the God he had seen manifested in the life of Elijah. Now Elisha
had got all of his theology from Elijah. Elijah never wrote one
word that we know about. He never wrote a word, yet Elisha
had got all of his theology from him. But there was no prophet
who had made such a permanent impression on Israel and on the
world like this man Elijah. And it was because of his God,
it was because of the gift of the power of his God upon his
life that he had been able to make such a permanent impression
upon the nation of Israel and upon the world. He lived his
theology. Now, I believe that is a very
important statement. I believe that's why that Elisha,
and why he wanted so much to have the God of Elijah, was because
Elijah had lived his theology. And he gave such a revelation
of God to his people that when he was gone, they said, where
is the God of Elijah? Where is the God of Elijah? Can
you imagine living around a man? Can you imagine walking and being
with or being near or hearing about a man who so impressed
the people and so glorified the God of heaven that men, when
he was gone, said, where is the Lord God of Elijah? Now what sort of a God was the
God of Elijah? What sort of a God was he? Well,
he was a God of wondrous power, a God of wondrous might. Shirley David said, power belongeth
unto God. He said, I said it once, I'll
say it again, power belongeth unto God. He was a God of wondrous
power. He was the God of Elijah. He
was a big God. He was a God that filled eternity. He was a God who was a God of
purpose, a God of will, a God of determination, a God who had
a people, a God who would spare his people, a God who would raise
up his people and would raise up those to follow that would
lead his people and would give them the victory. Now he was
a strict God. He was a stern God, a holy God. He was a jealous God. And one
of the things that we see so clearly in the life of Elijah
was that he had no time for those who were the prophets of Baal.
And he not only had no time for them, he enjoyed, I think rather
enjoyed, showing them up. for who they were, for what they
were, and not only that, but this man was so strict and stern
and so austere that he put them to death. He put to death the
prophets of Baal, said not one of them, don't let one of them
escape, put them to death. He was a man who believed God
and believed that all those that were heretics, that they ought
to be dealt with. He was a very, God is a jealous
God, and Elijah knew that God was a jealous and strict and
stern God. Now we want a God of that sort
today. I say that, would you say amen? Do we want a God of that sort
today? A God who's strict? A God who's jealous? Do you want
to worship a jealous God? Do you want to worship a God
that will not allow your heart to be attached to any other other
than Him? The God of the Bible is a jealous
God. And He will not allow you to
be running after the gods of this world. He will not allow
you to serve Him as well as mammon. He will allow you to serve money
in Him, to serve position and prosperity in Him at the same
time. God would have you to be attached
to Him, to love Him, to be in union with Him. He's a jealous
and a very strict God. We want a God of that sort today,
but the world is not impressed with this God of Elijah. They're
not impressed with him. And this world will never be
impressed with him until somebody, until somebody, until God is
pleased to undo with power somebody to show this generation that
God is yet on the throne, that God still lives, that he is still
the God of Elijah and still able to work wonders in this world. Well, what a little God some
people have. Some people have just a little
bitty God who can't do anything, not able to do anything. He's
a God who is able to do nothing because He cannot do anything
unless the will of man is joined with His will. Unless man will
permit Him or allow Him, He can't do anything. That's the God of
some people. But the God we worship and the
God we serve is a God who has a holy will and holy purpose,
who is sovereign and rules from His throne in heaven above. He's God in heaven, He's God
on earth, and all men are subjects of His. He said, All are My servants. You're the servant of God this
morning. You said, Preacher, I don't want anything to do with
God. You're His servant. You say, well, I don't want to
figure into His will and purpose. You're figuring into it. You're
involved if you're on this earth and if you're living and drinking
God's water and eating His food and wearing His clothes and breathing
His air, you're involved in the purpose of Almighty God. You
say, I don't like it. Many people don't like it. But
whether it makes you glad or sad, it's true. You're the servants
of God. And thanks be unto God for those
who know this God, this big God, and worship Him, and bow before
Him, and are willing to praise Him, willing to rejoice in Him,
and to be glad in this big God that inhabiteth eternity, and
all the inhabitants of the earth are imputed as nothing to Him.
He's God in heaven, in the arms of heaven, and among the inhabitants
of the earth. Praise the Lord. Well, some gather
their conception of God from watching us. Think about that
statement a little bit. Some gather their conception
of God from watching us. Do you believe that Elisha got
his conception of God from watching Elijah? I believe it. I believe
it. I mean, he watched this man.
He saw what happened. when the prophets of Baal were
put to shame and when they were slain. He saw what happened or
heard what happened at Cherith when the Lord provided and fed
Elijah, you know, sent the raven and brought his food to him at
the brook. He saw what happened and heard
what happened at Zarephath, the widow of Zarephath. And he heard
about how that Elijah had raised her son from the dead. And he heard about all of this.
And beloved, he got his conception of God, and so when he's back
here at Jordan, and when he has the mantle of Elijah with him,
he says, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? I want this God of
Elijah to come down and to be my God. I've received a double
portion of the Spirit. You remember how that Elisha
pursued after Elijah. He wouldn't let him out of his
sight. He wouldn't let him out of his sight. This man has got
something and it's what I need, it's what I must have, and I
can't serve God, the Holy God, Jehovah God, in this world unless
I have what this man had. I've got to have it. Where is
the Lord God of Elijah? Where is he at today? Where is
he at today? Our aim in life is to live so
as to reveal this God of Elijah, reveal this God of the Bible
to those around us. Think about that statement. That's
our aim in life. Do you want people to know the
Lord? Do you want them to know that Jehovah is God? Do you want
them to know the sovereign God of the universe? Do you want
them to know the Lord? Well, then, my friend, that is
to be your aim in life, is to reveal God, to so walk, to so
live, to so honor the God of heaven, the God of the Bible,
in order that those around you would get their conception of
God from viewing you. Now, my friend, how much trouble
would your neighbors be in if they get their conception of
God from you? How much trouble would they be
in? Would you say, well, they're going to be okay? They're going
to be okay. I wish we could all say that,
but I know that there are many, many people in this world who
do not truly represent the God of the Bible, who profess to
know the Lord. And they do not truly represent
the Lord. They live lives that are unbecoming
to the gospel of redeeming grace. unbecoming to Christ. Now there
was a boy back in the days of George Whitefield and George
Whitefield was a mighty preacher of the gospel and this little
boy was sickly, very sickly from his birth and he was about 10
years old or 11 and he went to hear Mr. Whitefield preach the
gospel and Mr. Whitefield could preach the gospel. He could really preach the gospel
in the power of the Holy Spirit. Well, this young fella heard
him preach, and in a little while, in a few weeks, this young fella,
a great fever came upon him, and he knew he was dying. And
what he said was this. He said, I know I'm dying, but
he said, I want to go to be with Mr. Whitfield's Christ. That's
what I want. I want to go to be with Mr. Whitfield's Christ. Now, those
around us, If they view us, look at us, listen to us very long,
would you reckon they'd ever make a statement like that? They're
about to die, and they would say, I want to go to be with
brother so-and-so's Christ. I want to go to be with sister
so-and-so's Christ. Well, beloved, I'm telling you,
Elisha got his view of theology and conception of God from old
Elijah. And I pray God that we might
be able to impress this generation for the glory and praise of God. Now, the name the Lord God of
Elijah carries in it a revelation of a God that we need to believe
in. In these days, the name, the
Lord God of Elijah, carries in it a revelation of God. We told you that the meaning
of the word Elijah is Jehovah is God indeed, God in truth. There's a great deal in a name
if it is revealed from on high. If this name be given from God,
there's a great deal in it. You know the name John the Baptist,
it came down from heaven. And the name Jesus came down
from heaven. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
because he shall save his people. It was a divinely appointed name.
And the name of Elijah, the meaning of that name, given of God, there's
a revelation in it of God. And we need to believe in this
God and in this day. Now Elijah was a man of great
faith. He was a man who believed God. He was a man who had been
greatly moved by God. God had laid hold of him. I don't
know all the ins and outs about his conversion, but I know that
he was a converted man, and he was a man of faith. And he asked
for things that were never asked for before. He asked for things
that were never asked for before, and not only that, but he was
never disappointed in the answer that he got. You remember he
prayed that it wouldn't rain on the earth. For three and a
half years it did not rain. He prayed again. He was a man
subject to like passions as we are. He prayed again and then
it rained. It rained on the earth. So he
was a man of faith indeed and is set up to us as an example
of prayer and faith. Now beloved, we must be men of
prayer if we would be living manifestations of God. If we
would be living manifestations of God, we must be in communion
with God. How are men going to know that
we've been with Jesus unless we have truly been with him in
communion and fellowship, unless the power of Christ, the power
of the resurrected Christ has come down upon our lives. Now, Elisha grasped the kernel
of the matter. It was Elijah's God who gave
him his power, and so his cry is, Where is the Lord God of
Elijah? He laid hold of the kernel of
the matter. He knew that the man himself, apart from God,
was not the thing that he needed to be seeking. He knew, and you
don't find him sitting down somewhere weeping. He knew the Lord took
him out of the world, and what he needed was the Lord God of
Elijah. He needed Elijah's God. That's
what he needed. Now Elijah was a different man
from, Elisha was a different man from Elijah. He could not
go about, Elisha could not go about imitating Elijah. That would be absolutely foolish.
Couldn't do it. He couldn't go out and say, well,
I'm just going to act like old Elijah. I'm just going to act
like him. I'm going to be up here smiting
the waters with this mantle and I'm going to go over here and
I'm going to lay down on a dead person and I'm going to do such
and such and so and so. No way. No way. He wasn't going to do any such
thing as that. He couldn't do that. He was a
different man than Elijah. God had a different purpose for
him than he had for Elijah. It was a different day that he
lived in, and we need to learn a lesson from that. We cannot
recreate the days of Whitefield, Edwards, and Spurgeon, and Nettleton. We cannot recreate those days. Somebody said, well, we want
revival. We'll have revival, but if we
do, we cannot do it by recreating, as it were, or imitating some
of these old men of the faith upon whom the power of God fell
and great things happen. We cannot do it by trying to
recreate these days. But we have every right to pray,
where is the Lord God of these men? Where is the Lord God of
Spurgeon and Whitfield and Edwards and Nettleton? Where is the Lord,
their God? Where is He today? Why is His
power not upon us? We have every right to pray and
to seek that power. Now God has a will and purpose
for our day. Let us deny ourself, let us empty
ourself, let us seek not, let us seek only His power. Not only
His power, but Him! Let's seek Him, because when
we have Him, we'll have His power. Do you believe that? Well, where
is the God of Elijah? Where is He who made me, and
for whom I am made? Where is He? Where is this God
who alone can satisfy my soul? Where is He? If you're here this
morning and you're not a believer, you're not a child of God, you
should be asking that question. The Lord made me. He alone can
satisfy me. My soul was not made to be satisfied
with the world and was not made to be satisfied with gold, but
my soul was made to be satisfied with God. And until you know
God, you'll never be satisfied. You need to be asking that question,
where is he? Where is he? Oh, that I might
be able to find him. The great object of our souls
is to seek after the God of the Bible, to seek after him, to
seek him, like old Elijah did. Why? Elijah couldn't shake him
off. He said, I'm going over here,
just stay here. No, no, no, no, I'm not going
to stay here. I'm coming back. I'm going to follow you. I'm
going to stay right on your heels. I'm going to dog your heels.
I'm going to stay right on you. I heard about a missionary over
in China who was preaching and living over there for a number
of years, and he noticed this one Chinaman that was always
around. He always was around. Every time
he'd go out, this Chinaman was just following him, following
him, always looking up for everything he did. come to church, and he
would come here, go there, any place he would go, this Chinaman
was there. And so one day he talked to him
and asked him, so what's this about? You're always looking
at what I'm doing and following me around. And this Chinaman
said, listen, you're the only man that I've ever in my life
laid my eyes on that's got something I want and I must have, and I'm
going to follow you until I get it. Well, there's a good lesson
in that. This man, Elisha, followed Elijah. He wouldn't let him get away
from him. He wouldn't. He wanted the blessing. He wanted
the mantle and he wanted the blessing. And so, therefore,
if you want My friend, to be blessed of God, follow the Lord.
Follow and seek after the Lord and look to the Lord. May the
Lord empty you out of your selfishness and of your own will and empty
you out in order that He might fill you with Himself. Seek after
the Lord. That's the great object of our
souls. We love Him if we're in Christ. We love Him if we're in Christ.
We love His people. We love His people. By this we
know we've passed from death to life, that we love the people
of God. And we love His work. We love
His work. We love to be in the vineyard
of the Lord. We love to be able to preach
that one gospel of the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
to preach a gospel that has already been accomplished. That's a glorious
thing to be able to do that. To preach an accomplished gospel. Something that you don't have
to give people to work on. I mean just give it to them and
it's done. It's finished. The work is done. It's complete. An accomplished
gospel and it's glorious to them. But listen to me. All is dull
if the Lord himself be not there. If the blessing of God, the Lord
God of Elijah be not there, then if the Lord God of the Bible
be not there, then it's just wasted effort. We love the ministry
of God's Word, and by it our life is fed and nourished, but
still, if God Himself be not in the Word and with the Word,
what does it avail us? Do we need to pray for the blessing
of God to be with the Word and in the Word? Absolutely. Absolutely. Our spirits must be sustained
by the Holy Spirit, or else they'll faint. They'll faint. Only as
the Spirit of God anoints us with fresh oil, only as the Spirit
of God continues to come upon us, only then will we be able
to endure in this world. In reading a book, or in private
devotion, or in coming into the assembly of the saints, our chief
question is, and ought to be, where is the Lord God of Elijah
in all of this? Where is He at? For if we do
not find God in all these things, what have we found? Well, we
found nothing. We found ourselves and we looked
at ourselves and we listened to one another for a little while
and we all went out empty. We went out with nothing. We
had nothing when we come in and we went out with nothing because
the Lord was not there and the precious and priceless kernel
is lost to us and all we got is the husk. We have nothing. Well, in prayer, let me ask this
question, do we find the God of prayer? When you pray, do
you find the God of prayer? When we sing, do we feel we have
truly praised God when we sing? You know, that's what it's about.
We're here not just to entertain one another. We're here to glorify
God. We're here to praise God. We're
here to lift our hearts to Him. And have we truly, have we truly
done that? Has our song found Him? Have
we exalted Him? Have we really? These are questions
we need to be asking ourselves. Oh, what an effort it is sometimes
really to get to God in all these things. We go through the motions,
but will the fire ever fall from God on our hearts? Will it ever
fall? Somebody said, our hearts are
cold, preacher. Well, they are, but the God of fire, God can
answer the fire. He can thaw your heart out. He
can thaw you out. He can. You remember that the
fire fell on the burnt offering, on the offering that was on the
altar, and they had already poured barrel after barrel of water
on it, and the fire of God came down and consumed it all. And
I tell you, the fire of God can come down upon our services,
upon our meetings. We preach, but where is the power
of God unto salvation? Where is it? Where is the Lord
God of Elijah? When shall the Lord appear? When
shall the Lord loosen our tongues to where we'll be able to speak
like the pen of a ready writer? When will it happen? When will
we be blessed from God above and see the power of converting
grace come upon and fall upon the people? When shall we see
the hearts of men and women smitten and broken and crying out to
God, oh God be merciful to me the sinner. When will we hear
it? When will we see it? When will it happen? Where is
the Lord God of Elijah? Some of you are going to die
and go to hell. ...is over and over again. When will the fire
and power of God come upon you? When will you be regenerated?
When will you be made alive? People are being made alive in
this world to God now! They're being made alive. When
will you be made alive? When will the power fall on you?
When will it come? It must come. It must come from
God. We preach the gospel. Where's
the power of God unto salvation? unto salvation. The poet said,
I will approach thee. He said, I will force my way
through obstacles to thee. Well, we don't find very many
people forcing their way through obstacles now to find the Lord
God of Elijah. One said, I'll break through
gates of brass One said, I'll leap over the loftiest wall,
but I must get to my God. I must get to the living God.
I must get to that place. Oh, when shall I come and appear
before God? When shall I appear in His presence? When shall He come into my presence? I wish we were always in this
state of mind, where we'd be seeking the Lord with all of
our hearts, because God did not say unto the sons of Jacob, seek
ye me in vain. He didn't say that. Seek me in
vain. No, he said if you seek me with
all your heart, you'll find me. You'll find me. He said, you
draw nigh to me, I will draw nigh unto you. He said it. God
said it. Now we cannot listen. Where is
the Lord God of Elijah? We cannot live without him. We
can't live without him. Anybody's tasted. I told my son
Mark the other night, you'll never be able to live without
him now. He's blessed you and he's come down and he's filled
your heart with his love and his power. You've been baptized
in the Holy Ghost and you'll never be able to live without
him anymore. Never be able to live without
him. You just won't be able to do
it. He said, well, I'm afraid I'll go back. You'll never be
able to go back, son. We cannot live without Him. We
cannot be strong in the Lord without Him giving us His strength. We cannot rejoice without Him. He must give you the spirit of
joy and the spirit of rejoicing. We cannot live a Christian life
without Him. Can't do it. You say, I'll go
through the motions. You're wasting your time spinning
your wheels. You cannot live the Christian life without Him.
Listen, we would not even want to be in heaven without Him,
would we? No, we wouldn't want to be, it
wouldn't be heaven to us to be there without Him. It would be
no heaven to be there if the Lord was not there. Whom have
I, the psalmist said, in heaven but thee, and there is none upon
earth that I desire beside thee. Can a man say that? Can a man,
a living man, can a man born of a woman, can a man say that? Can he make that statement in
reality? Oh, can he make that statement?
Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee. Now listen to me. If you could
say that truly this morning, I think you'd be happy. If you
could say it truly, I think the joy of the Lord would be in your
heart. I think you'd really be able
to go out of here and say, well, bless God, I certainly have profited
by being there this morning. There is none on earth that I
desire beside thee. That don't mean that we don't
like the people we're around. That don't mean we don't like
our relatives. It don't mean that we don't like our spouses
and our husbands, our children. It don't mean that. It just means
that the overwhelming desire of our hearts is toward the Lord,
and that we can't live without Him, that we need Him. Let us
stir ourselves up to seek the God of the early church, the
God of the apostles, the God of our spiritual fathers. Now
quickly, before I close, I wanted to say a word or two about when
we could use this prayer. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? I think we could use this prayer
when we view or take a summary of the condition that exists
in the world today as far as the religious world is concerned.
My soul, when we look at this religious world, we are reminded
of the words of the Lord Jesus back over in the Gospel of John
Chapter 8 in verse 19 when he made this statement Then they
said unto him where is thy father Jesus answered you neither know
me nor my father if you'd known me You should have known my father
also now beloved These were religious people Jesus talking to and we're
steeped in religion And that's the first thing I think about
when I think about this world is and think about the things
of this world. Not so much the ungodliness,
and there's much of that, but I think of the churches are filled
with people who neither know me nor my father, saith the Lord
Jesus Christ. Neither know me nor my father. We're up to our eyeballs in religion
with people that neither know me nor my father. Now, beloved, We need to pray,
where's the Lord God of Elijah? Something's got to happen to
shake this generation out of their death. Now Elijah was one
who could raise the physical dead. And beloved, we need to
begin to pray, where's the Lord God of Elijah, that this generation
may be woke up. We got people saying, well, I'm
bound, you know, I'm bound to be saved. I'm a preacher. Wait
a minute, my friend. God did not send his son, Jesus
Christ, into this world to save preachers. He sent him into this
world to save sinners, not preachers. Oh, the best place in the world.
You can hide from God being a preacher, hiding behind the pulpit, you
can hide. Some of the deacons said, well, I know, I must be
saved, I'm a deacon. Well, Jesus Christ did not die
to save deacons either. He died to save sinners. You
say, well, preacher, I'm a moral person. Well, morality is not
knowing God, my friend. You say, well, I do my duty. What do in your duty is not knowing
God. It is not. Knowing God is to
be born by the power of God from heaven. God sending his spirit
into your heart and regenerating and recreating and making you
a new creature in the Lord Jesus Christ. You look at this world
and you will pray, where is the Lord God of Elijah? Where is
he at? We've got to have him again.
He must come again or we'll never affect this generation. We'll
never in any way, shape or form touch the men of our day and
shake them out of their spiritual death and bring them into the
life and liberty and glory of the gospel and of the redeemed. Well, another thing, let me mention
quickly, I've got to hurry. when we're called upon to undertake
some new office or some work unknown to us. Here's Elisha. And he just took over as it was. Elijah is gone. He's gone. And Elisha has the job. The mantle
has fallen upon his shoulders. And now he must walk. He must do. He must follow in
the way of the Lord. He must accomplish that. which
the Lord would have him to accomplish in the world. And so he prays,
where is the Lord God of Elijah? My friend, the Lord must raise
up those to take over, and those to lead in the way, and those
to take the responsibility. The mantle will fall upon somebody
in this church in the years to come. Very soon, maybe. Only
God knows. But I thought some about this,
and you know, the thing that you need to do, the thing that
any man needs to do that's thrust into a new position or into a
new office is he needs to seek the God of Elijah. He needs to have the power of
God to come down upon him. I thought about passing all of
my boxes of notes on to somebody, Mike or somebody else, and I
thought to myself, I don't know whether to do that or not. The
best thing to do probably is for them to seek the Lord. To
seek the Lord and cry out, where is the Lord God of Elijah? So
that I may be able to bear the yoke and that I can do what the
Lord would have me to do because my day will be a different day
in many aspects than Dad's day and so on. And so the need is
to cry out, where is the Lord God of Elijah? And before you
get into this pulpit or any other pulpit, you ask God to anoint
you with fresh oil and to pour out the spirit of grace, anointing,
utterance upon your life that you may be able to speak. Only
God can do that. And you must look to the Lord,
because as this man was the successor of the prophet of fire, he must
have God's fire in his soul to be able to accomplish. We know
that the mantle which fell upon Elijah was only a relic apart
from the God of Elijah. There you are. And so the sermon
notes and all of this and that are nothing but relics apart
from the God of power. And so remember that. Well, and
I think when some great difficulty lies in your way that you should
pray this prayer. Where's the Lord God of Elijah?
They were over Jordan. He had to get back. a great difficulty. You say, well, that would have
been tough. I mean, now let's say that he
was powerless. Let's say that God was not with
him. Say the Lord God of Elijah was not with him. How are you
going to get back over? Well, the Lord God of Elijah was with
him. And so when, do you have any rivers that seem to be uncrossable? Do you have any mountains you
can't tunnel through? The song says, Do you have any
difficulties right now facing you? Real difficulties? Maybe you should pray as old
Elijah did in verse 14. Where is the Lord God of Elijah? Where is he at? Where is he at?
I've got a difficult situation. I'm in trouble. I'm in so much
trouble. I can't get out. I don't have
any way. There's no way. I need wisdom. I need direction.
I need grace. I need understanding. Oh God,
I need you. Where is the Lord God of Elijah?
And I tell you that Jordan can hither and thither. The waters
can go back. They can go back. You think God can't deliver?
He can deliver. He can deliver. Say, Preacher,
you're old-fashioned. Maybe old-fashioned, but God
can deliver! He can deliver. And we need to
believe it. We need to believe it. What things?
Whatever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive
them, and you shall have them! You'll have them. Believe that
you receive them, and you will have them. So then, in these
great difficulties lying in front of you, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? The best thing we can do in all
times of trouble and trials is to lay the matter before the
Lord. He has the solution to all of our problems. He has the
answer to all of our riddles. There's nothing which can possibly
be beyond the power of Him whose name is, what? Jehovah. The I Am, God All-Sufficient
is what it means. He can, somebody said, He can
wield the power of nature and providence to bring to pass his
purpose and to subdue a rebellious people. I believe that. I believe
that. Where's the Lord God of Elijah?
Well, that's the message this morning. May we be found praying
earnestly that God will visit us. I believe the best days of
this church is yet to come. I believe it is. Right now I
believe it. I believe the best day is yet to come. If you, brethren,
will cry to God, if you'll seek the Lord, the anointing of God
will come on you, and you will be able to go forward in the
name of the Lord. Seek the Lord. Seek the God of
Elijah. Seek Him. Seek Him. Don't try
to imitate anybody else. Seek the God of Elijah. Seek Him. Now we're going to
take the Lord's Supper.