Our morning Old Testament lesson comes from the book of 1 Kings. We're reading a few verses out of chapter 19. Chapter 19 verses 19 through 21. If you're using the blue Bible in the seat in front of you, you'll find this passage on page 301. Let me invite you now to open your copy of God's Word as we take a look at 1 Kings chapter 19. This is God's holy and inerrant and inspired word given to us that we might see Christ. 1 Kings 19, verse 19. So he departed from there and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen in front of him. And he was with the 12th. Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak on him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you. And he said to him, go back again, for what have I done to you? And he returned from following him and took the yoke of oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yokes of the oxen and gave it to the people. and they ate. Then he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him." Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our most gracious and glorious and kind Father, we come before you this morning as those who are called by your name, called by the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, that we might gather to worship you. that we would come to sit under your word, for they are the words of life. Father, as this word is preached, would my word be faithful to your word, that your people would be encouraged, that the lost would be found, that your glories would be made known. Father, we thank you that while the grass withers and the flower fades, the word of the Lord stands forever. Amen. When I grew up in the state of Tennessee, when you turned 15, you could get your learner's permit. I know it's a year later here in New Jersey, which is given by my driving abilities at 15. It may be a good idea. But when I turned 15, you're supposed to be able to drive with your guardians. And that's what it's supposed to be limited to. It's a time of learning. And I noticed as soon as I turned 15, though, when I would come home from my church, my grandparents would usually give my brother and me a ride home. And my grandmother would always insist, Donnie, you have your permit now. Why don't you drive? And so I just assumed it was because my grandmother wanted to give me more experience, more practice learning how to drive. And I was explaining this to my mom one day, and she said, oh, sweetie, no, that's not it at all. I said, really, what is it? She goes, no, grandmother wants you to drive because Papaw is a terrible driver. My grandfather was the sweetest, lovely man that I've ever known. And he gave me part of my love for history because, I mean, he was always telling stories. And everywhere we went, something would trigger a memory for him of some sort of local history in the area, some family that he knew, some real estate that he might be selling, or some historical event that happened. And as he would tell these stories, he would tell them with his whole body. Now normally this was fine, but when you're driving, it's not as good because as he would start to see something off on the side, he would point to it and the car would drift that way. And so you were constantly having to yell at my grandmother's just Bill, Bill, you know, as they're driving so that he would swerve back and then it's kind of swerved back into the lane. So my grandmother's like, well, Donnie's driving now, let him drive us home. There's something about driving that you kind of need a focus on what you're doing. There needs to be something of a singular focus on the task at hand. This was something that my grandfather failed at. There's something of what we see in this passage with Elisha. There is a calling God puts on his life, and when God calls us, there is a single-minded focus that is required, a single-minded devotion to follow what God has called us to. Let me recount a little bit of where we are, give some of the context and the overview of this story. Elijah has defeated the prophets of Baal. Now, I will do my best to try to keep Elijah and Elisha straight. Your job as a listener is to know which one I mean, not which one I say. Elijah has defeated the prophets of Baal. Great challenge on Mount Carmel. 450 prophets of Baal versus Elijah. And Elijah says, let's have a contest. Whichever god brings down fire, burns up the sacrifice, that god is actually God. So they have this contest on Mount Carmel, and Elijah wins. The prophets of Baal fail in their prophecy. Baal does not answer their prayers. Elijah prays. God answers his prayer. He is God. And then Elijah slaughters the prophets of Baal. This is a huge victory for Elijah. And Ahab, the king, sees all of this. And then Elijah prays again for the drought to end. After three and a half years, there has been no rain. Elijah prays. He tells Ahab the rain is going to come. And then it starts to rain. And they run off to Jezreel. Ahab in his chariot and Elijah beating him on foot. And they get to Jezreel, where Ahab's wife Jezebel is. And Jezebel hears all that Elijah has done, and she is not convinced. She is not persuaded that Yahweh is the one true God. She is still a committed Baal follower. Despite all of the best arguments, all of the best apologetics, despite Elijah's best shot, Jezebel and the people are still unconvinced. And so Elijah is understandably despondent. God calls Elijah to Mount Horeb, to the mountain of God, and there on this mountain, there is an act of covenantal administration. What do I mean by that? The prophet lays down a covenantal accusation. Here are all of the ways that Israel has failed the one true God. And then God gives a response. He gives a covenantal judgment on them. The judgment is that Elijah is now going to anoint Hazael and Jehu as kings, and he is going to anoint Elisha, the son of Shaphat, as a prophet. These are the guys who are going to enact the judgment of God on a people who continually and constantly and obstinately rebel against God. They are the ones who are going to strike down with a sword all of those who even despite the best arguments and apologetics, for all the best reason, for all of the evidence to the contrary, they still refuse to return to God. And so God will send Hazael to strike them down. And everyone that Hazael misses, he will send Jehu to strike down. And everyone that Jehu misses, Elisha will strike down. Now, perhaps this sounds harsh. But this is the result of generations of covenantal rejection. This is the result of generations playing fast and loose with God, and then a full embrace of paganism through Ahab marrying Jezebel, and essentially ceding the kingdom and the throne to this Baal-worshipping woman. This is what happens when men who are called by God reject that call, and instead decide to follow their lust and their carnal desires. And then that is passed on from father to son, from father to son. Dads, don't screw this up. Heed God's call, or you will be judged on account of Jezebel. Happy Father's Day. So Elijah leaves Jezreel, he goes to Mount Horeb, he leaves Horeb and he goes to find Elisha, the son of Shaphat. Now we're going to begin to see in our narrative in Kings that the focus is gonna move a little bit from Elijah to Elisha. Elijah is going to have a few more important moments before he's taken up in glory, but really from here on the majority of the narrative is going to shift and focus on Elisha. Now, this call might seem sudden to us, right? We are right in the middle of really big things happening with Elijah, and suddenly there's this call to Elisha. But this was all part of God's plan. Now, some people have looked at this and they said, you know what, this is indicative of a judgment on Elijah. This is indicative of a judgment on Elijah because Elijah failed before Jezebel. He responded in fear instead of faithfulness, and now God is like the baseball manager walking out to the mound. He's tapping his arm, bring out the righty. We need somebody else to come out and try to win this game because Elijah is throwing garbage. Elijah's being yanked for a fresh arm, Elisha. Now, I don't think that's the case. I don't think Elijah was sinful in his fleeing. I think it's more a case that Elijah has done everything he could possibly do. What better argument could he make for the supremacy of the one true God than what he did on Mount Carmel? If we want to stick with a pitching analogy, Elijah had pitched well, he had gotten a lead, and now Elisha is being brought in to secure the save. He's there to finish the job. Now, narrative focus is going to shift here to Elisha, and while Elijah is still going to do some things, Elisha will exceed him. Elisha is going to do some remarkable things. There are gonna be some miracles. Some of them will mirror what Elijah has done, but Elisha will do more. Now, all of this might seem sudden to us, but this sudden calling of Elisha is not sudden to God. This was planned and prepared by God well before. God is not just pulling things together at the last minute. Our perspective, it might appear sudden. But as Ralph Davis says, suddenness is the wrapping paper in which God's sovereignty arrives. You may feel like circumstances are suddenly thrust upon you in your life, but they do not catch God by surprise. Those events, whether they be blessings, whether they be trials, whether they be opportunities, these events are given to you according to God's perfect wisdom and timing. These sudden events are opportunities that God has given to you in which you have the privilege to exercise faith in the sovereignty of God. Now Elijah, he finds Elisha, And Elisha is doing exactly what somebody would be doing if there had been three and a half years of drought and suddenly there was rain. He's out plowing the field. And Elijah sees him, he walks by him and he casts his cloak upon him. Now, that would be really odd if one of us did that. We don't exactly know what that means in our culture, but we know that clearly Elisha knew what it meant, because his response is to run after Elijah, saying, I'll follow you. We can pick up on the context, we can understand then what does this throwing of the cloak on one mean? It means come follow me, and Elisha follows Elijah. He says his goodbyes, he takes his oxen, he hosts a quick barbecue, he burns up the yokes, and he severs his attachment to the land and to the people. And then he follows Elijah. That's a short passage, there's only a few verses. There's not a whole lot more to this story, but if we dig down into some of these aspects, there are some important things for us to see. One of the things we need to see, the cost of the call. What is the cost of the call? Elisha in that moment had to weigh the cost of the call that was being put on his life. It was not cheap. It was going to cost Elisha his affections and his security. Elisha tells Elijah, let me kiss my father and mother and then I will follow you. For Elisha, going with Elijah meant a change in all of his relationships. To follow Elijah meant it was now he was going to have to subordinate all other relationships to this relationship. Faithfulness to God is demonstrated in this call to follow Elijah had to be primary in his affections. In Luke 14, 26, Jesus gives this difficult command. He says, if you don't hate father and mother, if you don't hate your whole family, even your own life, you cannot follow him. Matthew chapter 10 gives a parallel to this, and he gives it a little different way to view it. He says, whoever loves family or self more than Jesus is not worthy to follow him, to be his disciples. Jesus isn't telling them that they have to violate the fifth commandment to follow him, but he is saying that he must be first. Family devotion is important. Family devotion is great. It should garner a great deal of our affections, but it is a devotion that must be penultimate, not ultimate. Elisha knows that following Elijah will cost him in the area of affections. Secondly, he knows it will cost him his security. The text tells us that Elisha is using 12 oxen to plow the field. Now this means that Elisha comes from a wealthy family. Now, even if he didn't own all of those oxen, the fact that he is using 12 to plow the field tells us that his yard is quite large. I have a pretty decent sized yard. My front yard is tiny, but my backyard is pretty big. And because of the backyard, I actually have a riding lawnmower to be able to mow the grass. Now, it is great for the back because it doesn't take me long to do it. I can do it quickly. But in the front yard, it is really a pain. because I have this big riding mower in this very tiny yard. And so not only is it difficult where I've kind of got to go like forward and backward and forward and backward and angle around to try to get all the little parts. But then when I'm doing the front, like people are driving by on the street and I'm sitting on this riding tractor on like a postage stamp size of a yard. I'm like, what must these people think about? You don't use a big tractor when you have a little yard. Elisha has a big yard, that's right. He's got 12, he must have a sizable piece of property. This would be a sign of great wealth. And there's a comfort and an ease that comes with great wealth. And Elisha is going to have to give this up to follow this call. He took the yoke of oxen, and he barbecues it. Well, according to the text, he boils it, which, let's just be honest, it's not a great way to do it. Like, if you have the option to, like, boil meat or barbecue it, barbecue it. But he boils it. He sacrifices it. He boils it. He gives it to everyone. He burns up the yolk that are binding the oxen together to do this work. He says goodbye to his family, he hosts a barbecue for the people, he's given up all of his security, he's given up all of his comfort in order to follow God's call. I remember when some good friends of ours answered a call to do ministry in South Asia and the wife left and she was honestly someone who was quite fearful. But as she was addressing the church right as they were leaving, she shared with her actually a quote from Stonewall Jackson that her father had told her. Jackson was asked about his courage on the battlefield, and his reply was this. He said, Captain, my religious beliefs teach me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time of my death, and I do not concern myself about that, but to be always ready no matter when it may overtake me. Captain, this is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave." My religious beliefs teach me to feel as safe in battle as I am in bed. We are prone to find security and comfort in a number of different things. But the security and the comfort that they offer is false. Elisha is giving up his security, he's giving up his comfort that he would have if he didn't obey this call, but he's turning from all this wealth and the comfort to secure, to grab a security and a comfort. that will far surpass anything he might ever have. We see in Elijah that there was no reserve in his life. There was nothing held back, but it was all offered up to follow this call. He gave up his affections, he gave up his security. There was a singular devotion to God. In Homer's Odyssey, Odysseus is sailing and he encounters the sirens. The sirens were these mythological creatures that would enchant and lure sailors to shipwreck their vessels by hearing these songs that they would sing. The music and their beauty from a distance would grab these sailors and it would entice them to come in too close to the rocks and they'd never make it. They were allured by these different things. Their focus was taken off the task at hand, and then they would find out they'd never make it. Now, Odysseus had been warned by Circe that these sirens were there, and so as he approaches, he has all of his sailors stuff their ears with beeswax. And then he has them tie himself, Odysseus is tied to the mast of the ship. And he says, whatever I tell you, don't untie me. No matter what order I give you, do not untie me. And so as they sail past, the sirens are affecting everyone except those who have the beeswax in their ears. But Odysseus, he's tied to the post and he's calling out, guys, guys, let me go. No, seriously, this all over now, let me go. And they don't, they tie him down tighter. Once out of earshot, they're able to untie Odysseus and they found their way to sail through the passage safe and sound. They have to have a singular devotion to not be distracted by all of the different things that might allure them. Elisha's singular devotion to God is on display through his faithful and joyful following of Elijah. Sometimes when we look at the story of Elisha, it might get colored by the reference Jesus makes to it in Luke chapter nine. In Luke 9, 61 through 62 is the third of three fellows who are challenged to follow Jesus. The third of these folks is challenged, and each of these people have an excuse for why they really, really want to follow Jesus, but this other thing is just really, really important. This third fellow says, he says, I will follow you, Lord, but first, let me say farewell to those at my home. Jesus responds, he says, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Now one of the things we need to recognize is there is a cultural difference between first century Palestine and the time we're speaking of in Elijah. There's a cultural difference between this and the time of Luke. The man in Luke is really requesting to take leave of his family. And what he means by this is he's telling Jesus, I'll go do this, but first I have to go ask permission from my father before I can follow you. Well, everyone would know the common assumption of every reader of Luke's gospel is that a father would never grant his son permission to follow some itinerant preacher. This would-be follower of Jesus is giving a ready-made answer of like, Jesus, I would really love to follow you, but I need to go check things with the old man. And of course he's gonna say no. That guy in Luke 9 is quite a bit different than Elisha. Elisha does not look back. He goes to his family in order to sever that connection. The guy in Luke 9 wants to go back to his family in order to find an excuse to avoid the call. But Elisha is not holding back, rather he's cutting loose. So we can't let this passage in Luke color the way we view Elisha. In fact, if properly understood, Jesus is referencing Elisha positively. He's saying, you don't plow by looking backwards. That's a good way to make terrible plow rows. You look forward to where you want to go. Elisha doesn't look back. He follows Elijah. He faithfully and joyfully drops everything to follow the call. No siren song would dissuade him or distract him from following Elijah. He burned up the yoke. He made a farewell barbecue, and then he follows Elijah. There was no retreat. Now, Elisha doesn't do much initially. The barbecue is over, Elisha rose, he went after Elijah and he assisted him. We don't know if he was the assistant prophet or the assistant to the prophet. But either way, it's not the most glamorous of jobs. This is in verse 16, just before this passage, we see that Elijah was told that Elisha is going to be anointed. He's going to be the one that kind of does the cleanup job on everything. He has a really important role as part of the judgment of God on the people. But now we see that he's simply assisting Elijah. He is Elijah's servant. In 2 Kings 3 verse 11, we see some of the duties that Elisha had. It says that one of the things he did is he poured water on Elijah's hands. He had to wash Elijah's hands. If you're making a brochure selling the benefits of ministry, this doesn't go in it. I ran across a Martin Luther quote. While I was reading a message by the Puritan John Flavel, Flavel was addressing men going into the ministry, and he quotes Martin Luther on the rigors of ministry. The labors of ministry will exhaust the very marrow from your bones, hastening old age and death. Awesome, where do I sign up? But perhaps this is what we need to hear today. I mean, you see it in the pews. There is a temptation for those in ministry to constantly be thinking, how do I climb the ladder? What can I do to be recognized? How do I build my brand? We are tempted constantly to be more like James and John. Lord, in your glory, can I sit at your right and your left hand? Ralph Davis makes the point, if we're asking that question of Jesus, it's not a far stretch before we're saying, I don't want to sit at his right and left hand, I want to sit in his seat. We don't usually want to be the servants. We want to be served. But Elisha provides a helpful check on our spirits. We follow God first and his call on our life is good and it is right. And if we see this, we will have no regrets. No reserve, no retreat, no regrets. William Borden was the heir of the Borden Dairy Farm and Company. It's a massive company around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. When he graduated high school in 1904, he was already incredibly wealthy. For graduation, his parents gave William a trip around the world. This was in 1904, so this was an incredibly luxurious type of gift. Borden traveled all the way through Asia, through the Middle East, and through Europe, and everywhere he went, William Borden was struck by a burden for the lost people that he saw. It is on this trip that William Borden decided, God is calling me to be a missionary. Now, folks began trying to talk him out of this. He said, William, you're throwing your life away. You could do so much more through this business and the different financial responsibilities and the different things you could do. Other people could go. You should do something else. But in response, Borden simply wrote in the back of his Bible two words, no reserve. Now, Borden's father wouldn't allow young William to enter the mission field. He insisted that he enroll in college. He hoped that if William went to college, given time, he would change his mind. So in 1905, William entered as a freshman at Yale University. Now, during his first year at Yale, William's father died. and William inherited the majority of the family fortune. He was now a multi-millionaire freshman in college. During his first or second year of college, he attended a student missionary association conference in Nashville, and at that conference, a professor and Muslim scholar and missionary named Samuel Zwemer spoke. Zwimmer spoke about the need for men to go and preach the gospel to Muslims, particularly those in Western China. Borden knew that that was what God was calling him to do. But Borden knew that he needed to be trained before he could go, so he continued his studies at Yale. But while he was in school at Yale, he noticed that in New Haven, Connecticut, the town was full of widows and orphans. There were poor people everywhere, so he took part of his fortune as a college student and founded the Yale Hope Mission. At nights, Borden would be found down in the seedy parts, in the lower parts of the city, on a street or some restaurant, ministering to the poor, leading people to Christ. After he graduated, he went to Princeton Seminary to train for the ministry. He excelled in his studies. His mother moved in with him because she was now a widow, and so he purchased a large house in Princeton, and this house basically had a revolving door for all of the poor in the area to come and always have a meal. He began to serve on the boards of mission agencies and ministries. He actually served on the board of a mission agency that he would later serve with. He had to formally step down for the board temporarily so that he could be interviewed by that board to be accepted as a missionary. After college, William Boren turned down a number of highly lucrative job offers. He was giving away vast amounts of his fortune to the poor in New Haven and in Princeton. And sometime during college, he wrote two more words in the back of his Bible, no retreat. William Borden finally began his missionary work. He went to serve in Western China among the Chinese Muslims. He knew he needed to study Arabic first so that he would be able to understand the Islamic component of his ministry. And then he would go to China and learn Chinese. So as an interim, he went to Egypt to begin to learn Arabic. And he studied with Samuel Zwimmer, the same speaker that he had heard in Nashville years before. They had a great short ministry in Egypt as Zwimmer tried, or as Borden tried to learn Arabic. Zwimmer had to leave Egypt for a few months for some ministry obligations. And while he was gone, he received a telegraph. Samuel Borden had contracted meningitis. Within a month, William Borden was dead. He was 25 years old. Now his death was major news. Nearly every American newspaper carried his obituary. And the story goes that as they found his Bible, they found two more words written in the back dated to sometime around when he would have contracted meningitis. No regrets. One of William Borden's friends, another missionary named Sherwood Day, wrote these words in his journal when he heard about his friend's death. I have absolutely no feeling of a life cut short. A life abandoned to Christ cannot be cut short. Cut short means not complete, interrupted. And we know that our master does not do halfway jobs. We must pray now that those to whom God wants this to appeal may listen. No reserve, no retreat, no regret. Are we willing to follow the call of Christ no matter the cost? Are we willing to have a singular devotion to Christ? Are we willing to enter into the service of Christ even when it means we have to give up our fame, our fortune, our security, our comfort, our opportunities? Not all are called to go to the mission field and give of their lives. Not everyone is called to reach Muslims in Western China. Not everyone is called to go to the jungles of Bangladesh. Not everyone is called to the slums of India. Not everyone is called to the mountains of Central America. Not everyone is called to the schemes of Scotland. Not everyone is called to the opioid wastelands of Appalachia and Rust Belt America. Not everyone is called to serve in these places, but some are. And if you are, then follow that call. with no reserve, no retreat, and no regret. And if you aren't called to something like that, then you are still called. You are called to a faithfulness in your current situation, a faithfulness as a banker or a teacher, as a student, as a shopkeeper, as a manager, as an accountant, as an engineer, as a man, as a woman, as a husband, as a wife, as a father, or as a mother. You are called to a faithfulness in that situation, a faithfulness that should be marked by no reserve, no retreat, and no regret. Let's pray.