05.10.26 Sermon - Elisha, The Spirit Man

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LifeBridge Church is a community church located in Burlington, Wisconsin. Their podcast includes sermons, audio devotionals, and other conversations.

Kurt: 00:00

At LifeBridge, we believe that God's word is our authority for all things of faith and practice. So if you're able, please rise as we read today's scripture. Now, the king of Aram was at war with Israel. After conferring with his officers, he said, I will set up my camp in such and such a place. The man of God sent word to the king of Israel, beware of passing that place because the Arameans are going down there.

Kurt: 00:30

So the king of Israel checked on the place indicated by the man of God. Time and again, Elisha warned the king so that he was on his guard in such places. This enraged the king of Aram. He summoned his officers and demanded of them, tell me, which of us is on the side of the king of Israel? None of us, my lord the king, said one of his officers, but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel tells the king of Israel the very words you speak in your bedroom.

Kurt: 01:01

Go find out where he is, the king ordered, so I can send men and capture him. And the report came back, he is in Dothan. Then he sent horses and chariots and a strong force there. They went by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city.

Kurt: 01:24

Oh, no, my lord. What shall we do? The servant asked. Don't be afraid, the prophet answered. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.

Kurt: 01:34

And Elisha prayed, open his eyes, lord, so that he may see. Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. As the enemy came down toward him, Elisha prayed to the Lord, strike this army with blindness. So he struck them with blindness as Elisha had asked. Elisha told him, this is not the road and this is not the city.

Kurt: 01:59

Follow me and I will lead you to the man you are looking for, and he led them to Samaria. After they entered the city, Elisha opened the eyes of these men so they can see. And then the Lord opened their eyes and they looked, and there they were inside Samaria. When the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, Shall I kill them? Do not kill them, he answered.

Kurt: 02:23

Would you kill those you have captured with your own sword or bow? Set food and water before them so that they may eat and drink and then go back to their master. So he prepared a great feast for them, and after they had finished eating and drinking, he sent them away and they returned to their master. So the bands from Aram stopped raiding Israel's territory. You may be seated.

John: 02:52

Thank you, Kurt. Alright. So, today, my job is just to introduce our guest speaker and this introduction is very easy for me because our guest speaker today is my father, pastor Dave Adams. He has pastored at Mount Zion Church for over thirty years and he just retired as as of this year. So he's got a lot yeah.

John: 03:14

Going from like preaching almost every week to preaching like once a month. He's got a lot of pent up sermons. Alright. So we'll be watching the clock and make sure that we get out of here on time. But yeah.

John: 03:26

So would you guys welcome my dad, pastor Dave to preach for us.

Dave: 03:34

Alright. Good morning. I'm old fashioned. I I actually brought a bible and paper today with a few notes, but what a wonderful text that we have. Elisha.

Dave: 03:47

Don't confuse him with Elijah because Elisha has a double portion. That's going to be the second point this morning. My first question for you this morning is this, and I got this question from doctor Gordon Fee. He has a book called God's Empowering Presence. He takes every place the apostle Paul speaks about the holy spirit and does an exegesis on it.

Dave: 04:13

It's about that thick, he called it his cockroach killer. But he asked the question, he said, is your church trinitarian or binitarian? And I thought, what a profound question. And what he said is, the father our God in heaven, we understand he's seated in heaven, his footstool is the earth. He's the creator, he knows all things.

Dave: 04:43

We can understand a little bit about him. Then he said Jesus came to earth and he died on the cross and he rose again and and he's ascended into heaven and he's seated at the right hand of God the father and we understand Jesus. But he said to so many churches, the holy spirit is nothing more than Casper the friendly ghost. And so he asked it and it it touches my heart. You know, are we really Trinitarian?

Dave: 05:16

Have you opened your heart to the power of the Holy Spirit? So in our text today, we see it's an old testament text and God filled certain prophets with his spirit. Now that spirit, tell somebody next to you, that same spirit is available to you. Go ahead and tell them. Now that doesn't scare you and run you out the back door, So the first point this morning is Elijah was given words of knowledge by the holy spirit.

Dave: 05:51

You see, the king of Aram, he said, alright, which one of you guys is a traitor? Somebody's telling the king of Israel where we're waiting to raid them and he's never there. He knows where we're at. And I love the guy who said, hey king, none of us are traitors. There are no double agents here.

Dave: 06:13

He said, what's really going on is this prophet Elisha, now think about this for a minute. He said, he tells them what you say and think in your bedroom. I'm gonna let that soak in for just a minute. He says, he tells you everything. In Ecclesiastes ten twenty, it says, be careful what you say about the king and about wealthy people because a bird could grab it and carry it to them and tell them.

Dave: 06:44

Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight this morning. So gifts of knowledge and the holy spirit told him and then he would tell the king where the enemy was. If you learn nothing else today, learn this. If the holy spirit is in you and if you open your heart to him and if you listen to him, he'll tell you where your enemy is and then you won't have to be trapped. I have to tell you, it scares me to sin to know that there could be prophets that know what I'm doing.

Dave: 07:24

I've wrecked your Sunday already. Are we spiritual people? Are we spirit people? I remember one day, you know, I was thinking I have so many examples, but one day when God gave me a word of wisdom or knowledge, and it wasn't it wasn't my knowledge, and and here's what happened. I was unhooking a John Deere haybine, which is very heavy, and I put a jack down, and I and I picked it up off the tractor, and after I picked it up off the tractor, the jack broke, and it fell on my foot, and I I had steel tipped toes on my shoes, and it fell on the steel tip, and then it started to move and I watched it and it was going towards the back of that steel toe and I could not pick it up and I couldn't lift.

Dave: 08:20

And I yelled as loud as I could for help, for somebody to come and to help me stop this thing from cutting my foot off, and and we took mufflers off of everything in my young days. And they had just started the milk machine, and it was so loud that the neighbors knew when we were milking cows, and nobody could hear me. And so in a split second, I'm like, God, what am I going to do? And this thought came into my head, unlace your shoe and pull your foot out. I am so thankful for God that day.

Dave: 08:56

I unlaced my shoe, pulled my foot out, and that piece of machinery cut my shoe off right behind my steel tipped toe. I I loved God so much that day. That night, played 16 inch softball and I ran out, I hit the third base. I could still run that fast back in those days, I can't run anymore. So Elisha was given words of knowledge by the Holy Spirit.

Dave: 09:29

We can all get words of knowledge and wisdom. All the gifts are there for us today if we will acknowledge it and open our heart to it. And so when that happened, he was there and they they found out he was in Dothan and they came and the king of Aram surrounded him with chariots and horses you see and horsemen and the army surrounded him. Now stop and think for a minute. If how many chariots and horsemen would it take this morning just to surround LifeBridge Church?

Dave: 10:08

An army came against him and his servant woke up you know and he looked outside and he came and he said to Elisha, said what are we gonna do? We're in a heap of trouble here. And I love Elisha, cool as can be. He says, Lord open his eyes so he can see. And it says in the text that he saw chariots of fire and horses of fire surrounding Elisha protecting him.

Dave: 10:44

Now, second point is Elisha had a double portion of Elijah's Holy Spirit. And if I back up to second Kings chapter two, I I wanna read for you what it says. It says, when they had crossed, Elijah said to Elijah, tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you? Elijah knew he was going home. At my age right now, I'm going, Lord, when's it going to happen?

Dave: 11:13

I went to the doctor recently and he said, do you have any worries? And I said, I got one. He said, what is it? I said, the life expectancy of a man in The United States Of America is like 78 or 79. I said, I don't have much time left.

Dave: 11:32

He said, you're crazy. He said, you're going to be fine. He doesn't know that. But Elijah knew he was gonna be taken. And and Elisha says, let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.

Dave: 11:48

You have asked a difficult thing Elijah said, yet if you see me when I'm taken from you, it will be yours, otherwise it will not. 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. Elisha saw this, that's key. He saw it. He said, if you see me when I'm taken.

Dave: 12:16

And he cried out, my father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel. And Elisha saw him no more. And he took hold of his garment and he tore it in in two. He saw him go, he got a double portion. I wanna prove it to you because Elisha was taken up with a chariot and horses of fire.

Dave: 12:40

Elisha is surrounded by an army of chariots of fire and chariots of horses. Horses of fire. He has a double portion of his scripture. Now what I want you to see here is that Elisha asked for it. What have you asked for from God?

Dave: 13:12

You can you can test me on this, you know, you can you can check me out but Matthew chapter seven and Luke chapter eleven seven seven to 11, Luke 11 to nine thirteen. It says, if you ask, if your son asks you for bread, would you give him a stone? And he answers, no, you wouldn't do that and says, how much more will your father in heaven give you the holy spirit if you ask? Now, my question for you this morning, have you ever just sat down and asked God for his spirit to fill you? You see, make the assumption and it's a correct assumption and and John will tell me if I'm theologically correct that when you ask Jesus to be the Lord of your life and when you repent of your sins and you confess him as your Lord and savior, the Holy Spirit is in you.

Dave: 14:13

But when was the last time you said, Lord, I need a portion, a double portion of your spirit? Because folks, I wouldn't know what to do without God's holy spirit. As senior pastor, there were so many times I was stumped, and I would pray in the spirit and I would say, god, help me. And every time he came through, every time he comes through, But again, today, when was the last time you opened your heart and said, Lord, I want everything your spirit has for me. And and the enemy has worked overtime in the church to make us fight over the holy spirit.

Dave: 15:01

Is it is it a one time thing? Is it a second filling? I got news for you, there's so many fillings you can't keep up. Because every time his grace is sufficient for you, whenever you need it and it's a move of God's holy spirit. So ask for it.

Dave: 15:23

Now, next point is this, God's horses and chariots of fire are superior to man's horses and chariots. Who you think is going to win this battle? Isn't isn't it great? I mean, God doesn't have to grunt to save us. Do you know that?

Dave: 15:36

He doesn't have to go, okay, we're going work out a little bit today boys because I got this guy is a tough guy. I don't know if I can hack it. Yes, he can. And and his horses and chariots have no problem at all dealing with the king of a ram and his entire army. My highlight from last week's sermon, I came to hear my son preach is when he said that satan can ask to sift us because of our sin.

Dave: 16:09

But here's my favorite line, he said, but Jesus steps in as the mediator and says, not today. And it reminded me of tombstone when Wyatt Earp after the okay corral and mister b hand says, he's going to, I think, you're all under arrest, he said. And I remember Wyatt Earp saying, I don't think we'll let you arrest us today. And that's Jesus coming between us and the enemy saying, I just don't think you're going to touch him today. It's an everyday thing.

Dave: 16:42

And God's horses and chariots of fire are superior to man's horses and chariots of fire. In Psalm chapter 20, it says some trust in chariots and some in horses. Now listen, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. I am God's workmanship. I am created in Christ Jesus for good works which he's prepared beforehand.

Dave: 17:11

All you're doing today is walking in the in the footsteps God's prepared for you when you came to church. When you walk out the door, there are footsteps that God has prepared for you. But do you spiritually see it? Do you have eyes to see spiritually? I told John this morning, I'm working on a big lawn mower at our church and I have the wrong injector pump in it right now.

Dave: 17:43

And I'm saying, God, why would you do that to me? And you know what? Spiritually, he might be saying, I want you to get to know that injector man that that worked on that. Maybe I want you to talk to him. And I said, he's really crabby, Lord.

Dave: 18:01

When I called him, he said, maybe he needs me. But spiritually, do I have that mentality or am I always looking at what's going on right in front of me? Just like Elisha's servant when he said oh my goodness there's an army and we're in big trouble. And Elisha says God just open his eyes. Open his eyes and let him see what's going on.

Dave: 18:29

And can you imagine what that servant, when he saw them he might have gone, hey let's have another cup of coffee Elisha. We got nothing to worry about. Your next point is this, lost souls are blind. I want to edit that. Lost souls and Christians that are unaware of the miracle work and the power of the holy spirit can be blind to what is available to us.

Dave: 19:00

And in every situation I have to bring God into it. And if I call on his name, my bible says, I will never be put to shame. But do I bring him into it? Brings me to another tractor story. It it was 10 below zero.

Dave: 19:18

I don't know, this stuff just comes to me. I was it was 10 zero one morning and and I was trying to start a John Deere tractor and and I think I'm a pretty good mechanic and I did everything I could and I could not get that tractor. Jackie, I'm glad Scott's not here, he would have yelled out, it's the wrong color. But anyway, and I try to start this tractor and I can't get it to run and the manure is piling up in the barn. I don't know if you know that, the cows didn't know that the tractor didn't start.

Dave: 19:51

And and the manure is piling up and my brother and my brother-in-law were they're helping me and we got a fire built under this thing and we're heating it, we're doing everything we can and it won't start. We go in, we eat lunch, I come back out, I'm gonna make this as short as I can. I get in the tractor, they're both standing out here listening and I said, father, in the name of Jesus, I said, I really need this tractor to start. Turn the key, it started like it was a 100 degrees outside. And you know what my brother and my brother-in-law said to me?

Dave: 20:19

They said, why didn't you do that at 08:00 this morning? It's a good question, was it? I said, I don't know. I thought I could fix it. But, I was blind to the spirit world and to my father in heaven and what was available to me.

Dave: 20:44

And how many days are we blind to the fact that God is in every little detail of our lives. And so what does Elisha do? You know, when the army comes and they they move in on him, he says, strike him with blindness. Does everybody recognize that is a miracle? I mean, that's a full blown miracle and I I asked God a lot of questions.

Dave: 21:10

I said, how in the world could a bunch of blind guys, a whole blind army be led into Samaria? But they were. So I don't know if they could kind of see where they were going or if they took each other by the hand. Get a picture of this for just a minute. And he led them right into the capital of Israel, right into Samaria, right into where their army was.

Dave: 21:32

All their guys, the the greatest you know you know, military men in the world were right there at the moment and they had them captured and they surrounded them. Why and how? Because Elisha had a double portion of God's holy spirit. And the spirit of God told him and guided him and told him exactly what to do, then what would you do? I I want you to stop for a minute.

Dave: 22:01

Who is the most irritating person in your life right now? This is scary. I'm gonna watch all your faces for just a minute here. Hope it's not me. You know, what would you do with them if you captured them and you could do whatever you wanted?

Dave: 22:18

Because they had to hold the Aramean, they had this army and they had them inside the city, and and and the king yells out, he said, should we kill them? Should we kill them? What should we do? And the answer is so crazy in the natural. And Elisha says, no, you don't kill them.

Dave: 22:38

He says, feed them. And the point is this, Elisha lived out. Isn't this great? Before it was written, Elisha lived out Romans chapter 12 verses 20 to 21. I'm gonna read it for you.

Dave: 22:51

It says the exact same thing in Proverbs 25. Okay? It says the exact same thing, but in Romans chapter 12 verses 20 to 21, it says, on the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head and it says, do not overcome evil overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Dave: 23:21

So he says, feed him. Give him something to drink. Now, when I was first saved and I read this, what I thought it meant is if I was nice to my enemy, it would heap burning coals on his head that it would burn him and make him so furious. Isn't that what it kind of sounds like? You know that that's not what it means.

Dave: 23:41

If you study the culture, what it means is, every day, every every morning, there was someone in the community who kept the fires burning all night long, and he would take a basket and he would load it, he would load it with burning coals and he would go from house to house and he would give a burning coal to each mom in that house on mother's day, listen to this, so she could start so she could start her fires to bake and to cook and keep the fire going all day long. And it was a place of honor in this society and they would give him food and presents for bringing the coals around and doing this. And so what the spirit of God is saying is, if you treat your enemy with kindness and overcome evil with good, you will make them a productive member of your congregation. I have seen the love of God overcome more ornery people in my life than I could ever imagine and I was one of them. You can ask my wife, I was one of the ornriest people you would ever met before I was saved.

Dave: 24:58

I I fought cows for a living. I I can get a 1,500 pound cow down on her knees, do you know that? I don't know if I can still do it, but I could back then. And the first charismatic prayer meeting I went to, a five foot man hugged me and I didn't know what to do. I just stood like this.

Dave: 25:23

And I looked at my wife and I said, what should I, what do I do, you know. And they were so nice to me. It melted my heart and I became one of them. And that's what Elisha did. He said, no, feed them.

Dave: 25:39

He said, feed them. Give them something to drink. And it says they quit raiding Israel after that. Isn't that something? Your next point, a victorious life on earth does not compare to life in heaven.

Dave: 26:00

Isn't that something? I mean, here Elisha is and he does these great things and they have this awesome victory. And if we go to Luke chapter 10 now, and if I take you to Luke chapter 10, I wanna read to you the words of Jesus. Alright? Luke chapter 10 beginning in verse 17.

Dave: 26:21

It says, the 72 returned with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. And he replied, I love this. I don't know. You guys should all shout hallelujah. He says, I saw satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Dave: 26:35

Hallelujah. Hallelujah is right. He says, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy. Nothing will harm you. Now listen to this, this time however, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

Dave: 27:05

Lord I don't know why I'm in this mess but whatever I do, however the outcome is, don't let me forfeit my place with you and my home with you in heaven. It's such a powerful thing and and you know, I've been listening to John for quite a while, big idea. You know, I love it when he says the big idea. What's the big idea today? Have spiritual eyes to see that if God is for us, who can be against us?

Dave: 27:38

Do you have eyes in that spirit realm? The Lord's telling me to tell you one more story. It's about a word of knowledge that somebody had and came to me. My youngest sister married one of my best friends. He he was a couple years ahead of me in school like she was, he became one of my very best friends and then they got divorced.

Dave: 28:19

It was a terrible thing and I hated this guy. Guy. I mean if he came near me, I'd start swimming in ahead of him. I just hated him. And one day a lady from our prayer group came to a farm and she said to me, and this was how can I say it?

Dave: 28:40

This was a very peculiar lady. You ever met any peculiar people? She was very peculiar. And she said to me, she said, God has told me that you should go to three prayer meetings in this place? And I went, okay.

Dave: 28:59

But I had been taught by a very good mentor, when somebody gives you a word of knowledge or something that they say the spirit of God said, thank them for it and then pray about it. Talk to elders, talk to pastors, weigh it out because maybe God's talking to you. So I just said, okay, Lord, what do I do with this? And the the answer was so clear in my mind. He said, what can it hurt?

Dave: 29:23

And I said, oh, gee. Just take a couple hours of my time. Right? So I went to three prayer meetings. First prayer meeting I went to, it was okay.

Dave: 29:32

Nothing happened. Second prayer meeting, who do you think the speaker talked about during the devotion was my ex brother-in-law. He had gotten radically saved, but I still hated him. I was sitting in a chair about two rows back, and after that prayer meeting, I slithered out the back door like a snake. I was so I I was so torn because how could God save somebody like him?

Dave: 30:03

Right? I had to go to three permitting because I had one left. Right? So I waited. It was on Tuesday night.

Dave: 30:14

I waited till Monday night, and I called my ex brother-in-law. I said to him, I said, okay, I went to this prayer meeting. He goes, oh, yeah. Yeah. I've been there and I know the leader.

Dave: 30:27

And he named him and I said, yeah, I know he talked about you. He said something about what you said. And I said, gotta ask you to forgive me. He said, Dave, I forgave you the minute I accepted Christ. Now, me talk to you about the spiritual realm.

Dave: 30:53

As long as I was angry with him and he was angry with me, the spiritual forces could win here all day long at odds. And the minute he let go and forgave me, God freed it up so the two of us could be friends again. Fast forward to when his son got married, and at the wedding, my whole family was still upset with him. And who do you think they sat him with? So he sat at our table.

Dave: 31:25

Right? And and my wife and I knew him and his new wife and we talked, know. But at the wedding, he stood up, looked at my family and he said, I wanna thank you all for raising my children. He said, you guys did a great job and they turned out great and I wasn't there for them and I'm asking you to forgive me and I'm thanking you for what you did. You couldn't hear a pin drop, man.

Dave: 31:55

We had church at that wedding reception. Are your eyes in the spiritual realm? You know, do you ask God what would you do? Holy Spirit, what would you have me do right now? So here's your next steps because I wanna keep up with LifeBridge.

Dave: 32:20

Cause it's a good system, it really is. Be aware of the spiritual realm. You know, don't get weird on me. If you do, you know, John will take care of it. See, being a spiritual person isn't being weird, it's being aware of what's going on in the spirit world.

Dave: 32:42

And then the last thing is live like citizens of heaven. You know what? I'm just passing through here. And I keep saying, hey Jesus, what's it gonna be like when I meet you? Man, that's a scary thing.

Dave: 32:58

I wanna be scared to death and and so happy I can't stand it at the same time. So father, we come to you this morning and Lord, I pray that your word would speak to us today. Elisha had a double portion of your Holy Spirit and it's available to us Father. So I pray, Lord, that everyone here would open their hearts and just say, Lord, what you have for me, I want. And then, Lord, let us see.

Dave: 33:30

Open our eyes like Elisha's servant's eyes were opened to see what you're doing in the spirit realm. And Lord, I believe it'll turn Burlington, Kenosha, and Racine, and Walworth County upside down if we do it in Jesus' precious name. Amen.