If you are not a Christian reading this, this might give you a good sense of what is being offered by Jesus and what is being asked of you by Him. If you are a Christian these are good things to think through again because the decision to follow Jesus is a commitment you renew day by day. Many of us got interested in God because we thought He could add something to our lives that we were missing. He could give us peace, help for when we were in trouble, comfort when we are worried, a stable foundation for our families, assurance that when we died we would go to heaven. These are all valid reasons to come to God.
Why do you come to God....
You and I don't come to God to add services to our lives. These things or services are "signs" that point to the fact that God needs to be the center of our lives. We come to God not for services but for salvation, for righteousness, to be a disciple, to be a follower of Jesus. The goodness that God allows into our lives such as a stable family, kids that obey scripture, kids that stay off drugs, kids that obstain from sex, a loving home, these are all by products of why we came to Christ initially. What do I mean by, By Products. These things mentioned above will naturally happen through coming by faith to Christ and making Him Lord. Jesus before ascending back to heaven in Matthew 28:19 gave what we know as the great commission. It reads as follows: 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore" and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen." Notice Jesus did not say Go therefore, and teach all nations that I am the way to a great life.Although we as Christians realize through hindsight becoming a disciple of Christ will lead to a great life, even if we are suffering for Christ because we know in whom we have believed and what He has done for us. Following Jesus is not a "God on the side" type lifestyle. He is not a first aid kit we throw in the trunk in case we need it.
What is a Copernican revolution of the soul...
In 1532 an astronomer named Nicholas Copernicus challenged the long held belief that the earth was the center of the universe. People could naturally view the sun coming up and going down the stars in the sky and thought certainly everything revolved around the earth.That the earth kind of just sat here and everything just kind of moved around it. However the church persecuted him for challenging this and saying the earth actually revolved around the sun. This completely went against their thought process of being a earth- centric solar system. Copernicus argued that we are in a helio-centric solar system. Most of us need to have a Copernican revolution of the soul, we view the world me-centrically,its how we are born, we come out thinking about ME. Once we decide to follow Jesus we think that He can add something to our lives. We think we need to get Jesus in the right orbit in our life because there is certain things I just can't accomplish without Him. So on our list of priorities He's going to come 2nd, 3rd or on down the list. You think you're following Jesus but in actuality you've just invited Jesus to follow you. There is a huge difference between those to things but to the natural mind the difference is subtle.
The call of Elisha....
We need to look at how God calls one man to follow Him the scriptures and see if we are following the same way are we following God or did we invite Him to follow us.
1 Kings 19:19 So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. 20 And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, “Please 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?”
21 So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.
Lets look at this calling real quick...what God ask of Him is pretty extreme. Elisha had a good life. How do I know? He had twelve yoke of oxen. The average middle class family of that time had one. Think of this like cars, the average family has what two or three. He has twelve. Not only that but while he himself was behind one, but his servants had the other eleven. He has servants, he's well off. He gets served by others. God calls him in second part of verse 19, the prophet Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle "cloak" on him. Can we just admit for a min this is a bit weird? Anyone ever had this happen to them? Try it out one day, take you coat and drape it over someones shoulders and watch their reaction. On to the point, this was a sign from the prophet that he wanted Elisha to follow him, become his disciple. Elisha had a good life, but God was calling him to a greater life. You may have a good life but God is calling you to something greater.God has a plan for your life, a wonderful life beyond what you can imagine, but its going to cost you something.
What did it cost Elisha?
Verse 21 gives us the answer... He turns back takes a yoke of oxen, burns the plowing equipment, and feeds the community. Elisha literally burned his old way of life, there was no going back. The call to follow Jesus is complete abandonment. This is hard, is it not, to give everything over to God, to let Him call the shots. Its only in realization through revelation do you get a glimpse of it being worth it. You have to see with your heart that the sacrifice Jesus made for you is so loving, so extreme, so all in for you that you can't help go all in for Him.
What happened after he answered the call....
What was waiting on him when he decided to give up all? He was going to be the servant of a man who up until this point had been fed by ravens sent by God. Who was on the run from king Ahab and was kept alive by a widow who had next to nothing. Elisha gave up everything to follow the man of God for almost what seems to be nothing. This sounds like foolishness, like craziness, and it definitely doesn't make logical sense. He goes from a life of luxury to a life of poverty and danger. He went from being the CEO of Elisha farms to the unpaid assistant of Elijah. We will talk about why someone would do this later?
Three things characterize his decision....
The path to something greater always leads through the valley of surrender, sacrifice, and service. Lets talk a minute about something greater. Elisha like I said had a good life, but maybe just maybe he started thinking about "Is this it? Is this what I do for the rest of my life? Do I just get up run my farm, look over my affairs, manage my servants? Have you ever come to this point in your own life? You have a good life, you have what we define as the American dream, or you can see that you will one day right? Have you ever thought is this it? Is this all God wants to do with my life? Am I just supposed to get up go to work, come home, watch t.v, go to church on Sunday, maybe Wednesday, take a vacation once a year or DOES GOD WANT TO USE ME FOR SO MUCH MORE?
There is no growth in contentment. God wants something greater for you life, which I will do another blog on.
Surrender ....
Elisha had cooked his old way of life...literally. There was no going back. No man who puts his hand to the plow is fit for the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven can be translated two ways. #1 Literally Heaven or #2 what God is doing in the earth through the Holy Spirit. Why do I not think God means #1, because you don't have to earn your salvation. Did you have to plow, work, or earn God's grace, no it was a gift! You have got to have there is no plan B mentality. I'm trusting God, I've seen enough of the kingdom at work that I'll go on faith and once I do He'll show me a little more.
Sacrifice.....
Elisha's whole foundation of life, his treasure, was now the source for which he blessed others.
Service.....
Think about how much his life changed in one day, just one day. He went from being in charge, calling the shots to low man on the totem pole. The guy who gets told what to do, not telling others what to do. How long does this last....for 18 years. He was the servant who did menial task, watched, learned, listened. Almost every time God calls anyone in the Bible He almost always puts them through a time of humbling. Moses... sent to the desert for 40 years. David. .... back to the pasture... then chased by Saul for 10 years. You have to be diligent in the small task first, the way up in the kingdom is down, if God can't trust you with little He can't trust you with much. [I think this is a Bible verse somewhere, someone look it up] You ever wondered why people don't recognize your talents, why you've been passed up for opportunities, why you haven't moved up in your job, your church, in ministry yet. Maybe God is humbling you, be faithful with where He has placed you. Rabbit trail: You ever wonder why Jesus waited until He was 30 before He started His ministry here on earth? I mean He was God the whole time right? There are people today who start at 17, maybe earlier. If He would have started earlier do you think more people would have believed? Would have been healed? I mean God didn't need to be humbled did He? So why do this.... I think He was giving us a picture of how God will take time to bring about His plan at the perfect time, how God will use us when ready. I mean did Jesus need to be baptized did He, John the Baptist even made this claim, He said Lord you should be baptizing me, why then would He do it? He was giving us an example to go by.
What's the point.... Lordship...
We, and by we I mean, Evangelical Christians, call Jesus "Lord." The point is that nothing is off limits to God. This is what it means to follow Jesus. Read Mark 10:17. Jesus isn't asking us to be good, He has already done that through the life He lived that we didn't but should have lived. He's asking us to abandon all. You may say "how do I know if I have or not?" Is there anything off limits to Him...could He ask you to do anything and you give a yes answer? How about use one of your kids after college in a foreign mission field. How about not have sex before marriage? How about your finances? Don't we all have something that we are scared to trust God with? We say God you can have all of this right here but.....you can't touch this one thing right here in my life. He is Lord of All or not Lord at all. Have you made Jesus the Lord? He is not an add on to your life that makes everything go the way you want it to go. If Jesus is Lord of your life He gets to decide what is wrong and right in your life. Some people want to help Him make the rules, they want to pick and chose. The idea is not Co-Lordship.We don't get to edit out the parts that we don't like and hold onto the ones we do. If Jesus lordship in your life doesn't at times make you angry, grind against your natural desires, make you want to walk the other way I would say you've never made Him "Lord." Here's what I mean, if your version of Jesus always does what you think He should do, or has morals like you think He would have, then you probably don't have the real Jesus, you have a false projection of Jesus, you have a God who has conformed to a certain image you have made up in your mind. I mean how do you feel about Jesus saying 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." Jesus puts Himself right at the center of our faith here, we don't get to put Him behind our family and say I'll get to you one day, if I have time. Jesus demands absolute Lordship, which is why so many people, including myself at times has a hard time. We all want to be our own god at times, but if your god of your own life in any area then Jesus can't be your God.
Why we come to God...
A lot of us come to God because we want Him to help our family and God is a good means to a good family. We want God in our lives but only as a means to an end for us, He gives us a stable family and bonus: We all get to go to heaven when we die. Jesus will not be a means to anything else. God is a good way to keep your kids from having sex in high school and off drugs but are we teaching them to really obey God. That's why many kids go off to college and fall into a staggering world of sin, they learned that life was more about using Jesus than obeying Jesus. There is a fine.... I mean fine line, between using Jesus for the kind of family you want and verses obeying God fully in all areas. What if God calls your kids to the mission field over seas and it broke up the nice quaint little idea that you always had about where and how your family would live and be? We can not ask Jesus to follow us but in turn He gives us the decision to follow Him. Notice in the story of Elisha, Elijah put his cloak on him and he knew that God, through the man of God had called him. However, he did not say, Elijah hey man I've got tons of resources here on the farm, I've got money, I've got servants, stay here and we do a lot for God. Elisha had to go with/ follow the man of God. He didn't get to do things on his terms. We do not get to do things on our terms. He is Lord, He makes the decisions. We orbit the Son, the Son does not orbit us.
Why would someone make Jesus "Lord"
What would cause a man like Elisha to burn his old way of life, a good life, and follow God? Who would give up that kind of control? Why would someone give up control? Did he do it because he was scared of going to hell? He did not say "Well you know I guess I ought to because its the right thing to do, or I'm scared God send me to hell." He knew that something greater was waiting on him. He knew God could do better with his life than he could. Can the God who spoke the world into existence not do better with your life than you can? He also knew that God had already given him all that he had, the oxen, the farm, the servants, the good life, so he must have something even better planned. We go all in because we have a God who could not have gone more all in for us, once we get a glimpse of this with spiritual eyes and we linger there, soak that in we realize that we owe all to Him. "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe." He took the wrath of God's judgement meant for us willingly. When you realize what Jesus has done it can only warrant one response, complete and total allegiance. Jesus your the Lord, lead me.
Why do you come to God....
You and I don't come to God to add services to our lives. These things or services are "signs" that point to the fact that God needs to be the center of our lives. We come to God not for services but for salvation, for righteousness, to be a disciple, to be a follower of Jesus. The goodness that God allows into our lives such as a stable family, kids that obey scripture, kids that stay off drugs, kids that obstain from sex, a loving home, these are all by products of why we came to Christ initially. What do I mean by, By Products. These things mentioned above will naturally happen through coming by faith to Christ and making Him Lord. Jesus before ascending back to heaven in Matthew 28:19 gave what we know as the great commission. It reads as follows: 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore" and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen." Notice Jesus did not say Go therefore, and teach all nations that I am the way to a great life.Although we as Christians realize through hindsight becoming a disciple of Christ will lead to a great life, even if we are suffering for Christ because we know in whom we have believed and what He has done for us. Following Jesus is not a "God on the side" type lifestyle. He is not a first aid kit we throw in the trunk in case we need it.
What is a Copernican revolution of the soul...
In 1532 an astronomer named Nicholas Copernicus challenged the long held belief that the earth was the center of the universe. People could naturally view the sun coming up and going down the stars in the sky and thought certainly everything revolved around the earth.That the earth kind of just sat here and everything just kind of moved around it. However the church persecuted him for challenging this and saying the earth actually revolved around the sun. This completely went against their thought process of being a earth- centric solar system. Copernicus argued that we are in a helio-centric solar system. Most of us need to have a Copernican revolution of the soul, we view the world me-centrically,its how we are born, we come out thinking about ME. Once we decide to follow Jesus we think that He can add something to our lives. We think we need to get Jesus in the right orbit in our life because there is certain things I just can't accomplish without Him. So on our list of priorities He's going to come 2nd, 3rd or on down the list. You think you're following Jesus but in actuality you've just invited Jesus to follow you. There is a huge difference between those to things but to the natural mind the difference is subtle.
The call of Elisha....
We need to look at how God calls one man to follow Him the scriptures and see if we are following the same way are we following God or did we invite Him to follow us.
1 Kings 19:19 So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. 20 And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, “Please 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?”
21 So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.
Lets look at this calling real quick...what God ask of Him is pretty extreme. Elisha had a good life. How do I know? He had twelve yoke of oxen. The average middle class family of that time had one. Think of this like cars, the average family has what two or three. He has twelve. Not only that but while he himself was behind one, but his servants had the other eleven. He has servants, he's well off. He gets served by others. God calls him in second part of verse 19, the prophet Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle "cloak" on him. Can we just admit for a min this is a bit weird? Anyone ever had this happen to them? Try it out one day, take you coat and drape it over someones shoulders and watch their reaction. On to the point, this was a sign from the prophet that he wanted Elisha to follow him, become his disciple. Elisha had a good life, but God was calling him to a greater life. You may have a good life but God is calling you to something greater.God has a plan for your life, a wonderful life beyond what you can imagine, but its going to cost you something.
What did it cost Elisha?
Verse 21 gives us the answer... He turns back takes a yoke of oxen, burns the plowing equipment, and feeds the community. Elisha literally burned his old way of life, there was no going back. The call to follow Jesus is complete abandonment. This is hard, is it not, to give everything over to God, to let Him call the shots. Its only in realization through revelation do you get a glimpse of it being worth it. You have to see with your heart that the sacrifice Jesus made for you is so loving, so extreme, so all in for you that you can't help go all in for Him.
What happened after he answered the call....
What was waiting on him when he decided to give up all? He was going to be the servant of a man who up until this point had been fed by ravens sent by God. Who was on the run from king Ahab and was kept alive by a widow who had next to nothing. Elisha gave up everything to follow the man of God for almost what seems to be nothing. This sounds like foolishness, like craziness, and it definitely doesn't make logical sense. He goes from a life of luxury to a life of poverty and danger. He went from being the CEO of Elisha farms to the unpaid assistant of Elijah. We will talk about why someone would do this later?
Three things characterize his decision....
The path to something greater always leads through the valley of surrender, sacrifice, and service. Lets talk a minute about something greater. Elisha like I said had a good life, but maybe just maybe he started thinking about "Is this it? Is this what I do for the rest of my life? Do I just get up run my farm, look over my affairs, manage my servants? Have you ever come to this point in your own life? You have a good life, you have what we define as the American dream, or you can see that you will one day right? Have you ever thought is this it? Is this all God wants to do with my life? Am I just supposed to get up go to work, come home, watch t.v, go to church on Sunday, maybe Wednesday, take a vacation once a year or DOES GOD WANT TO USE ME FOR SO MUCH MORE?
There is no growth in contentment. God wants something greater for you life, which I will do another blog on.
Surrender ....
Elisha had cooked his old way of life...literally. There was no going back. No man who puts his hand to the plow is fit for the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven can be translated two ways. #1 Literally Heaven or #2 what God is doing in the earth through the Holy Spirit. Why do I not think God means #1, because you don't have to earn your salvation. Did you have to plow, work, or earn God's grace, no it was a gift! You have got to have there is no plan B mentality. I'm trusting God, I've seen enough of the kingdom at work that I'll go on faith and once I do He'll show me a little more.
Sacrifice.....
Elisha's whole foundation of life, his treasure, was now the source for which he blessed others.
Service.....
Think about how much his life changed in one day, just one day. He went from being in charge, calling the shots to low man on the totem pole. The guy who gets told what to do, not telling others what to do. How long does this last....for 18 years. He was the servant who did menial task, watched, learned, listened. Almost every time God calls anyone in the Bible He almost always puts them through a time of humbling. Moses... sent to the desert for 40 years. David. .... back to the pasture... then chased by Saul for 10 years. You have to be diligent in the small task first, the way up in the kingdom is down, if God can't trust you with little He can't trust you with much. [I think this is a Bible verse somewhere, someone look it up] You ever wondered why people don't recognize your talents, why you've been passed up for opportunities, why you haven't moved up in your job, your church, in ministry yet. Maybe God is humbling you, be faithful with where He has placed you. Rabbit trail: You ever wonder why Jesus waited until He was 30 before He started His ministry here on earth? I mean He was God the whole time right? There are people today who start at 17, maybe earlier. If He would have started earlier do you think more people would have believed? Would have been healed? I mean God didn't need to be humbled did He? So why do this.... I think He was giving us a picture of how God will take time to bring about His plan at the perfect time, how God will use us when ready. I mean did Jesus need to be baptized did He, John the Baptist even made this claim, He said Lord you should be baptizing me, why then would He do it? He was giving us an example to go by.
What's the point.... Lordship...
We, and by we I mean, Evangelical Christians, call Jesus "Lord." The point is that nothing is off limits to God. This is what it means to follow Jesus. Read Mark 10:17. Jesus isn't asking us to be good, He has already done that through the life He lived that we didn't but should have lived. He's asking us to abandon all. You may say "how do I know if I have or not?" Is there anything off limits to Him...could He ask you to do anything and you give a yes answer? How about use one of your kids after college in a foreign mission field. How about not have sex before marriage? How about your finances? Don't we all have something that we are scared to trust God with? We say God you can have all of this right here but.....you can't touch this one thing right here in my life. He is Lord of All or not Lord at all. Have you made Jesus the Lord? He is not an add on to your life that makes everything go the way you want it to go. If Jesus is Lord of your life He gets to decide what is wrong and right in your life. Some people want to help Him make the rules, they want to pick and chose. The idea is not Co-Lordship.We don't get to edit out the parts that we don't like and hold onto the ones we do. If Jesus lordship in your life doesn't at times make you angry, grind against your natural desires, make you want to walk the other way I would say you've never made Him "Lord." Here's what I mean, if your version of Jesus always does what you think He should do, or has morals like you think He would have, then you probably don't have the real Jesus, you have a false projection of Jesus, you have a God who has conformed to a certain image you have made up in your mind. I mean how do you feel about Jesus saying 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." Jesus puts Himself right at the center of our faith here, we don't get to put Him behind our family and say I'll get to you one day, if I have time. Jesus demands absolute Lordship, which is why so many people, including myself at times has a hard time. We all want to be our own god at times, but if your god of your own life in any area then Jesus can't be your God.
Why we come to God...
A lot of us come to God because we want Him to help our family and God is a good means to a good family. We want God in our lives but only as a means to an end for us, He gives us a stable family and bonus: We all get to go to heaven when we die. Jesus will not be a means to anything else. God is a good way to keep your kids from having sex in high school and off drugs but are we teaching them to really obey God. That's why many kids go off to college and fall into a staggering world of sin, they learned that life was more about using Jesus than obeying Jesus. There is a fine.... I mean fine line, between using Jesus for the kind of family you want and verses obeying God fully in all areas. What if God calls your kids to the mission field over seas and it broke up the nice quaint little idea that you always had about where and how your family would live and be? We can not ask Jesus to follow us but in turn He gives us the decision to follow Him. Notice in the story of Elisha, Elijah put his cloak on him and he knew that God, through the man of God had called him. However, he did not say, Elijah hey man I've got tons of resources here on the farm, I've got money, I've got servants, stay here and we do a lot for God. Elisha had to go with/ follow the man of God. He didn't get to do things on his terms. We do not get to do things on our terms. He is Lord, He makes the decisions. We orbit the Son, the Son does not orbit us.
Why would someone make Jesus "Lord"
What would cause a man like Elisha to burn his old way of life, a good life, and follow God? Who would give up that kind of control? Why would someone give up control? Did he do it because he was scared of going to hell? He did not say "Well you know I guess I ought to because its the right thing to do, or I'm scared God send me to hell." He knew that something greater was waiting on him. He knew God could do better with his life than he could. Can the God who spoke the world into existence not do better with your life than you can? He also knew that God had already given him all that he had, the oxen, the farm, the servants, the good life, so he must have something even better planned. We go all in because we have a God who could not have gone more all in for us, once we get a glimpse of this with spiritual eyes and we linger there, soak that in we realize that we owe all to Him. "Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe." He took the wrath of God's judgement meant for us willingly. When you realize what Jesus has done it can only warrant one response, complete and total allegiance. Jesus your the Lord, lead me.