Keion Henderson - Leaving it all behind

Kings 19, verses 19 through 21. If you’ve got it, say, «I got it.» If you need time, say, «Hold up.» If you don’t have a Bible, look at the screen. The Bible says in 1 Kings chapter 19 that Elijah went from there and found Elisha. Guess what he was doing? He was plowing in his father’s field. It must not have been a small field because he had 12 pairs of oxen-that’s 24! That 's a lot of land-24 John Deeres! You get it? Now, 24 John Deeres out there plowing the land. He was near the twelfth pair when Elijah passed by him and threw his robe on him. He wasn’t in church when he was found; he wasn 't at the altar when the Lord elevated him. He was working. The Bible says he left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, «Please let me kiss my mama and daddy goodbye before I leave.» Elijah said, «Okay, you can go back, but don’t forget what I did for you.» Elijah went back, took his pair of oxen, slaughtered them, and cooked the meat over a fire that he made by burning the harnesses of the yoke. Oh God! He gave the people meat, and they ate. Then he got up and followed Elijah and became his assistant. Elijah found him working, plowing in the field. The Lord showed up and gave him an opportunity when he already thought he was in his opportunity. He had a decision to make: Do I leave what I love, or do I go to what I’m called? Now, this is the family business; he’s not working for someone else. Read the scripture; he’s in his father’s field. Then someone he doesn’t know comes and tells him that his blessing is leaving his mother and father and cleaving unto him-forgetting everything you know, going into the unknown, and then believing God said, «Do it!» For every person who is ready for elevation, I want to use as our subject «Leaving Everything Behind.» I want you to touch everybody on your way down and ask them, «Are you willing to leave it all behind?» You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. Most of us are not afraid to leave some things behind. In fact, you can think about three or four things right now that you’d walk away from without a problem. When we are confronted with those things that have caused us pain, frustration, tribulation, anxiety, and anger, we’re looking for a reason to get out. No, act like you have never plotted your way out! When you’re leaving something dangerous, you can’t leave it all at once; there are some things you have to leave in stages. But although we all have things that we don’t mind leaving behind, we all have something to say, «Lord, you can take it all except for this.» You may not say that out loud; you may not admit that, but everybody in here has something that you’re struggling to leave behind. You 'll say, «Amen,» and get messy. Okay, don’t say «amen.» Some of you have some pictures somewhere in envelopes that your boo doesn 't know about! I told you you’d say «amen.» I would have been done! I understand why you need photos to remember a time you no longer love. Because while everyone can leave some things behind, we aren 't all good at leaving everything behind. But Elisha knew that if he was going to walk into his calling, he had to leave everything behind. What 's amazing about Elijah and Elisha is that before we get into the text, we must first look at their names. Elijah and Elisha-this has been a year of elevation! E/L, Elisha- elevation, the highest! As Minister Steve talked about last Sunday, «L» represents God, Elohim. He said that «L» was in the middle. So if you needed help, God was in the middle; if you were going through hell, God was also in the middle. Now you’ve got Elijah and Elisha. «L» means God, but their names don’t mean anything different until you get to the end of them. The beginning syllable-Elijah, Elisha- they both mean God, but it changes at the end. «JA» in Elijah is Jehovah, so his name means God is Jehovah, which is why Elijah’s main responsibility as a prophet was to convince the world that God was Jehovah. It’s why he had to confront the prophets of Baal and get them to see that there was a God who was more present than the God who was prevalent. He goes to an altar and tells them, «All right, if your God is stronger than my God, let’s have a test. Let 's see whose God is the strongest.» You say your God, Baal, is stronger than my God? Let 's do this! He says, «I want you to see if your God can set this wood on fire without a match.» But it didn’t happen. Then Elijah said, «Okay, well, I’m going to show you that my God is stronger. Give me the same wood.» He says, «But what I’m going to do is dip it in water, and after I dip it in water, then I’m going to call on my God.» The Bible says that when Elijah calls on God, wet wood burns up like paper, and the stones surrounding the altar also vaporized. This showed that your God couldn’t burn dry wood, and my God could vaporize wet wood. They needed, at that time, a leader who would prove to them that God was Jehovah.