Keion Henderson - The Danger of Stopping the Strike

I want to talk about the danger of stopping the strike. Fifty years have passed since we last saw Elijah. Go back and check the historicity of this text, and you will discover that it has been five decades since this prophet has emerged from his hiatus. Fifty years—a half-century. For some, it’s a lifetime; for everyone else, it is a long time to be away from your institution’s primary place. If you take the years he has already lived and add five decades to it, then most scholars suggest that when Elijah arrives in this text, he is somewhere between 80 and 100 years old. We’re talking about a man well into his age; his eyes have grown dim, and he is now, as they used to say in the old church, on his bed of affliction. His breathing has shortened to small sips of air; his lung capacity has diminished, and his ability to move has almost disappeared because he is in hospice. He is on his bed of affliction, waiting for his eyes to close for the last time, looking to the side just once, like Jesus, to give up the ghost to the Father, who will eventually look at him and say, «This is also my Son, and in him, I am well pleased.» Pastor Torrance, the amazing thing about Elijah is that he does something significant within those 50 years of service. Six kings have ascended to the throne and are no longer there. Six men have sat atop the hierarchy, but they are not there. Yet Elijah has witnessed the comings and goings of six kings. Six men have walked up the steps to the palace and either died or walked out the front door, but not Elijah. He is still there. For 50 years, he has served six different kings, and he is still there. John said that Jesus did so many things that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. For 50 years, Elijah has been there without any accolades, without any written notations. Fifty years off the scene does not mean he wasn’t working; it just means we don’t see it. You know, I just wanted to say this, Quentin: you won’t always be given credit for everything you do. Many of you are watching me right now. I bet if I could sit in your living room, have a cup of coffee, put a little creamer and sugar in it—maybe you like yours without that—we could sit across from each other, and I bet I could talk to you for hours about how many things you’ve done for people who didn’t give you credit. I bet I could talk to you all day about people for whom you got up in the middle of the night to help who wouldn’t even roll over to help you. I bet I could talk about some father who has given his child everything only for that child to be wayward. I could talk to some mother who has given her family everything she has only to be forgotten. I could talk to some grandparent raising children they didn’t even give birth to, and nobody gives you credit because once you take on a responsibility, it falls in line with expectations. Elijah has gone for 50 years, and the Holy Scriptures do not record an ounce of what he has done for five decades, yet he keeps working. I’m telling you that you can’t do it for the accolades; you have to do it for the sheer joy of doing it. You don’t study the Word of God to preach; you study the Word of God for the sheer joy of knowing what it says. You don’t serve people just to be lauded and applauded; you serve simply because you are a servant. You are just doing what you do. He’s done it without complaint. For 50 years, five decades, six kings have come and gone, but this servant is still on the wall. I want to talk to all the servants and tell you to stay on the wall. There is nothing wrong with being a servant. In fact, by the time this text is over, I want to show you that I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to be a king sitting upon a throne. The Bible says that Elijah has fallen sick, and Joash, who is the king of Israel at this time, the Bible says he came down. Pastor Hammond, watch this: the Bible says that he wept over Elijah. Do you see the picture happening right now? He wept over the face of Elijah and said, «My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof.» He says the life of a legend is about to end, but before it does, he is honored by the visit of a king. Now I want you to use your imagination here because it is one thing to be given the opportunity to visit a king, but there’s another thing when the king comes and visits you. There are millions of people throughout history who have received an invitation to go to the White House and visit the president, no matter what party he belongs to, and have had the opportunity to sit in the Oval Office. I know that list is much shorter, yet even those in private chambers…