Shifts Part 1

yeah first Kings chapter 19 is where the lesson will come from today glad you all made it let me just say sincerely that on behalf of my wife and I well first of all we're so grateful that you all come to this church and give us an opportunity to serve you it's a blessing that you all will come here you don't have to come here and you don't have to watch online but you come and you bring people and you tell people about it and it's encouraging to me to know that you can do something that you feel God laid on your heart to do and just be authentically yourself and people will come and they'll appreciate it so thank you all for being a blessing to me with your presence your presence matters thank you for that I also want to celebrate today's grandfather's day I found out today Grandparents Day I'm saying it's both my mother so let me celebrate all the grandparents in here great parents stand up we want to celebrate y'all yeah we made it we made it look around look around look around stand up stand back up you looking at a room full of punks we're a bunch of Punk's when they come to them rank his book I kids don't even know who we are no more like when was you ever that nice a man told my wife she too fine to be a grandparent getting your number at the service must stalk you glory to God first Kings chapter 19 my man pastor Thomas Jefferson Simmons pastor Jeff been rolling with us all day you know Jeff like groundhog he only come out with special occasions you know he Rihanna he hung with us all day that's my dude right there for life forever verse 19 of first Kings chapter 19 so y'all listen this is I don't mean to bother y'all cause y'all don't have to do now yeah I can say I'm grateful y'all here right so this is just a request it's not a requirement it's a request is a difference right so this is my fifth time doing this right so hey that's what I mean don't tell you boy and make me go do finger roll right there that's all I'm saying yeah I appreciate it a bit and get five more people like her we get through this amen but it's you know it's hard to do this with energy five times when you ain't getting nothing back you know I mean it's kind of its principal tough crowd yeah I know the information is tough but this is a conversation you know you never talk to somebody they act like they won't be there I go ain't finished so you know whatever you can give me Amy I know you ain't churchy you're nothing but just say something come on make up something they give us a snap back snappy huh there it is panties I don't know what that means but I'm going with it verse 19 first Kings 19 saying so Elijah let me pray first for all the father please meet us through this word open your word up to us enlighten us make the teaching and preaching of your word clear make it personal make it relevant to this audience in this service listening to this broadcast watching this DVD be specific we pray Lord to our needs and we let myself to you I give myself to you that you would order my thinking in Jesus name Amen first Kings 19 says so Elijah went and found Elijah son of shaphat plowing a field there were 12 teams of oxen in the field when Elijah was plowing plowing with the 12 team Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak across his shoulders and then walked away verse 20 Elisha left the oxen standing there ran out their lives and said to him first let me go and kiss my father and mother goodbye and then I will go with you Elijah replied going back but think about what I've done to you verse 21 says so Elijah returned to his oxen and slaughtered them he used the wood from the plough to build the fire to roast their flesh and he passed around the meat to the townspeople and they all ate then he went with Elijah as his assistant I want to use that passage to talk from the subject shifts shifts everybody says shifts be careful with that though get the F in there diction is important on this shifts when I use the term shift in this message I'm referring to major transitions in our lives they're not everyday occurrences for most of us we'll have opportunities for maybe four or five major shifts in your entire life they're precious some shifts are imposed on you they're above your control one day you're married the next day you're a widow that's a shift you have to say goodbye to somebody you were expected to still be here that's a shift a medical trauma comes up in your life and it changes you from being able to disabled that's a shift people in Texas in Louisiana in Florida are facing a shift that was imposed upon them like you've got to go like vocation and location for many of them will never be the same shifts but then there are some shifts that are not imposed on us there's some shifts that were invited into like I believe God will offer us an opportunity to shift but just because he offers it and he wills it doesn't mean is gonna happen the unique thing about God that he's given us as human beings as amazing as it seems is he's given us something called volition which means we can actually choose and decide whether or not we're going to obey God that's amazing I mean there may be consequences with disobedience but there is there is the choice that we as human beings have I'll give you an example here is a it was a young man in the Bible he was young he was a ruler and he was rich that's why they called him a rich young ruler he walks up to Jesus and says master teacher what must I do to have eternal life and and Jesus says to him first he says why do you call me good there's no one good but God but since you asked the question keep the commandments then the young man so did Jesus wouldn't walk away from he says well which ones which ones do I keep my specificity and so Jesus doesn't say keep all of them he starts naming some and he named about four or five of them that he knew that the young man had been observing and so the young man's response to it is he says well all those have I kept since I was a kid he says what do I still lack now hear that that's a powerful statement he is rich and he's a ruler and he's lacking he says what do I lack Jesus says go and sell your possessions give the proceeds to the poor and then come follow me and the Bible says when the young man heard that statement he walked away sorrowful an opportunity to shift and his pockets were greater than his purpose he left with his stuff but he was still empty you can have stuff and still be empty what I'm saying to you is is that just because God wants you to ship doesn't mean you're gonna do it in fact what I really want to talk about today is how to observe obstacles in our life to keep us from shifting with God when you look at this passage we passage it is very interesting to note that Elijah by the way let me preface this by saying that he lied ja and Elijah a phonetically koklos so I am probably during the course of this next 30 minutes gonna say their names interchangeably and mix it up so there would be times when I meant to say Elijah and I said Elijah so I'm asking you to pre forgive me amen it's called premeditated failure right here what I'm trying to tell you is is that the message is more important than whether or not I can remember whose name is then there may be a time when I say sheep instead of oxen but just if you just I'm just gonna say animals so we won't forget that Elijah the senior in this story and was coming to the end of his ministry leadership and every person who's poured their life into anyone or any mission as I say is concerned about who will carry it on when you pour your life in the people and to programs and to solving problems you don't want it to die with you that's selfish when you really care you want to know is there somebody that will keep this going so God gives him peace of mind and letting him know in verse 16 in first Kings chapter 19 then I want you to make I want you to go and anoint Elisha to be your replacement as my prophet interesting Elisha does not know what's going on the the predecessor Elisha knows who his successor is but the successor doesn't know in fact in fact I don't mean to make a doctrine on succession in this little passage but I'm saying it is probable that your success that your predecessor knows who the successor is and the sister doesn't even know because some of you think you're going to succeed somebody but by the way you can't succeed someone you're not willing to serve so the Bible says in verse 19 the first Kings 19 that Elisha finds Elisha they had never met he finds them and he finds him ploughing in a field significant he is plowing in a field but he's the next prophet he's doing farming work but he's about to be the spiritual leader of Israel that's two different worlds vocationally he ain't even in a junior profit school he in a junior prom he and a junior deacon he not in he not in seminary and the school of the problem he not in children he don't work in extreme gonna work his way up the remnant gonna work his way up the young adult ministry be adult but he is a farmer by trade and what I'm trying to tell you is is that a shift from God can change your whole vocation like you ain't even got background for this and God says it's time by the way by the way by the way God will summon those who are busy doing something else already that's my first point somebody say don't be idle see some of y'all sitting around waiting on God to call you to do something you ain't doing nothing cuz you don't want to be busy and then he call you you just tried no no God can find you why you're working God can't shift if you're idle you can't shift anything this idle think about that my first car was a 1972 mazda rx-3 it was old when I got it my cousin mark Heinz sold it to me Marty let me take kind of family I got he sold me the car for $350 and knew it was the limit the car not only couldn't pass inspection but the thing had a hole under the floorboard I didn't know about it when I say a hole under for the rust in the car had eaten a hole into the car so much so he had covered it with a mat when he sold it to me for three and $50 one day I looked under the mat and saw the ground that I was riding on I mean literally I could have put my feet on the ground like Fred Flintstone my god you could break your ankles in this joy he didn't tell me show me that joint just like that that's the kind of family I got Charles it was a 4-speed had a clutch and him had one speaker in it no ready the radio would come on by actually if I hit a bump the radio would come on and injure bad I could controller couldn't change the station but I had a cassette playing they had one cassette trouble funk let's get small let's get small and what's he gonna do let's get small do you wanna get up now let's get small y'all so I played that tape all day my brother because it was a clutch had to show me how to drive it I had a card and I'm the driver cuz you got a driving clutch with two feet you gotta had a gas and brake with the right foot gotta had a clutch on the left foot and I didn't know how to do that so my brother takes me I would learn how to drive a clutch on a hill takes me up to see the heights and outside a peak Phillip gut bridges house on the highest steepest hill and see the height and said now he gets out the car puts me in the driver's seat say now you go there I Drive a place that's how brutal he was to me because you know you drift down at the back over here some so now China didn't make the thing go but I learned something about driving a clutch you can't shift when you're idle and some of you can't be shifted cuz you're idle and you don't have to be doing the work that you're gonna get shifted to throughout the Bible God will call people off of ships and offer boats and leaving their fishing business and walk off the farm and walk away from their cattle and out of the medical field and walk away from their medical practices and out of the tax booth and walk away from tax collecting if I he say follow me and they drop their nets and come and follow him you don't have to be doing what you're going to do just be doing something he finds him plowing a field and he's plowing on the 12th team they're 12 rows 12 teams of oxen he is on the 12 team plowing but he's the next man sometimes next is not up at the top sometimes next is obscure it's the people you wouldn't even think would be next and so he goes and finds this young man and when he finds him the Bible says he takes his cloak and he throws it over his shoulder now the cloak represented the prophetic office that he was in it was the office of the Prophet it was garment of the office of the Prophet and so when he threw his cloak over Elijah's didn't say a word walked up to him they knew a lie Joe us Elisha had never met Elisha but they lie shut knew who he was so when they lied you threw his cloak over him he was mutating him without words that I am transferring my anointing in my office to you when he did it he did it and he walked away he's not my dropping what he's doing is is giving a young man space to contemplate what just happened because when you go recruit somebody to an assignment that you think they should take on you got to give them time and space you can't just he didn't just throw the cloak on him and say now what you gonna do he walked away from so you can you need to ponder that because your whole life is about whoever I'm preaching to today your whole life is about to change your hope how you do your day is about to change Elijah must have known what it meant because as soon as it happened he stopped working he left the oxen just what stopped him the oxen probably like what we off then he runs out to Elisha but the first thing he does is look at that he left the oxen you see that verse 20 he left the oxen somebody say he left two oxen here's point number two if you're gonna follow a shift from God you gonna have to leave something let me sit let that sit for a minute what do you have to leave to do what God wants you to do who do you have to leave to do what God want you to do where do you have to leave to do what God wants you to do because some of us have an allegiance to location Allah go for life young DMV I live DC oh nothing I'm a city dude so but what if that's not the assignment so you're shiftless because you've made an idol out of an environment some people is a person I can't leave who I need to leave is some people with things I can't leave them and sometimes it's a place I can't like when do you have when do you have to leave the timing is about some of you have a shift moment you have an opportunity and the shift is time-sensitive and you know it's running out of time that's why you won't move because you you hope the door closes so that you can stay cuz you like normalcy and comfort better than you like the risk of trusting this journey of what I'm saying is is that some of you worked so hard to keep your life stable and I'm not saying I'm saying you may not be stable you might just be stuck I can't move built this life and every invitation the shift is ignored I didn't say you ain't saved ain't say you're a bad person I'm just sayin you ain't shifted so so he leaves he leaves he runs after Elijah cuz any time somebody you're impressed with invites you into their world it's exciting it's emotional but I like what I like about it is in verse 20 he doesn't just go on emotions he says he runs out of he says listen i'ma follow you but let me go let me go say goodbye to my father my mother first that's a very important principle before you make a shift in your life life make sure you want to make a major shift in your life please make sure you consult with your family or somebody who's an authority over you before you make that shift let me go check in with my friend I'm going with you let me go check in with my family first let me go say bye to them first it is very important that you not make shift decisions in isolation in fact I think it's manipulative of somebody to come into your life obviously this man was young enough to still have parents that were alive I think it's manipulative somebody to come into your life and ask you to make a life-altering without the consultation of the people who love you that's why I think it's a little tricky when guys have a loose relationship with a lady and they haven't even talked about marriage but he proposes to her in front of a lot of people when a she's on the spot you didn't did this at the game in front all these people you know may just set me up like this whack hang it I can't say no even though I don't even know you like them like anything less than yes it's killing the mood I'm saying respect should be if you really want to marry me then you should talk to me about that in private so this won't put me on such I can think about what it would be like to be married to you now I have a daughter so as anybody's you know if you want to marry my daughter don't ask her but ask me what happened to that get on your knee for everybody shot I'm trying to blow me away I'm not impressed by it I'm looking at you I'm looking at your records you're instead of saying all that stuff it's not an emotional moment nobody should try to manipulate you into a decision he could be life-altering that's why when he said that it Elijah said go ahead go home just remember what I did because when you're recruiting somebody into a work that you think God is calling them into you still gotta let them make the decision I'm not gonna coerce you into this I'm not gonna try to make you think it's less it's easier than it is but you got to make this decision because when it's all said and done your commitment levels got to be based on your knowing this is what I supposed to do and not me not me circumventing you into doing it so he seeks counsel because there's safety in the multitude of counsel but he had to leave something you know for me it was I was 19 20 years old I was at Prince Community College and I had a plan my plan was was to be a comedian that's what I was gonna do but God shifted me like without my permission no I'm so sorry I can see it like when I just said it I haven't said this all day like I can see what he did like like like like I had my own plan like one thing I could do I had to get I got the spiritual gift of Jonah I can with me explain Jonah and the people watching Allah joning is when you make fun of people the dozens your mama's so fat die die die you can don't start with me I write you up I get put out of class I'm not gonna lose the Jones doesn't send me to the office but there go everybody in the room gonna be laughing so so I'm in so I'm trying to since that's all I knew how to do I'm trying to make a living on it so I go to Prince George's Community College to study communications and some theatre like but I really want to master the art of stage presence and and voice and diction and speech I didn't know he was gonna use it for this but I'm doing all that cuz I got a plan right and then i'ma bust him do some little stand-up some freestyle then I'm going to California I got the plan right two men at the college one named Sam Kanani and the other named John Mahara threw a cloak on me they said they just noticed that I had a relationship with Jesus and they put something on me I wasn't even really living for Jesus and they say we want you to be the president of the campus Bible Fellowship dad that messes my game up cuz now I gotta sit at the table and be with the Christians I was trying holid did a little honey's and stuff but now I gotta be had to say yes jesus loves you they forced me into that thing like that was a moment so now instead of being a prisoner of Community College trying to do comedy now I end up because of a conversation with them sitting in the office of the registrar Washington Bible College in tears as the man prays for me about God's plan for my life and now I'm in Washington Bible College and God shifted me like like I think about comedy but that ain't in the playing no more you so so so maybe that ain't enough maybe that ain't nothing to you maybe you don't think I gave up a lot but that was my life what what I'm trying to say is everybody is gonna shift got to leave something what are you willing to leave it's not your life okay let's do it like this so so if you gave your life to Jesus it's not yours you're trespassing on a life you gave him I spit that out real good in it so now let me go back into this passage let me go visit so you gotta leave something but what it goes deeper than that as Co is deeper than that so in verse 20 the Bible says he he left the oxen but look at what happens in verse 21 in verse 21 when he goes back from telling lies I gotta go say bye to my parents verse 21 says he slaughtered oxen he slaughters the oxen then he takes the fire would not even fire wood he takes the plow would that's part of his equipment his his business equipment and he takes all his wood and he uses that to cook the oxen then he takes the meat and gives it out to the townspeople you know what he's doing he's separating himself from his history he's like when I'm finished with this celebration there will be nothing left of my enterprise I've killed all of my product I've killed all of my resources I've killed all of my inventory I don't even have anything to build from it's gone I'm over see it's the difference between leaving an ox and slaughtering it see when you leave something you might go back to it but when you kill it it ain't dental look see some of y'all can't be all in cuz you ain't even all out yet you still you you you still got other attachments so what do you need to slaughter so you can't go back see you want to be married but you ain't all married you ain't all in you you know married you like being married you like the benefits of marriage but you also likes remaining friends with people in the facebook did you have sex with ruin stroke in that section I'll tell you ladies y'all face what you you that's it that's that's a violation so now now your your current relationship has to deal with the soul ties of your history that you won't let go so you still got tickets to the Frankie Beverly show and you're very well suppose video when y'all had a linen outfits like this taking prisoners you still got that in your drawer so you got little trinkets and little gifts and little pieces of furniture and you got a sweater you still got to match the t-shirt for Kings Dominion you still got all that and I'm saying well plus dude I say burn it y'all right over there burn it there's attachments to it that remind you euphoric ly that trigger you're euphoric recall isn't it a trip that when you think about old flame you never think about the bad part of it you always think about how good it was yeah so so so watch this he annihilates everything is it I don't have a back-up plan I'm all in some shifts require more than leaving stuff it requires extinguishing stuff so that you can be fully here's a question I have for you when it comes to your relationship or your career are you devoted or you distract it devotion requires not only an allegiance to what he is it requires a severance too what was I'm saying some shifts require that so we long for something that's over but we're living with something that is and I'm saying this is suffering because we won't let go of that they are two completely I'm gonna close with this in Luke chapter 9 there's a passage that I want to look at and in Luke chapter 9 there's a story that gives three where I believe are three reasons why we don't make shifts in Luke chapter 9 and verse 57 listen to what this man says it's really pretty impressive Jesus and his crew walking and someone said to Jesus I will follow you wherever you go and stop right there I'll father who but that's a serious commitment right there wherever you go Lord count me in I'm all-in look at verse 59 another man speaks up in verse 59 go to the next verse 59 and he jesus said to this man come follow me and this man agreed but he says we're lower first let me return home and bury my father okay sounds good verse 61 he's a third person on this commitment journey and this person another one said yes Lord I will follow you but first let me say goodbye to my family now when I read this passage all three DS men sound like they have legitimate commitment levels you know I'm with you wherever you go I just need to go bury my father let me go sing about my family seem like everybody's good to go until you hear what Jesus says to all of them and Jesus had a problem with all of them like check out the first guy about here the three things you can write these down if you want one has a problem too tied to possessions they're two stronger ties to possessions the next guy has two stronger ties to a person and the other one has too strong of a tie to his past let me go through it the first guy says Lord I'll follow you wherever you want just call my name and I'll be there here's a great is there a greater commitment than that and look at what Jesus says to this man to say I'll follow you wherever you go Jesus says to him foxes have dens living birds have nests but the Son of man has no place even to lay his head what does that have to do with I said I'm gonna wherever down for whatever here's what the Lord is saying to this man the reason why he brings up accommodations is cuz G you know Jesus omniscient he knows that accommodations matter to man but he's saying to him you ain't ready for this because luxury matters too much to you you can't roll with me animals live better than me or my death certificate it will say no fixed addressed I'm homeless so what's going to keep you from shifting with me and following me is your stuff somebody said stuff now I'm tell you right now I like stuff like stuff I know I ain't alone in here I like stuff I like stuff I like stuff I like Jesus I love Jesus and I like stuff I like for them to be together I'm gonna tell you straight up I had a question about a song it was a popular hymn Kurt Franklin did it later on but him with like this silver and gold silver and gold I'd rather have Jesus than silver and gold you know that song now I don't disagree with that I just changed lyrics I'd rather have Jesus and you go right there see y'all ain't gonna be really see God don't have to wonder what I'm saying it's a God you know I I'm allergic to broke I just been broke before I just I don't want you hard not to be broke I want Jesus and silver go hey man I'll take that with your dirty rice and the three-piece give me that now I'm saying you're gonna say I can't follow you and you know we're most of us down with following Jesus long as they you know at these pencils stuff we ain't trying to give no stuff we'd be asking God to watch over us watch over my and protect my stuff Lord give me some mo stuff ain't nothin like these three back to back to back hurricanes to show you the value and something is more important than stuff we better get ourselves out of here forget about this stuff you're going down with the stuff you man somebody floating around in a car I work hard for this car well you go ahead Haidee the house all that I'm gonna get another one but you ever had somebody come to you and they say Rihanna's with me yep as it might come to you and they they're about to leave something like really lucrative like they got a job it pays them well and it's affluent you and all that and they say yeah feeling like the Lord's calling me to do this and what it ain't that what they going to do is bad it's good but it ain't nothing like if they they don't know they don't know what they raising money to do it right like you know you can help me out maybe we can eat right like now apart you don't want to say it but a part of you like okay alright brain praise God praise God do you really remember you but they're not part of you saying I don't want to do that I don't understand how I can have a spiritual promotion and a financial demotion but that don't seem like it's going the right way like lord I want all must Lord I wanted at least lateral what's the package see y'all in gonna be real with me I wanna know what the package is what they paying over there don't be young come on he ain't making it here what's the package and we talk package you don't want you hear people saying that when people say they go away down for the lord like that don't it make you feel y'all say it but don't necessarily be a little off you ain't go saying cuz this is about the Lord but in your mind you said you know what they probably fast it one day too long you should have a Friday you shoulda ate something Friday or they went to Israel they didn't stay that stayed over Israel too long something look off of that but deep down the side you say I said Lord don't ever make me do that to him I got like shopping too much I like I want to go on trips and I just like I like air conditioning I like I like I like a bed but watch what Elijah does I want you to go back to first Kings 19 in 19 and notice this it's when it came to his possessions that didn't stop him the Bible says he was on the twelfth row of a 12 team of oxen 12 teams of oxen he's running 12 Road the reason why I know they were all he is is because when he decided to leave and follow Elijah he killed all of them then he burned a ball of all equipment that was his business and all the people working in front of him or his staff he was lucrative he had built an enterprise and checked this out when it was time for him to shift he didn't take a buyout or severance package he set it on fire he's saying letting stuff get in the way of me following my shift I ain't gonna name faking like a man I'm just saying that's what he did I would hope that God's call on our life would be bigger than stuff I'm not saying I'm not saying I'm not saying it's easy and I'm not saying just do anything but at some point we may have to trust him when they don't add up you know what I'm saying when the numbers don't add up now I know that's scary forgiving God to introduce that into the equation God don't even come to me with no like if this you know what my bills are we gotta at least be here wait who am I talking to it who under with me yes a as one of y'all wit me I'm talking real reacting like I'll do anything for the Lord I'd do anything for Lord you 7oz ow you like you like and you know I just wanted to call you because I think y'all left with zero of my hourly he's best 7t right second man in this story verse 59 he comes up and Jesus says to him come follow me and the man says I sure greed but love first let me return home and bury my father so I'm saying I'm saying man who that's got to be reasonable that's fair this man father daddy gotta take care and I'm thinking Jesus gonna say oh man my bad man was he sick man take care that man will be in Capernaum meet us over where's where the arrangements what are you having - sir you have our condolences the Lord don't make no mistake picking his flowers you know how we say all that said God loved more we love them a God loved them best God don't make no mistakes and and call us if you need anything be sure that's what we say to people if you need anything anybody thinking about you you phone to call them if I lost some I lost my mother you know 500 people say if you need anything calling nobody any thinking about that anyway I think Jesus would have said all that man take care there get the mortician stuff ready to paperwork look what Jesus says this man said I got to go bury my father Jesus said let the spiritually dead bury their own dead your duty is to go and preach about the kingdom of God I said that's gangster thug somebody follow Jesus then I studied it and realized the man's father wasn't dead let me explain some to you in biblical times first of all when Jesus said let us let the dead bury the dead the first day group is metaphorical because two dead people can't bury each other if I'm dead you did somebody else got duty service you understand I'm saying but when people died during this time they would be buried the same day they died Ananias and Sapphira can go through a whole bunch of you and Isis afire today they die next up the fire they were buried in John chapter 11 when Jesus is just got a message from Lazarus sisters and Lazarus sick on the death when Jesus waited two days when Lazarus died they buried him that day when Jesus got there four days later he had been in a grave four days you get you you get buried the same day you die when Jesus died on Friday he was in the grave within two hours they didn't wait too big mama came up from noka line on a bus say we gotta wait to surgery cuz we got to get you know to got the family coming up if you went there when somebody died they had to tell you about it you died at two o'clock using the ground five breathe ain't called Stuart Pope Rollins none of them people they embalmed ain't get no winner by significant casket running no program write no obituaries nobody wrote a poem you wasn't anyway we ain't read your poem it's over so when this man said let me go home and bury my father it was a revelation his father won the only way his father could have been dead he wouldn't been hanging out with Jesus if his father's dead even remembering him the only way that could have been true the man's father would I had to die while Jesus was talking to him Jesus say follow me the man with the phone had the ring right then he said Jesus and boletus my father just died I got to go I got to go burn my father but I will be back let me tell you what the man is really trying to do he's trying to buy time his father ain't him dead his father he'll no one is why when I don't know us no even if he was in hospitals he wouldn't know when he going down what he's saying is let me go take care of my father take care of his affairs when he dies I'll bury him get the paperwork in this state stuffing then I'm all in what he said he's giving him an undisclosed time when his commitment would be available and that's no commitment it's a commitment of ambiguity that's what we do but we don't want to do nothing we just try to get people to trickeration and say like can I help can I depend on you to work with me on the weekends you like as soon as I get all this straightened out over here and I get this squared away then I'm my weekends is for all for you well we don't know when that's gonna be squared away and you don't either and you even give us a day cuz she want us to be you wants me see we say stuff like that to people so they'll back up just give them a oh it's just a arbitrary like like can't you help me to my P oh then I gotta go to court and got you know we gotta run tests I mean guys then we'll come back and then we're going we're gonna run we're gonna get the certification maybe you're saying I'll forget it we say that cuz we don't want to do it so the first guy was about his possessions this guy's about a person my father who is keeping you from shifting who do you keep saying I got take care of him I can't do that guy take care of her third person no watch on the other hand Elijah when he says he's going back he says I'm gonna say bye to my parents I ain't going to bury him ain't no way today down I'm just gonna say bye that's different it's a big difference in saying bye to somebody and waiting on the die to bury them here's the third person I'm done the third person says Lord I'll follow you I just want to go say goodbye to my family first well that sounds legit cuz that's just what Elijah said life said I need to go say goodbye to my family so Jesus must be willing to approve this what does Jesus say in response to this man he says anyone who puts his hands to the plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God by the way this is doesn't mean you're not fit to go to the kingdom of heaven that mean I say it just means you can't carry out your kingdom assignment we're gonna go to heaven because of the blood of Jesus and the grace of God but it doesn't mean we're gonna do any of his assignments while we're on the way because you have to shift into his assignments and we trying to shift cuz we like is safe and comfortable in people in places and things and propositions and stuff so we're not stable we're stuck so so so so why would why would it be okay for Elijah to go talk to his family but anything for this person to talk to their family this man is trying out this family one is because jesus knows the difference between both families like jesus knows what it's like to talk about something spiritual to a spiritual family and talk about something spiritual to announce Persian family he knows that if this man goes back home and talks to his family he's gonna be done stick a fork in him because he don't go home and try to tell his family and y'all sit down come ooon to tell y'all something I'm undergoing stand with Jesus in them and you know we're gonna be like healing the sick and raising the dead you know I'm saying walking on warding I'm saying um water to wine flip erasers no I'm saying we'll look net so I'm going on with Jesus and then we leave what rest stay away from them church people see Elijah went to a family obviously they supported him you can't talk to Don spiritual people but let me tell you what a lot of your families would do where you talk about doing something god that's why I can't just be your family did you go to whoever's an authority in your life who's got you covered see you should I talk to your family about the Lord stuff about the Lord and they say we sing you to school for that I said she's a school so you can get a job so you can get apartment I got you in the government so you can work your way up and stay there till you're 55 get you get your pension and stop messing that up I'm against anybody works in the government by the way I'm just saying everybody so many people just want us to be normal then it wants to be spiritual they want to be normal so you going in with something spiritual and they're gonna shoot you down Jesus if you walk away and you don't make decision you're done on the other hand if you know why because your past has you locked in but watch this Elijah goes back to his past and burns it up leaves nothing behind them what's behind you that's keeping you from shifting you know what I found out for some people some people it's past mistakes that's keeping you from shifting I mean it's stuff you've done and we just known as you're done and God is already forgiving you and you've already paid a price for it but you won't forgive yourself because somehow you're more holier than God and the holy God forgave you but you won't forgive yourself so you're not walking into the shift because you don't feel like you're worried because of what you did so something behind you so watch this he says don't plow looking back anything is whenever you're plowing something in order to have straight furrows you've got to look ahead you've got to keep your eye on what's front of you because if you look back you're gonna zigzag and some of you can't move forward because you keep reflecting on your failures glance at your failures don't glaze at him don't gaze at him learn from a no live with him I did it I'm not it I did it but I'm not it I did it I learned from it I'm better because of it and I'm still here and God wants to use me to help others so that maybe they won't do it I'm done so Elijah does all that then he start serving Elijah and Elijah is happy because now he has a successor so think about this y'all what is it in your life it may be hindering you from shifting well you know I'm a little up in age now I can't do it God God waited to Abraham was 75 years old and he says let's go shift huh go leave Iran leave your father's country and go to a place now let me go I can talk about this all day father thank you for your word thank you for a church thank you we got somewhere to go while we're boycotting the football season thank you lord I prayed it we will not just listen to this but that we will learn from it and apply to our lives in Jesus name Amen amen

Channel: Keith Battle

Views: 5,742

Rating: 4.9480519 out of 5

Keywords: Shifts, Pastor Battle, Keith Battle, Zion Church, Sermon, DMV, FBCG, transitions in life, life changes, God, Jesus, Bible, motivational speaking, Inspirations, achieving goals, Loving God, Bishop Jakes, The Potters House

Id: fM83ilTzRy0

Length: 47min 33sec (2853 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 05 2019