When you need a miracle No.1 Taking on the baton

When our Lord was on earth, he taught his disciples a prayer. Let's thoughtfully say that prayer together. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. Now I wonder what you would say if you were engaged in your job, whatever it happens to be.

Maybe, maybe you're a shepherd on the downs. Be rather unusual, but somebody must look after those sheep. And a character who seems like a rambler just passes by, and he stops you in what you're doing, and he takes off his coat, and he puts it on you and says, stop doing your job.

And be an apprentice to take over mine. Or if you were working down at Barclays Bank, and somebody came in and put a check across the counter, but really the action was just a stimulant for, a stimulus for conversation. And they said, no, we want you to leave Barclays Bank, and quit your job, and your pension rights, and all the many perks.

Actually, you may not get any at Barclays, I don't know, but I'm just sort of fantasizing. And follow me, become one of my accomplices. Now in both those situations, your reaction if you were involved would be that of utter astonishment.

And yet, we're going to be looking on the successive Sunday evenings on the story of a man who had that sort of shock experience. One day, doing one thing, with his future guaranteed because he had a rich father. And the next day, well, just a little while later anyway, he was in a completely different orbit with a completely different job.

His name is Elisha. And it's Tim and my privilege during these weeks to speak to you about Elisha. Now the way that you will get more out of what we want to share is by helping yourself to one of these programs that we publish more or less every quarter that gives you some idea as to what will be happening on a Sunday night.

So if you haven't got one, I'm suggesting that you go to the welcome desk after the service and take a copy and then just check what's coming up next week. And if you have a Bible and if you haven't and you'd want one, then we'll be glad to give you one. Just read it through so that you're well prepared for the explanation of a particular passage of Scripture.

Now with that in mind, let's take our first reading this evening. And it's in 1 Kings chapter 19, verse 19, the call of Elisha. So Elijah went from there and found Elisha, son of Shaphat.

He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah.

Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, he said, and then I will come with you. Go back, Elijah replied. What have I done to you? So Elisha left him and went back.

He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plying equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.

2 Kings chapter 2, verse 1. When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal. Elijah said to Elisha, stay here, the Lord has sent me to Bethel. But Elisha said, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.

So they went down to Bethel. The company of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and asked, do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today? Yes, I know, Elisha replied, but do not speak of it. Then Elijah said to him, stay here, Elisha, the Lord has sent me to Jericho.

And he replied, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you. So they went to Jericho. The company of the prophets at Jericho went up to Elisha and asked him, do you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today? Yes, I know, he replied, but do not speak of it.

Then Elijah said to him, stay here, the Lord has sent me to the Jordan. And he replied, as surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you. So the two of them walked on.

Fifty men of the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance, facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan. Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water with it. The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you? Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit, Elisha replied. You have asked a difficult thing, Elijah said, yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours, otherwise 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 and cried out, my father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel. And Elisha saw him no more.

Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them apart. He picked up the cloak that had fallen from Elijah and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. Then he took the cloak that had fallen from him and struck the water with it.

Where now is the Lord, the God of Elijah, he asked. When he struck the water, it divided to the right and to the left, and he crossed over. The company of the prophets from Jericho who were watching said, the spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha.

And they went to meet him and bowed to the ground before him. Look, they said, we, your servants, have 50 able men. Let them go and look for your master.

Perhaps the spirit of the Lord has picked him up and set him down on some mountain or in some valley. No, Elisha replied, do not send them. But they persisted until he was too ashamed to refuse.

So he said, send them. And they sent 50 men who searched for three days but did not find him. When they returned to Elisha, who was staying in Jericho, he said to them, didn't I tell you not to go? May the Lord bless this reading.

You read in the 19th chapter about this fellow Elisha. And the way when he was accosted by Elijah, with great enthusiasm, he ran after the prophet and followed him. And then you read in the second chapter, the second book of Kings and the sixth verse, the two of them walked on, running.

Is it a sport that you've done? I was not born fast. Like some people have claimed in terms of their experience of being able to engage in athletics. Endurance, well, maybe a little bit.

We were forced in my school because those were days when schools were tough, as opposed to the softness of worthy schools, where you've got complete liberation amongst children. As it's coming gradually, I'm told, for animals. Some would say, where is the difference? And I assure you that I don't go down that track.

But we are grateful, perhaps looking back some of us, on the way that we were persuaded firmly, gently, with no choice at all, to engage in athletics. And many an occasion I recall when I have pressed my limbs to breaking point to try to cope with the five miles that was imposed on us as our school cross-country course. Now, never been fast in terms of a sprint, but occasionally, because our school was split into various houses, I think we had seven houses and we competed against each other.

And on the occasion of the school sports day, I would at least try to be a member of the team which formed a race where there was the passing on of a baton. You know, one lap was done, and then as that lap came to its conclusion, just about another runner took up the pace, looked behind and grabbed for the baton so that he could continue his lap on the relay. And then the third occasion and the fourth occasion, it required four people in order to complete the course.

And you did well. If you're able to judge the pace of the guy who was handing the baton on to you, if you could get your hand in the right position, and without fumbling, you were able to continue unimpeded, maintaining the same sort of speed as had been set up from the very beginning. Now, when you look into the Bible, you discover that on occasions there are people whose names are particularly linked together.

And one of the reasons why there is this point of contact is because one happens to be the successor of the other. Now, there is a sense in which the Christian church from generation to generation has been involved in a long-running relay race. One generation passes on the gospel truth to another generation, and they pass it on to another generation.

Sometimes the church has done well. It's run, and it's run successfully, and it's not fumbled. But occasionally the baton has been dropped, and there's been quite a period of difficulty.

And you know, in the 20th century, the imagery in the New Testament tells us especially that Christian people are to think of themselves as involved in a relay race. We're to run the race that is set before us. We are to finish the course.

On several occasions, the apostle makes reference to Christians as athletes running. Not running independently. Running in this grand relay.

Taking on what's been transmitted to you and passing it on to somebody else. And this is the reason, my dear friends, why in the Old Testament and in the New Testament you get these names that are sometimes coupled together. Sometimes triplets of names.

Sometimes as many as a dozen names. People who have this common denominator, this common interest, that they want to maintain the speed and the enthusiasm and the success of those who have been trying to tell about Jesus in the New Testament to retain the true message of God in the Old Testament. And here this evening, commencing this new series of studies, we put the spotlight on a man called Elisha.

And as I say, you pick up on his story from the 19th chapter of the first book of Kings. And there he's described for us in a little cameo about his initial commitment to the Lord as he runs towards Elijah and later on as the two of them make progress together. An initial commitment to the Lord.

Following on in the second chapter of the second book of Kings, you find that this man is successful because he's deaf to any distracting voice. Anything that would cause him to stumble and to not make further progress. And then right at the end of the passage that Gay read to us, you discover him making a request for a very powerful anointing so that the man who he is succeeding may go to heaven, literally so, with an understanding that the work he has commenced will not only be done as well, but will be done even more effectively than what he had achieved during his lifespan, or if you prefer, maintain the metaphor, during the lap that he ran of the relay.

So, let's take on or take up these three incidents at the beginning of the narrative that talks to us about Elisha. Now, he was a man who was actively engaged in doing something when Elijah came into his life and suggested a complete change in career. And I want to say this, that if you're going to follow Jesus in a specialized ministry, then the important thing is not just identifying what you're going to do in the future, but being faithful in your present commitment.

It's very rarely that the Lord Jesus calls someone from making an absolute failure of a secular job and places him or her into a specific ministry within the Christian church. What generally happens is, as in the case of Matthew, there he is, he's a civil servant, he's working for the Romans, he's not very popular because, well, he's a quizzling, he's a traitor, but nonetheless he's doing well at the business level and Jesus has come, follow me. And years before that, here is Elijah, this great prophet of Israel, this passionate man who has been so successful in some areas and he needs a successor.

He needs someone to take over from him. And he finds himself in northern Israel at a time when many Hebrews have turned away from God. And he goes to a little place which is beautifully called, if I translate it from the original, the Meadow of the Dance.

And in this picturesque village, farming setting, there's a young man called Elisha. And Elijah goes to him, takes off the mantle of his prophetic office and puts it round Elisha and suggests by his very action that Elisha will continue to do the work that Elijah has commenced. Now, when you start to read the background of this story, you'll find that this man who's going to be great in the service of God was actually the son of a fairly well-to-do Hebrew father.

He was someone who was called to lead. And yet you find that when he has a switch in career, he has such a servant's heart, he is prepared to serve. And that's one of the common denominators for anyone who's going to follow Jesus Christ.

However influential they may have been at the secular level, however well-endowed they may be as a result of parentage, they who will minister for God must be prepared to serve. Elisha is looking after 12 pairs of oxen, which means to say that his father is indeed a very rich man. But from this secular occupation or in the middle of it, Elisha has his ear tuned to the voice of God.

He's prepared to take a completely different course in his life if that is what God wants him to do. And I ask you, does that apply to you? Or do you feel so absolutely settled in your lifestyle at this moment that even if there was an atomic bomb, you wouldn't be shaken out of your resolve to be doing what you are doing now? Elisha was a man who was prepared as he was faithfully looking after his father's business to turn his back on it all. If there was something superior, some powerful call that comes from God, and he hears it and he knows that it is for himself.

So when Elijah spots this young fellow, he goes to him. And as I say, he takes up his cloak and throws it around him. And Elisha immediately leaves his oxen, runs after Elijah and says, let me go home, not to ask their permission as to whether I can follow you, but simply to say goodbye to my mother, to my father.

Then he sets out on the service of God. Every service of God, my young friend and older friend, is marked by a leave-taking called to separation with the crucified. Step by step with Jesus all along life's way, first the cross and conflict, then the perfect day.

If you are going to serve Jesus in a fashion that is equivalent in the New Testament dispensation to the way that Elisha was prepared to serve God at his time, then you also must take a leaf out of Elisha's book and see what he did next and offer the equivalent. When Matthew was called to serve Jesus, he went home and threw a party for all his friends and Jesus was present. And there was something sacramental about that occasion.

And you get exactly the same here. Elisha is going to follow God and having heard his call through Elijah, so what does he do? He slaughters the oxen, he uses the wood, he offers a sacrifice to the Lord, and the meat is served to his friends who he calls to the party and he tells his friends what he's going to be about from now on. We have an expression, a colloquial expression, that really fits the occasion.

Here is a man who has burnt the bridges behind him. He understands that he is going to embark on something fresh, something wonderful, and although there's going to be a cost element, he believes that it's worthwhile because he has such a high evaluation of the ministry to which God through Elijah is directing him. You know, there was a man who lived at the beginning of this century and his name was John Mott.

He was a sort of George Verver figure and he left a very successful life here in the United Kingdom and he went to the Middle East and he worked as a missionary. The Middle East, as you know, is the place where there's a lot of wealth as a result of oil. And because he was so successful in his administration, in his ministry, he won the attention of the American Standard Oil Company who asked him to leave his particular job and to take some employment with them.

They asked what his salary was. He quoted a figure and they doubled it and he said no and they tripled it and he said no and he quadrupled it and he said no. And they said, what's the matter? What's the matter with the figure? He says there's nothing a matter with the money but there's a lot of matter with the job.

What I'm doing is far more important than anything that you can offer me. Now that's the spirit of Elijah, you see. Nothing wrong with looking after your father-in-law's farm.

Nothing wrong in spending your days in the meadow of the dance. But if God has disturbed you and taken you or given you an inclination that that successful career in which you had embarked is not the one that he wants you to maintain during the whole of your life, then you are to respond and burn your bridges and do an Elijah. Now why did he leave? Why did Matthew leave? Why did any of the disciples leave? Why did any of the mission task force down the centuries leave the comfortable lives that they were living back in the home country? And the answer is because they believed that the message that they were going to preach to others was of such great importance that there was nothing really that was more that could rival that.

And the message of Jesus and his cross, and his shed blood, and his mighty resurrection, and the fact that sinful men and women all over the globe, in Asia, here in Europe, in the northern part of our hemisphere, in the southern part, whether they're black, whether they're white, they need him. They need to know about Jesus Christ. And the most precious thing is to have a ministry that is given to you by God to take that good news to others.

So Elisha, he says goodbye to his colleagues, he says goodbye to his parents, and he starts to follow Elijah. He serves a sort of apprenticeship. And several years go by, and we pick up the next stage in his life as recorded in scripture as we turn to that second chapter of the second book of Kings.

Now there is something that Elijah will teach Elisha even before you go to the end period of that first prophet's life. And that is that when someone has been called, they're tested. Elijah says to Elisha before he packs everything up, are you sure? You know, I don't want to give undue pressure.

I want you to make this decision yourself, utterly convinced that this is what you want for yourself because this is what God wants for you. And that same opportunity to go back was given to Elisha as his conviction is tested. And before his tutor, Elijah is taken up into heaven.

Look at verse two. Elijah said to Elisha, stay here. I'm going away.

I'm going across the Jordan. I'm about to leave this life, but you stay where you are. Don't bother following me any further.

You have done enough. But look at Elisha's response. As surely as the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you.

You see, that's the commitment that God deserves on the part of all of us who claim to love Jesus. You are so important in my life that I will stay with you. Even if you take me into the unknown, even if you give me responsibilities, the like of which caused me to quake in my shoes.

So here is Elijah testing Elisha, the younger man having been with him for a few years. Is this really what you want? I'm about to move out of this world. And Elijah says, I'm staying with you.

Elisha says, I'm staying with you even to the very end. Now they move. They move on.

Look at the last part of verse 1 and on again into verse 2. They went down to Bethel. And at Bethel, there's a company of prophets, the colleagues of Elisha. And they say to Elisha, don't you know that your master is going to be taken away? He's going to be taken away today.

It could be a very iffy situation, you know. It could be something that's a little strange. Wouldn't it be better for you to stay here in Bethel? Now Bethel was a place of great historical importance for the Israelites.

When they thought back in their history, they remember the time when God had appeared to Jacob in Bethel. Bethel represented a comfortable option. But we're talking about a man who actually has really nailed his colors to the wall.

We're talking about someone who has such a dogged devotion that it is analogous in the New Testament to the apostle Paul, who is prepared to risk shipwreck, who's prepared to expose his flesh to the Roman whips, because he believes that even though he risks his life, it's worth it in order that he can follow to the end of his days the claims of Jesus Christ upon him. I'm asking you, do you have that same sort of commitment, a Christian person? You see, it's not just the test of making the initial commitment. But here is Elisha, if you please, at halfway house.

Here is another option. I mean, he's going to be with spiritual people. He's going to be in Bethel.

Isn't that enough? Can't he just settle down? Here is a comfortable pulpit. Here is a congregation who are sympathetic towards him. Isn't this the option that Elisha is to take? But you see, it's wrong to calculate just in terms of a comfort factor as you work out the decisions for the various stages of your life.

It's not what you want. It's not what your preference is. It's the vision that God has given you.

You see, here's a committee and they've come together to run Elisha's life at this point. Now, there's use for committees in churches. But don't overemphasize them because there's always the charismatic element, you see.

I mean, here's the Apostle Paul and he's got great problems. He's got problems because, well, there's a difficulty that's cropped up in the church in Galatia. And he's had some difficulties within his own life working out just what are God's wishes for him.

And you'll find him saying in Galatians 1, verse 16, that he sought the counsel of no man. And thank God he didn't. Had he gone to Jerusalem at that particular time, he'd have got a lot of advice which would have been completely contrary to what God wanted him to do.

You see, there is always, in following God, not just the necessity to sound out the advice of others and within the Old Testament and the New Testament, the committee concept is always overruled by the charismatic concept. The idea that this is what God wants me to do. This is the particular burden that God has given to me.

This whole idea of knowing the anointing of the Spirit, of having a conviction born into your heart that causes you, having heard the voice of God, to say, this is what I am going to do. Because this is what God has told me. William Carey was helped to some degree by the committee back home.

The formation in its primitive state of the Baptist Missionary Council. But actually, if he had followed their advice to some degree, his ministry in North India would have been limited very, very much. But Carey, well, he had had upon his heart this vision from God of cracking the Indian languages, bringing them into a written script, and eventually getting the gospel message printed out and pushed around the whole of North India.

He had this vision. And even though others, his committee members, didn't share the vision, he knew it was from the Lord, so he went for it. And this is so very important.

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not suggesting we don't take counsel. I'm not suggesting that management and what have you doesn't come into the Church of God.

But what I am saying is this, that when you dispense with the charismatic element, you dispense with the Spirit of God working upon the mind of a man, giving him a vision of what he is to be and what is yet to be born in terms of what God will do within this world. So, Elisha, he's there in Bethel. There is this committee that gives him their advice, but he says, no, I'm not going to leave Elijah.

I'm going to go with him right to the end of his earthly pilgrimage because that is what I believe that God wants of me. Indeed, he dares to tell the committee to shut up. Yes, I know, Elisha says, when they say, don't you know that the Lord is going to take your master from you today? Yes, I know, Elisha replied, but do not speak of it.

And then Elijah comes along and he adds a little bit more testing as far as Elisha is concerned. You see, he wants to know his man. He wants to know the mettle in this man.

Is he really going to be the sort of fellow who can take the baton on and run with it and proclaim what was in those days the equivalent of a gospel in these days? And even Elijah cannot put, Elisha, of course, cannot make him trip as surely as the Lord lives. And as you live, I will not leave you. So they went to Jericho and the pressure continues there at Jericho until you find as you move on into the narrative that Elijah and Elisha are together for the last test in Elijah's life.

And looking on from the distance is this very committee who have given bad advice to Elisha and they watch as Elijah and his trusted apprentice approach the Jordan River and miraculously, the last miracle that Elijah is allowed to perform. The prophet, verse eight, takes his cloak, rolls it up, strikes the water. The water divides to the right and to the left and the two of them cross over on dry ground.

And then Elijah says to Elisha, now look, you've been with me all these days. You've been faithful to me all these years. Ask what you will and I'll ensure that it's granted to you in the name of God.

That's a dangerous thing for any man to say to another in the name of the Lord. But you see, Elijah knew his man. Elijah knew that Elisha was of that caliber, that all he wanted was the best for God in his life.

And so what does he do? Well, with Solomonic type wisdom, he says to Elisha, Elijah, let me inherit a double portion of your spirit. All that has been indicated in terms of the insignia of your office being placed around my shoulders. The impact of your ministry of yesteryear may be accumulated and then multiplied by two as the baton is passed on to me as the spirit is passed on to me.

May the impact of my life double the impact of your life. And that, I tell you, is one of the greatest things that you find in the whole of the Old Testament in terms of a request of one man to another. The Puritan, I believe, says this, be miserly in your material wants, be Spartan in your lifestyle, be generous in bestowing your goods to feed the poor, but be greedy for God.

I hunger and I thirst. Jesus, my manna, be. What do you want, Elisha? I want twice what you've got.

I want to know the anointing. I want the unction. I want the oflatus of the spirit to rest upon me.

You see, Elijah's success as a preacher was correlated to the fact that the very power of God flowed through his life. Elisha had seen this. And he wants it.

He wants it for himself. And if you are going to serve God, however skilled you may be, however educated you may be, I dare to go further, however much of the Bible you might know, you need that unction of God's spirit. You need that double anointing.

For the world is not looking for theologians. The world is not looking for the church to produce intellectuals. The world is looking for men who have so tapped the spirit of God that something of God's power rests upon them as they proclaim his word.

And this is what Elisha is asking for. It's a difficult thing, says his teacher. Yet if you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours, otherwise not.

You see the point? This man has dug the footsteps of his master. Even when Elijah has tried to push him away, even when the committee have brought their agenda and their conclusions twice to him, Elijah has said no. He realizes that it is necessary for him to keep in the company of his master.

And his master now confirms that his insight was correct. When I'm taken, have your eye on me and then your wish will be fulfilled. Otherwise, no.

And as they're walking together, here is one of the most mysterious narratives in the whole of the Old Testament. As they were walking together and talking, 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.

And Elisha said, my father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel. What did he mean? God had sent his chariot, swing low, sweet chariot, coming now to carry me home. But the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof, that's a colloquial expression.

It stands for the might and the power of Israel. Now, Elisha realizes that the might and the power of Israel have been the consuming passion of Elijah. And Elijah is leaving the scene.

That means that Israel loses its authoritative voice. But no, because the spirit that was on Elijah is being transferred to Elisha. And far from it being the end of a ministry, it becomes the beginning of a new ministry.

As God ensures that the baton is passed on to Elijah's faithful young apprentice who takes it skillfully and there's no slackening of the speed. And over there in the distance is this committee watching what happens. And as Elijah comes back, he's now on his own and he has the first test, the same test as was there as the last one for Elijah, the Jordan.

Will he have the same power? He causes by the grace, the miraculous power of God, as he takes his cloak, the waters of the Jordan to divide. And he walks over and verse 15, the company of the prophets from Jericho were watching, said, the spirit of Elijah is resting on Elisha. Isn't it wonderful? And yet, and with this, I conclude, Elisha was no clone.

Martin Lloyd-Jones, I quoted this last week in introducing again, David Pawson to you. Lloyd-Jones once told me, never be a clone of another man, be your own man. There's only one Lloyd-Jones.

There's only one Billy Graham. There's only one David Pawson. There's only one Elisha.

He has the same anointing, but it's a different ministry. It has the same objective, but it's a different temperament. Elijah is a man whose miracles were always miracles of death and destruction.

But Elisha, his is a ministry of grace. The first thing that Elijah did was to stop the heavens from sending down the waters. The first thing that Elisha does when he's returned from the Jordan is to cleanse and make palatable some foul water.

And time and time again, you'll find in the ministry of Elisha, the grace of God being demonstrated towards the Hebrews. What a wonderful career he was enabled to enter into. But it all revolved around that first occasion.

When he was faithfully working for his dad, he followed the plow for many a year. He was successful in that. And from doing that worthy occupation, God found him well-prepared to move into a different orbit.

And through trading and skillful instruction, the day comes when the baton is passed on from Elijah to Elisha. Are you ready? Are you ready to take the baton yourself? Ready to dash down the lap for God with a ministry that he's given you that someone else commenced but passed on? This, you see, is discipleship. This is the challenge of God upon your life.

This is what God will have every man or woman in some measure who's confessed Jesus Christ as Lord to engage in. Hazzing their lives, proclaiming the gospel, working faithfully for God back on the farm or taken from the farm or from the bank counter and serving God in areas unknown, undreamed of, but usefully employed. Until the day comes when you pass the baton on to someone else, for God's chariots have come to take you to glory.

Let's pray. Father, we're grateful. What a gospel.

What a God. You take a passionate man like Elijah and you link him to a sensitive man like Elisha and you use both personality traits. You emphasize the ministry of judgment and then you bring to the forefront a ministry of grace.

We thank you for men who've been humble enough to allow the Spirit of God within their lives to achieve whatever he wanted to achieve. We're praying that you'll do the same. We thank you that this story is not history.

It's contemporary. It's up to date. There are modern examples and here's the opportunity for us.

Oh God, help us to take it, to embrace Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and to be prepared on receiving the good news, to broadcast that gospel in any way that we can, to be prepared to enter into any ministry that you would shift us to for the sake of Jesus Christ who ran the first lap. Amen.