From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Now as I was studying this passage, I started to think about what is it that God can't wait for? That he is longing for, to long to do in our lives, to long to see us respond to him? And I found four areas that we see in this passage where the Lord has a strong desire, where he kind of can't wait, if we could put it in those terms.

Announcer (Male): This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Thank you for joining us today as he brings that last message in the series Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah, Prophet of Fire.

Did you know that Elijah was one of only two people who went to heaven without dying? As Pastor Jeff Schreve puts it, in effect, heaven couldn't wait for him to come home. Today's lesson is called Heaven Can't Wait.

This is the last of eight lessons in this series, and this series is also our thank-you gift for your support of From His Heart this month of any amount. You can get it in the format of your choice; just go to fromhisheart.org for details. By the way, we'll also include the booklet, Unveiling the Mystery of Prayer, when you give today.

But first, open your Bible to Second Kings chapter two, as Pastor Jeff Schreve begins a compelling message explaining how much God wants you and me to love him. Listen, heaven can't wait for us.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Have your Bible, please turn to the book of Second Kings. Second Kings in the Old Testament. If you don't know where that is, go to Psalms and turn left. Just keep going. If you hit First Kings, you've gone too far, because we're in Second Kings.

I want to talk today about this subject: Heaven Can't Wait. Now, when I was a kid, I was like most kids. The very favorite day in a kid's life is Christmas Day. Christmas morning is the favorite day, the favorite morning. Why? Because that is the time that we get gifts.

As a little kid, that's one of the things that I looked forward to more than any other day of the year and we just wish, oh, I just wish every day could be Christmas. Well, my mom—I was the fifth of six kids—my mom, when I was probably about seven years old or so, we would be so excited about Christmas morning.

She said, "Listen, I'm going to do something for you guys because Christmas Eve was just a day that wouldn't end, and we just didn't want Christmas Eve, we wanted Christmas morning." So my mom said, "Listen, you can choose one gift under the tree and you can open that."

Now, all the gifts under the tree were gifts that aunts and uncles and relatives had sent because the other gifts from Santa hadn't come yet. These were just gifts that relatives had sent. And so my sisters and I would be shaking boxes, trying to figure out what is this, what is that? You always have, you know, this could be this, or this could be that.

Well, I remember I had one gift picked out. I was going to open it Christmas Eve morning. It was going to be a great toy, I was going to play with it all day until Christmas Day, and then I'd have a bunch of toys. And my mom said, "Okay, you can open it."

It was from my aunt in Tacoma, Washington. I opened it up, seven years old. It was soap on a rope. That was a bust. I was even more excited for Christmas morning because you don't really play with soap on a rope.

I remember another year. I'm kind of a slow learner. I opened her gift a second time. She got me a wallet. I'm nine. What do I need a wallet for? I had to carry a wallet around with my Christmas wish list. I wish I didn't have a wallet, you know, it was one of those things.

But I was so excited because I knew the next day it was going to be heaven on earth for a little kid, and I just couldn't wait for Christmas. We are finishing the series on Elijah, the prophet of fire, Holy Boldness. And we're calling this message Heaven Can't Wait.

Because Elijah was one of two people in the Bible who went to heaven not through the graveyard, not by the hand of the undertaker, but by the hand of the uppertaker, and God took him to heaven without dying. Enoch, in Genesis chapter five, was the first person who went to heaven without dying.

The Scripture says, "And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." And now Elijah, and he goes to heaven in a whirlwind because heaven couldn't wait for Elijah to come to heaven. It says in Second Kings chapter two, beginning in verse one:

And it came about, when the Lord was about to take up Elijah by a whirlwind to heaven, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. Now, those names are tough because they sound so much alike. And as I was preparing this sermon, I said, "God help me to get Elijah and Elisha right," because it's like my kids at home.

You know, you call them different names. It's like Amy is Sarah and Sarah is Jill. So Elijah and Elisha, they went from Gilgal. And Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel."

But Elisha said, "As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, as your soul lives, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel. Then the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, "Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today?"

And he said, "Yes, I know. Be quiet. Be just shut up." That's kind of what he said. And Elijah said to him, "Elisha, please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho." But he said, "As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you."

So they came to Jericho. And the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho approached Elisha and said to him, "Do you know that the Lord will take away your master from over you today?" And he said, "Yes, I know. Be still. Be quiet."

Then Elijah said to him, "Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan." And he said, "As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So the two of them went on. Now 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood opposite them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan.

And Elijah took his mantle and folded it together and struck the waters, and they were divided here and there, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground. Now it came about when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you."

And Elisha said, "Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me." And he said, "You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you will see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so."

Then it came about as they were going along and talking, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire which separated the two of them, and Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven. And Elisha saw it and cried out, "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!"

And he saw him no more. Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. He also took up the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and returned and stood by the banks of the Jordan. And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and struck the waters and said, "Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?"

And when he had also struck the waters, they were divided here and there, and Elisha crossed over. Now when the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho opposite him saw him, they said, "The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha," and they came to meet him and bowed themselves to the ground before him.

Heaven can't wait. The Lord in heaven can't wait, and he brought Elijah home just like that in a whirlwind. Now, as I was studying this passage, I started to think about what is it that God can't wait for?

That he is longing for, to long to do in our lives, to long to see us respond to him? And I found four areas that we see in this passage that we just read together where the Lord has a strong desire, where he kind of can't wait if we could put it in those terms.

So number one: the Lord in heaven can't wait for you to be led by the Holy Spirit. He can't wait for that, that your life would be led by the Holy Spirit. Now, it says concerning Elijah, it's kind of interesting with Elijah.

He's at Gilgal. There are really two Gilgals in the Bible. And most commentators say that he's about seven miles above Bethel. And there's a Gilgal over by Jericho, just to the right of Bethel, but it's not that Gilgal where Elijah was.

He was probably above Bethel about seven miles because he's going to go down, and he's going to go from Gilgal to Bethel, from Bethel to Jericho, from Jericho across the Jordan. And that's kind of the path he's traveling.

People say, "Why is he doing that?" It's because there were seminaries, so to speak, the school of the prophets in those areas. And so he is visiting the school of the prophets before he is caught up into heaven.

And the Bible says three times in chapter two that the Lord was leading Elijah. Look at verse two. And Elijah said to Elisha, "Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel." And then verse four, and Elijah said to him, "Elisha, please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to Jericho."

And then verse six, then Elijah said to him, "Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to the Jordan." So the Lord is leading Elijah as he gets ready to cross the Jordan and to be taken to heaven. Wouldn't that be great if the Lord would lead you?

He wants to do that. He longs to do that. He can't wait to do that. So how does that happen where the Lord can lead you like he led Elijah? Well, first of all, you must be truly saved in order to have the Lord lead you. To have the Spirit lead your life, the Spirit has to be in your life.

As the Scripture says in Romans chapter eight, verse nine, "You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him." Lots of people come to church and they don't have the Spirit of Christ. And the Lord says, "If you don't have my Spirit living inside you, you don't belong to me."

Announcer (Male): You're listening to the message, Heaven Can't Wait, from Pastor Jeff Schreve's series, Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah, Prophet of Fire. Pastor Jeff will elaborate a bit more on this in just a moment, exploring the issue of spiritual apathy.

Our world desperately needs to see some holy boldness from those who call themselves children of God. But before you and I can stand for God, we have to stand by God. We have to spend quality time with him through prayer and Bible study.

And that is why we'd like you to have Pastor Jeff's inspiring booklet, Unveiling the Mystery of Prayer. It's our thank-you gift for your support of any amount to From His Heart this month, and it'll help you understand how to lead more people to live boldly in Jesus Christ.

And we'll also include the eight-message series in the format of your choice, called Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah, Prophet of Fire. Your gifts make it possible for this broadcast to be heard on this station and on stations across the nation each and every day.

Together, we're taking a holy and a bold stand for Christ and broadcasting it to the world. To get yours, call 866-40-BIBLE—866-402-4253—or go online to make your secure donation at fromhisheart.org.

And thank you for your monthly support that makes this outreach possible. Now, let's get back to our lesson to find out how vital it is for us to not keep God waiting for us to come to him. It's a lesson called Heaven Can't Wait.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: During our time in Israel, especially in Jerusalem, what you see in Jerusalem, I think Jerusalem is probably the most religious place in all the world. Religious. You have Jews who are still living in the Old Testament, and they are there and they are reciting prayers and they are reading Scripture and they are writing stuff and trying to seek God.

But they're seeking for God to send the Messiah, but God's already sent the Messiah. They have missed Jesus. So you have Jews there. You have Muslims there. And Muslims own the Temple Mount and they put their mosque in the seventh century, they put their mosque right on the spot where the Lord's temple sat.

And so they have all that special ground. And so you have the Muslims there. Jews are supposedly worshipping God and seeking God, they're there. Muslims are there supposedly seeking God and worshipping God.

You have the Greek Orthodox and the Catholic there, and the Eastern Orthodox—the guys with the big hats, you know—they all have their robes and all their clerical garments. You have all those guys there. You even have the Mormons there in Jerusalem; they have their own school there.

All these people, and they're religious people and they're sincere people, but they're religious and lost. They're sincere, but they're sincerely wrong. And they can't be led of the Lord. Why? Because they don't know the Lord, and they have never opened their hearts to the Lord.

Hey, if you're going to be led by the Holy Spirit, first of all, you must be truly saved. You must receive Christ as Savior and Lord. And if that's never happened, then the Lord can't lead you because he's not in your life.

But the moment that you open your heart to Jesus and receive him as Savior and Lord, he comes into your life through the person of the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus said to his disciples, "I'm going to go away, and it's to your advantage that I go away because I'm going to send the Helper to you, one just like me, who is not only going to be with you like I am, he's going to live in you, and he will be with you and in you forever."

And that happens the moment that a person prays, "Jesus, come into my life. Save me. I'm a sinner, I can't save myself. I give my life to you." And when that happens, the Lord comes in, and when the Lord comes in, the life comes in, when the light comes in, the light comes on, and your life is totally different.

Now, there are many watching on television or listening on radio, and they say, "Well, you know, I've done that, but I'm not really being led by the Lord because I'm still leading my own life."

So if you're going to be led by the Lord as the Lord can't wait for that to happen for you, you have to be truly saved and secondly, you have to be surrendered to the Holy Spirit. You have to let go of the steering wheel of your life.

Lots of people don't want to do that. People who have an advanced degree from Control Freak University, they have trouble letting go of the steering wheel of their life. But you have to do that in order to be filled with the Spirit.

You have to say, "Lord, I give you myself today. I want you to lead me. I surrender. My hands are up and I surrender. You empower me. Jesus be Jesus in me. No longer me, but the resurrection power fill me this hour. Jesus be Jesus in me."

It says in Ephesians 5:18 in the Amplified version, "Do not get drunk with wine, for that is wickedness, that is corruption, that is stupidity, but be filled with the Holy Spirit and constantly guided by him."

The Lord longs to guide your life, to fill your life with his presence and his power. Hey, you know what the answer to most marriage problems? You know what the answer is? Be filled with the Spirit.

Because if I'm filled with the Spirit and Debbie's filled with the Spirit, we get along. But if Debbie's filled with the Spirit and I'm not filled with the Spirit, we don't get along. Or if I'm filled with the Spirit and she's not filled with the Spirit, we don't get along, we have trouble and we have difficulty.

But when she's filled with the Spirit and I'm filled with the Spirit, we can work through any problem. Why? Because the Lord is in charge of both of us. That is the longing of the Lord's heart: for you to be led by the Spirit.

Second area that we see here: not only does the Lord in heaven can he not wait for you to be led by the Spirit, but he can't wait for you to be tenacious in your pursuit of Jesus.

The Lord longs for that. He wants that in your life and in my life: to be tenacious in our pursuit of Jesus. Now, I find this interesting. Here is Elisha. He is Elijah's understudy, he is his disciple, he is his protégé.

And in First Kings chapter 19, when Elijah was depressed—he was fleeing from Jezebel, he ends up in Mount Horeb, Mount Sinai, way down south—and the Lord says, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"

Remember, and he said, "I'm the only one left. Jezebel's trying to kill me, and everybody else has forsaken you. I alone am left." And God says, "No, I have 7,000 who haven't bowed the knee to Baal. But this is what you need to do. Elijah, you need to go and find Elisha and you need to train him and you need to turn things over to him because he's going to be the prophet after you."

And so he did that, and Elisha followed. And for years, Elijah was pouring into Elisha. And this going down from Gilgal to Bethel, from Bethel to Jericho, from Jericho to across the Jordan River, there is a test.

And Elijah says to Elisha, "Stay here, please, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel." And every time Elisha says the same thing: "As the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel.

And then, "Well, Elisha, you stay here because I'm going to go to Jericho." "No, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I'm going to go with you." "Well, I'm going to cross the Jordan now, so you stay here."

"No, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, I'm going with you." He was tenacious. Why? Because he knew God's hand was upon Elijah. And as long as I stay close to Elijah, I stay close to God and what God is doing.

And I don't want to miss anything of what God is doing. And when Elijah asked him, "What do you want me to do for you?" What did he ask for? He asked for a double portion of Elijah's spirit.

You say, "What does that mean, a double portion of his spirit?" Well, in the Old Testament, the firstborn son would get a double portion from his dad. When his dad passed off, he would give a double portion to the firstborn.

And you know, we see that with Jacob and Esau. You know, Esau was the firstborn, Jacob, they were twins, but Esau was born first. Jacob was born second. And Jacob wanted the blessing from his father.

He wanted the inheritance that goes to the firstborn, and Esau couldn't care less. And he ended up selling his birthright, what, for a bowl of stew? See, he didn't see the value in the birthright, and Jacob saw tremendous value in the birthright.

Elisha saw the value and he said, "I don't want to be like one of the other prophets just in the school of the prophets. I want to be like your firstborn. So give me a double portion of your spirit." And we see from the story that God answered that prayer.

Elijah couldn't do it. He said, "I don't have the authority to do that, but listen, if you see me go up, then that will be the evidence that God has answered that prayer and you get a double portion of my spirit."

Interestingly, if you count up the miracles that were done, Elijah did 14 miracles in his ministry, Elisha did 28. Interesting. A double portion of Elijah's spirit. What's all this tell us?

It tells us that Elisha was tenacious in his pursuit of the Lord. And God wants that for you and he wants that for me: to be wholly devoted to the Lord our God. The last letter in the Book of the Revelation is to the church in Laodicea.

And you may have heard that the Lord's rebuke of the church of Laodicea. He said, "I have this against you, that you're not hot, you're not cold, you're just lukewarm. And because you're lukewarm in your relationship with me, you're lukewarm in your love for me and you say we are rich and need of nothing," he said, "you don't know that you're wretched and blind and poor and miserable and naked."

And he said, "Because you're lukewarm, I will spit you out of my mouth." Like taking a sip of coffee that is just tepid, that is lukewarm and you're like, Pugh, that's gross. And the Lord is saying to the church in Laodicea, "You guys gross me out. You make me sick to my stomach. I'm going to vomit you out of my mouth."

Why? Because you're lukewarm. Nobody ever said concerning Elijah the prophet that he was lukewarm. He's the prophet of fire. Nobody ever said concerning Elisha, his protégé, that he was lukewarm because he was on fire for Jesus Christ. What do people say about you?

See, let me ask you a question. Serious question. Answer it in your heart. How important is the Lord to your daily life? I mean, we would say that most of us would say, "Well, you know, the Lord's really, really important."

I mean, next week is Easter, and that's really, really important because Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead. That's really, really important. Yeah, but how important is it to you in your daily life?

How is important is it to you on Monday? On Tuesday? On Wednesday? You know, for some people, it's just important on Sunday. For some people, it's just important on Easter Sunday. They come to church at Easter and they come to church at Christmas.

CEOs: Christmas, Easter only. And that's all they come to. And so it's like, "Well, yeah, it's important twice a year." No, how you don't judge a person based on twice a year, every day. How important is the Lord to you on a daily basis?

Philippians chapter one, verse 21, the Apostle Paul says this: "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain." That was Paul's whole life. He says in Colossians three, verse four, "When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory."

For to me to live is Christ. It's all about Jesus. The sum and the substance of his life was Jesus. The center and the circumference of his life was Jesus. It was all about Jesus. So I want you to think of this verse and make it personal.

For you, to live is—blank. For you, to live is what? What gets you going? What floats your boat? What gets you excited? Is it—for you, I mean, be honest, because you know the right answer, but I'm talking about the real answer.

Announcer (Male): Well, what's your answer? You don't have to say it out loud because you probably already know what it is, and God already knows what it is. A sobering thought for us all, for sure.

Pastor Jeff Schreve is right in the middle of this final message called Heaven Can't Wait, from the series Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah, Prophet of Fire. And God can't wait for us to be on fire for him. He created us for that.

We can express our desire to please him by being fervent in prayer. How will that benefit you? Matthew 7:7 says, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you."

D.L. Moody nailed it when he reflected on what he will think when he gets to heaven. He said, "Next to the wonder of seeing my Savior will be, I think, the wonder that I made so little use of the power of prayer."

To help you not have that regret, Pastor Jeff would like to give you the booklet, Unveiling the Mystery of Prayer. It's our gift of thanks for your support this month of any amount. We'll also send you the series that we're completing tomorrow called Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah, Prophet of Fire.

To get these resources for yourself, call 866-40-BIBLE—866-402-4253—or go online to fromhisheart.org. We pray fervently that you will allow God to move on your heart to re-evaluate your relationship with God through prayer.

He can't wait for you to do that. But time is up for today, but we trust the message was a blessing to you and that you'll have a worshipful weekend, get a chance to watch the From His Heart television broadcast this week on a station and channel near you, and we pray that you'll be back next time for the conclusion to the Holy Boldness series and this message, Heaven Can't Wait.

That's when we'll again open up God's Word and share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart here on From His Heart.