Overlooking the crowd on an elevated platform there at the New York Crystal Palace. In the beginning of the 1853 world fair in New York City stood Elisha Otis. He knew that this was his time. This was his moment that much of his life was leading up to this moment. You see Elisha Otis had humble beginnings, born August 3rd, 1811, growing up with meager means, he found himself working at an early age and he held a variety of jobs. He was a wagon driver. He worked in a series of grist mill and sawmills. He ended up working at one point in a toy factory. It made wooden dolls and bed frames and it was in that factory there where he in uh invented a little rob robot turner that could produce more of these bedsteads or the frames, the beds and these doll parts than four times faster than he could by himself. And so I said, man, this is great. I'm gonna branch out and I'm gonna start my own business and he did and it failed. And, and you, you couple that with a tragedy that he experienced where his first wife passed away and now he's in a transition in jobs. He's got two young sons. So he moved to a couple of different places, eventually ends up in Yonkers. New York starts working in a factory, gets remarried and it's in this factory that he thinks to himself. That man, I, I really, these platforms that are raised up and down, they're pretty dangerous, but they are pretty useful. And so he relying on some of his in ingenuity from inventing the little robot turner there to decide and creates and patents the safety device that allows or creates a safety break for a raise, a lifted platform. And so he pitches it to the factory owners and they don't really think much of it, but no, this is gonna be big. So he branches out and starts another business and he calls it the Otis elevator company, the Otis elevator company. And so he starts this business, he starts making these things and through the first several months, not a single company or person buys it. He's like, oh man, I got another failed business coming. So there he stood on the elevated platform at the age of 42 a lot of life experiences overlooking the crowd in New York City and said, this is my moment. And so looking at the crowd, he pointed back to the man behind him and he shouted, cut the rope. And in that moment, you could hear a pin drop you see those race platforms at that time was held together by one rope. And if that man cuts the rope, his literal life is at risk. And in case people didn't hear him the first time over the deafening silence, he shouts again, cut the rope. Axman cuts the rope and he only drops a few inches. Why? Because his safety device worked and it saved the platform and launch. What today is the elevator industry. And actually, when people realized that they could create a platform that goes up and down, they realize that buildings could become taller and that you could use less real estate and add more things. And actually people wanted to be higher because you got better views. And the first skyscraper was formed and built and New York City and some of these other cities started to adopt this and he started selling and, and going and going and it changed the world as we know it that cities that we have today are in large part. Thanks to Elisha Otis and the invention of the elevator, his legacy would live well beyond his life. And, and so years later, one of his team members from his company would coin this brand new term called the escalator. There was a series of continuous looping moving stairs that could go up and down. So the next time you're in an elevator, the next time you're on an escalator, you have Elisha Otis and the Otis elevator company to thank for that. But it all comes back to that one moment where he said, cut the rope. Now, how did he prepare for that moment? See, I believe he had a lifetime of experiences of small little activities, successes and failures that prepared him for. What was to come? See, God works in the little moments in our lives. And so over the next four weeks, we're gonna talk through this series that's entitled Small Deeds, Big Difference. And we're gonna take a look, a deeper look into the life of another Elisha. This time, we're gonna be talking about the old Testament prophet Elisha. And if you're taking notes today, I want you to write this down because here's what we're gonna discuss is that God meets you where you are and lead you where to go. God meets you, where you are and He leads you where to go. Sometimes when we dream big, it actually starts small and these small little actions build up to a large moment to which then we can respond. Now being week one, I wanna give you a little bit of background on Elisha because he's not really talked about a lot. And he often gets confused with another guy, a prophet at about the same time whose name is Elijah. So you got Elijah and Elisha two different people, but one succeeded the other in the office, uh a role of a prophet. So give you a little bit of context here. So around 1000 BC, you have this shepherd boy who becomes a king. His name is David and David was a man after God's own heart. Now, he definitely had his own moral failings, which we're not gonna jump into today. But, but at the end of it comes back, repents God forgives him and he's seen as this Godly leader and, and the nation of Israel rises to prominence and then his son Solomon becomes the wisest, richest person in the world. But as he gathers all this knowledge and all this wealth, he starts to turn from the very God that placed him where he was supposed to be. And so he turns to other pagan um idols. He starts to get with a lot of ladies, he starts to deal with, he got a lot of wealth from, from drugs and gold and opioids. And but then he was also architecture and things there too. So they were the world power, but he messed up pretty royalty to the pretty royalty. So at the end of his life, he pens this little book that we have called Ecclesiastes where he says, hey, anything apart from God is vanity and meaningless and he speaks from experience. And so what happens to the nation of Israel because of the disobedience of Solomon? And then his family line and the people of Israel that the sons start to fight and the people start to fight. And eventually here the the nation splits and you have the northern kingdom of Israel with the capital city Samaria. And then you have the southern state if you will of Judah with the capital city of Jerusalem. So here is where you start to get the context of why people in Jerusalem do not like people in Samaria. And so you have this northern and southern kingdom and then we have all these kings, there's about 20 in the North, 20 in the South. And there are zero good kings in the North and only about eight or so in the South who are judged really on three characteristics, they're really judged on this idea of, do they worship God alone? Do they rid Israel or Judah of Idolatry? And then are they faithful to the covenant? In most cases, these people are not. And, and so there's all this turnover and this is what we have in the book of 1st and 2nd kings, kings plural because there's just a bunch of them. And in this time, there's all this pagan worship and all these idols and all this turmoil that God keeps his people in a remnant more. So in the South, you see the lineage of David continue and ultimately the lineage of Jesus. But in the North, you have these prophets, a pro a prophet of somebody who speaks on behalf of God and so speaks therefore on behalf of God and really declares and calls out sinful behavior of the people and then challenges idolatry within a nation. And so the most well known is Elijah and his biggest action was taking on the 450 prophets of Baal. He said, let's make altars, I'll even put water on mine and let's call out and see which God makes fire. Well, God sends down fire, burns up uh Elijah's altar. They go and kill all these prophets of Baal. Like woo hoo, we're gonna get back on track except the very next chapter you have Ahab. And this lady named Jezebel who then says, well, I wanna kill Elijah. He goes on the run, he goes and hides in a cave. He honestly wants his life to be taken and he says it's over. And so he's depressed, he's anxious, he's suicidal. I mean, he, this is, this is like the leader, this is a prophet and he's experiencing all these things. But in his lowest moment, God speaks to him in a whisper and basically says, get up, eat arise, you're not done yet. And what he says, this is in first kings 18, he said one of the things he gives him to do. He says, you need to anoint the next prophet and you're gonna find him in this small farming town that's called Abel Me Hola. It's like this little farming town in the Jordan Valley and there you're gonna find Elisha. And so this is where we pick up our story. So Elijah the prophet and he's, I mean, he's well known because he, he defeated the 450 prophets of Baal. Uh The symbol of his office is his cloak or a jacket. If you will, it's wrapped around. This was like the, the outfit or the signal. OK. That's the prophet. And so this is where we pick up. Now in, in First Kings chapter 19 verse 19, it says, so Elijah departed from there and found Elisha the son of Shaat who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen in front of him and was with the 12th. So a a yoke is just the thing that goes over two oxen most most likely a pair. So they are plowing these fields in a farm. And so uh you know, you have 12 pairs. So basically 24 oxen and Elisha is and not a slave, but Elisha is actually driving the last pair at the end. OK? And it said that he was with the 12th Elijah passed by him and cast his cloak upon him. This is an official gesture of passing the baton if you will, that I have called you to join me. This is a huge deal here. Verse 20 and Elisha left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, let me kiss my father and mother and then I will follow you. And he said to him, go back again for what have I done to you. He's like, do you really basically, do you really want this job? I just go back if, but then in verse 21 it says he, he returned from following him and took the yoke of his oxen and sacrificed them and boiled their flesh with the yolks of the oxen and gave it to the people and they ate and he arose and went after Elijah and assisted him. This is kind of crazy. Ok. So Elisha's name means God is salvation. And here is this guy who is working on the family farm in a small farming town somewhere near the Jordan river valley. And in the middle of plowing, Elijah finds him and then Elijah calls him and he goes back, says his goodbyes to the family. But then he, it seems crazy like he didn't say, hey, I'm going with Elijah. See you. He doesn't do that. He actually kills the animals, uses the wooden yoke to set up a barbecue and they host the giant goodbye party and they give it to the people. Hey, thanks for helping me. I have a new career. Now. See you. And he goes, and what's interesting is that Elijah actually follows Elijah for the next 3 to 6 years just being his assistant. And then eventually we see this transfer of office, which we'll get to that in a moment. But here in these three verses 1920 21 we actually see three things that Elisha does that actually all these years later, because we're now in like the 800 B CS BC there and all this difficult culture and time, we see Elisha do three things that seems small but makes a huge difference for us. And so what does Elisha do when he was called by God? First thing he does? I want you to know this is that Elisha worked diligently. What's really interesting in scripture. I heard this, I read this in one of these commentaries and I actually haven't found the contrary that for the most part in scripture, every single person that God calls was active at the time of calling, think about that, every single person that God called was active and was doing something when God called them that should tell us something about laziness, shouldn't it? It wasn't like Elisha was just doing nothing sitting back waiting for God to call. No, I in that moment on the family farm, he was working and he was working hard. It's not like he went into the Northern Kingdom Times and looked in the want ads and be like, oh profit. They're taking resumes for profit. I want that he was being faithful, right where he was, you know, my mom grew up on a farm and a lot I think in many ways to her work ethic today. But what was interesting is that for farmers, we don't, we don't see as many farmers today. But, but for Elisha didn't just own the farm. He worked the farm. Now, they had some level of success because they had at least 24 oxen. So, you know, you had a certain level of prosperity there. But, but he was actually driving the oxen. So just picture for a moment, the sights and smells that he experienced on a daily basis, right? If you're with 24 cows, bulls, oxen, what's that smell like? Those were the tractors, right? So you gotta be up and close. Ok. So think about his smells on a daily basis. Think about how hard the ground is here in Phoenix, in this desert valley, similar kind of ground where they were, think about trying to plow those fields, ok? In this heat. Now think about the the sights that he enjoyed on a daily basis. If you're driving the oxen, there's oxen and then you're right behind him. That's not the view of oxen, booty that like that people crave, right? For like I want an office with a view. His view was oxen but ok, it was, but he wasn't complaining he wasn't idle, he wasn't lazy, he was working and working hard and faithful. Isn't it interesting that while Elisha might not have been looking for God, God went and found Elisha. So a couple of things from this, first of all, we gotta work hard. Sometimes we get so fearful of the future that we forget to be faithful in the present. Some of you are not where you wanna be right now. You're not in the job, the relationship, the financial situation that you thought you would be in. But the question for you is are you willing to be faithful in the work in your present right now? Because here's the thing God can find you in your work. Your version of plowing behind oxen might be in a cubicle or in a zoom call or cleaning up after that baby or that kid or changing a diaper or cleaning an office or, or working at a restaurant, whatever that is, whatever your grind and hustle is, I'm here to tell you that sometimes the hustle is holy. Sometimes the training when nobody is around and sees you is just as important as on that stage when you see athletics and you see the championship game. When you see the, the gold medal race, those races are not won in that moment, they're won in the practices and the grind that nobody sees and you see Elisha, what we know about his character because before this, we really don't know much about him right. There were not rankings like in high school sports nowadays, they have rankings like all the way down. It's crazy like, oh for the class of 23 this is a top 300 like who's doing that? Data numbers? And how do you compare, you know, a, a junior from New Jersey to Cal. Like, I mean, you know what I'm saying? Like we go like we have these scouting reports and rankings. Oh, they're a prospect. Elisha was not a prospect. There was not like profit rankings that one day could, could match up. And then Elijah has a competition and then whoever can climb the mountain and grab the cloak, gets it. No, like God went and called him in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the day in a field behind some auction. But I want you to know that God meets you where you are and that what you're doing right now matters because what you do in the small things reveals the character of what you're gonna do in the big things. We see this in scripture. David, the king I mentioned to you the man after God's own heart, the one who led Israel to the greatest prosperity it had experienced in history. Where was he called? He was called when he was in the middle of a field watching sheep. David, this shepherd boy would be the one that would slay Goliath, the Philistine giant. When did David prepare to face the the giant? It wasn't in that moment, it was in the field so that when Saul would ask him and say, how are you so confident that you can slay this giant? Well, the Lord delivered me from the lion, delivered me from the bear. I've seen God's faithfulness in the field when no one was around and so this Philistines nothing. So I want you to understand that your day, your routine, your activity in your job that you don't wanna be in, in the job and the place in the financial situation and the circumstance that you think. Does anybody see me? Does anyone see how hard this is? I wanna tell you. Yes, God does. The disciples were fishermen for the most part, Moses when he was called to go back and lead the people in the burning bush, he was watching sheep as well. I mean, how cra it's crazy to think that Elijah would burn all the farming equipment and then go with Elijah. But you gotta remember that he's receiving this call from God and he was ready. The fact that he so quickly moved to me indicates that he was at some level studying the God of Israel. He had to know who Elijah was and trusted the same God to understand that if God was with me in the field, God's gonna be with me with my future. The first thing we see is that Elisha worked diligently and that while he didn't go after God, God went to him and God meets us where we are. I can meet you in your seat right now in your debt right now, in your troubles right now. It's not the same story, but it's the same God. Second thing we see about Elisha, about his character is that Elisha obeyed immediately. He didn't go back and do a pros and cons list from this and be like, hey, well, let me just fit after this season is done after harvest season is done. I'm in after I get out of this debt. And if I get out of this situation, once I get out of school, once I'm not so busy, God, then I'll come back to you. You see, he didn't have to understand fully to obey immediately while the directions and the outcomes of his call were uncertain. The God who called him was very certain and that's enough, right? Jesus and his disciples simply said, follow me God to Abraham in the old Testament said go sometimes we don't get a lot of details. Sometimes we get a word and in your prayer and in scripture. And I want you to test everything against scripture and test it with wise counsel and support. But sometimes you might just get a word from God that simply stay, continue, reach out, make a call, whatever that nudge might be. The question is whenever God calls you to do something, are you willing to obey immediately? Some of you might come back? Well, he didn't talk to Gle O Bay immediately. He went and said bye to his family. OK? He was being a good son and he completely changed his direction through obedience. And there's gonna be a challenge at some point in your life where you're gonna have to decide, am I going to pursue destiny or am I gonna cling to security? I'm not saying just be reckless. But what I am saying is be obedient. Our job is obedience. God's job is outcome. And too often we sit back and we read the word of God like that was nice. Right? If you went home today and you told your child to, I want you to clean the dishes. You go in your room, start working a little bit and you come back and your kid is like, oh, guess what? Mom and dad, I really heard you. I wrote this song about cleaning dishes. I went and called up my friends and we gathered in a circle and we talked about what cleaning dishes might look like. I even learned how to say dish in Greek. What are you gonna say as a parrot? Ok. Did you do the dishes? Well, no, but I felt really convicted to do them though. And that's what counts, right? It's the thought that counts and I really thought about it. No. You think God's different? Like you think God wants us to come together every week and just be like, Jesus, you alone and then go out and just ignore him the rest of the week, right? If you're in sports and the coach calls a play and then you go out a great play, coach, good play. And then you go out and you run something completely different. What do you think they're gonna be like in the next huddle. What are you doing? I heard you. That was a great play coach almost did it too. Elisha didn't do that. He worked diligently. He was faithful in his routine and in the mundane and when nobody saw him, so when God called him, he was ready and he obeyed immediately. And the third thing we see here is that Elisha followed boldly. There's gonna come a time in your faith where you're gonna need to make a stand or to be bold and what God has called you to do now. Bold doesn't mean be a jerk. Bold doesn't mean be stupid. Bold doesn't mean be mean, but bold means to be courageous. Bold means to take that step of faith. See, I think the reason Elisha burned the farming equipment and had a barbecue for his workers is because he recognized there was no plan B. February 1915, 19, the Spanish explorer Herman Cortez set sail for the Americas with 11 ships, 13 horses, 100 and 10 sailors, 553 soldiers. Now moral conundrum of colonization. Aside, there's about five there's about 5 million people in the Americas there which equates in our battle ratio of 7541 to 1. So you get the land and they're gonna go to battle. And what happens next is almost mythical proportions because reportedly he goes back and he tells his so burn the ships. And what he was saying in that moment is that we are here, we are standing here and the only way forward is forward, there will be no retreat. There is no plan B. We are all in Elijah had his all in mo moment and it wasn't glorious. At first, you see, he quietly served Elijah for 3 to 6 years as an apprentice. But there came a time in Second Kings chapter two verse nine, Elijah was about to be swept away by God. They crossed the river, they already experienced this crazy miracle. Elijah strikes his cloak on the water to the water parts similar to what he did for the people in his uh in, in the book of Joshua. And Elijah says to Elisha ask what I shall do for you and before I am taken from you. And so he says like, hey, I'm about to leave. You can have anything. What is your 11 request and notice what Elisha says. He says, please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me. Oh, that is a bold ask. Hey, Elijah the most known prophet in all of history. I I wanna do double what you did. He doesn't ask for riches. He doesn't ask for fame. He says the same power and the spirit of God that worked in you. I want that and I want double, give me that double, double cheese, right? All the toppings on it, animal style, right? Give me all the spirit and guess what he does. If you look at the recorded miracles of Elijah and different people count, OK? Is this a miracle or not? No matter the metric that you use that Elisha in scripture recorded twice as many miracles as Elijah. And in fact, outside of the person of Jesus Christ himself, Elisha is the one who performed more recorded miracles in the Bible than anyone else for Elisha Otis. It was cut the rope for Cortez, it was burn the ships for Elisha. It was kill the cows, burn the plows. Let's go. Does that sound passive to you? No, I don't know about you church as the band's gonna be coming up here. I don't wanna have a passive faith. It, it can feel a lot like we're being attacked at times, culturally speaking, right? It just seems like our world is moving further away from God. But what I'm feeling right now as your pastor and, and friends here is that I, I I'm ready for the church to go on offense. Like I read the story of Elisha and I see that God meets us where we are. He leaves us where to go and he has called us out and called us up. It is time for the church to stop being passive, weak, afraid little babies. Oh, no. The culture. Ah, you have the creator of the universe and the power of the Holy Spirit inside of you. To the point where writers like Paul in prison can on his deathbed about to be executed can write things like death. Where's your staying? Come and get me death? Oh, he's trash talking death. He's looking at Satan going come at me, bro. Because I've seen God work. I've seen God's power and I know that He is real. I know that He is here. I know that he has called me and because he has called me because he has met me here. I am gonna work faithfully and diligently because you might not see me, but God sees me and that's enough. And when God calls me, when I get to my cut the rope moment, I will stand, I will obey immediately and I will follow boldly because God is worth it. A small act of obedience to what God has called you to do and who God has called you to be can make and create a legacy that makes a big eternal difference that we have the faith of. I pray dear God. May we be bold like Elisha and we be faithful and what you've called us to do and who you've called us to be and may we be obedient. Yeah, I mean, we follow you in boldness for some of us. We, we gotta put aside all addictions and old ways. We have to make a bold move to say there is no plan B God. I am all in for you. Maybe you're getting that one word command right now to, to go or to share or in a difficult time to stay whatever God is calling you to do whoever God is calling you to be. May we obey immediately even before we know the outcome and that may we follow boldly be willing to put aside our past and our security to take a step toward your direction and your destiny, God. And we have the boldness of Elisha, a simple farmer in the Jordan Valley who ended up recording more miracles than anyone besides you. We, we dream being start small and obey you today. And your son said, we pray, amen. Will you stand and sing with me?