Everybody Grab A Log — Pastor Brandon Watts | 2 Kings 6:1–7 – Transcript

00:00Pick me up in verse one, let's just jump in, see what the Lord see what the Lord does. Verse one, it says, "Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha." Somebody say Elisha.

00:13"See the place where we dwell under your charge is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan and each of us each of us get there a log. And let us make a place for us to dwell there." And he answered, "Go."

00:29Then one of them said, "Be pleased to go with your servants." And he answered, "I will go." So he went with them. And when he came to the Jordan, they cut down and when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was felling a log, his ax head fell into the water and he cried out, "Alas, my master, it was borrowed."

00:49And the man of God said, "Where did it fall?" And he showed him the place and he cut off a stick and he threw it in and he and he and he made the iron float. And he said, "Take it up." So he reached out his hand and he took it. I want to preach today, we can stop there. I want to preach today from the topic entitled, "Everybody Grab a Log."

01:12Let's look to the Lord. Father, we thank you for your word. I I'm not This is not hyperbole. I believe your word has power. And so Lord, would you set ablaze every person in this room?

01:26So I'm praying individually. There are some things that people are dealing with that they're just in a season where the season is mundane. It's just it's casual, it's chill. Shake us up. But also I pray for us as a church that we would not be the cool church.

01:41We would not be the the the church that's full of young people or the church that has a logo and lights, but we would be the church that has power with God, that we walk in anticipation of God doing something.

01:54So Lord, as we talk today through this ancient text, Not just help me to be faithful to this text, but help us to see our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May he be proclaimed and glorified. Transform us now in Jesus' name. >> >> Amen.

02:10Would you help me preach? Just look at somebody and say, "Everybody grab a log." No, wait. Wait. Wait. Do me a favor. Look at somebody that look lazy. And tell that person, "Grab a log." Come on. You wanted to tell them they was lazy for a long time. I just helped you out.

02:27I just helped you out. Everybody grab a log. I um I I want to start today's sermon, honestly, with a statement that is not is is not that deep. It's not I mean, it's deep to me, but it's not anything It's It's something that you should expect from every Christian, especially from a pastor. But, I'm going to start I feel like I need to say this out loud. So, I want to start with the statement, "I love the church."

02:55I I don't know if you can identify what I'm saying. I'm not saying I love aspects of the church. I'm saying I have affections for God's body. I love the local church. I love the I love the local churches. I love the big C church, meaning that we have brothers and sisters in different parts of the world.

03:12I love God's church. And my love is it's a stagnant love. My love for the church grows. I love I love the church more now than I did in the first service. I'll love the church next week more than I do now. I believe in the church. And hear me, I'm not I'm not excusing issues of the church. I understand the church has her issues. I understand stand the church doesn't always get it right. I understand that the church has let many

03:38of us down. I understand that many of us are dealing with church hurt. And I don't want to excuse that. I also understand when you get a bunch of trifling nigros in a room, we'll have issues.

03:53And here here it is. I wish Jesus was was was the head pastor physically here, cuz then we'd have a perfect model of what to walk through, but let's be honest, y'all got me. And I GOT SIN, AND Y'ALL GOT ELDERS THAT HAVE SIN, and we have deacons that have sin, and we have Oh, y'all looking funny. Look at your neighbor and say, "You got sin."

04:14Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you. So So when you get ALL OF US GOD SAYS, "Here's my body. I'mma save y'all, but y'all still crazy, but I need y'all all to get together, and I need y'all to work this thing called the church out." I love the church.

04:29Love the church. And proof that the church is necessary can be found in the fact that Jesus didn't just die, but Jesus died for the Come on, y'all should have said that with your chest. Jesus died for the church.

04:43It's what he died for. In the passage before us, because I feel I feel really called to strengthen us today, but called to strengthen the local church in my lifetime, this passage is the start of my journey at helping us to understand the importance of the church.

04:58We're introduced to a to a guy by the name of Elisha. I ask you to say that name because it's it's it's honestly he he's the main character. When I was going through seminary, they used to talk about um round characters and flat characters. A round character is the main character that we see the movement of the of the story doesn't move without that character. Elisha's that guy.

05:19When you study Elisha, one of the things you'll pick up, immediately pick up, is that his ministry was surrounded around supernatural activity. He typically did not just walk into a room and nothing happened, or something happened that can be explained by human effort. Whenever he walked into a room, he walked in with a whole lot of Holy Ghost power.

05:43That that's how he walked in, that everything he did, people had to walk away and say, "Only God could have did that." Let me give you an example. There There's a point in in in 2 Kings where there's a widow and and the widow, her husband died. And the husband, he owed a debt to a bunch of people and those people said, "Hey, now that your husband's dead, we're going to come take your two boys. We're going to take your two children." And the widow said, "I got to sell to pay off this debt." The

06:11way she was going to sell anything to pay off the debt was she was going to sell oil. She opened up her cupboards and all of her vessels and her vases were all empty. They had a little bit of oil in them. Elisha walks up. He does a miracle, some shukabuka. She opens UP THE CABINETS. WATCH THIS. Every vessel is overflowing with oil. Now, you can sit back and say, "Elisha had a lot of strategy." Nah. Nah, he had a whole lot of Holy Ghost.

06:36Somebody say supernatural activity. There's another point where there's a a Shunammite woman and she cannot conceive. And she meets Elisha and through miracles, she conceives. But then after conceiving, that child dies later. And after the child dies, the Bible said that Elisha raised the child like he was taking an afternoon nap. That's power.

07:02That's supernatural activity. And I love Elisha cuz it was so normal for him. I can just hear him walk in the room going, "Yo, get up." Because he walked in that level of authority. There's a point where the Syrian army is fighting against the people of God.

07:18And I don't know how Elisha does it, but he goes outside and like Benny Hinn goes, "Buh." And everybody in the Syrian army is blind. Everybody. Over and over again, we see these miracles. Down to the point where the miracles were he would walk in such a different level of authority that it was not just him doing miracles when he was alive, but the Bible tells me that even after he died, that he died and they buried him in a tomb and many many many years later so long that he

07:45had no more flesh and he had bones inside of a tomb. And there was one day where these guys took a dead man and they threw him into the grave of of Elisha and as soon as the dead man hit Elisha's bones, the Bible says that the the dead man stood up and was alive again.

08:04That's a different level OF AUTHORITY. HE WALKED IN A He knew that the God that he served was a God that we don't just theologize, but he that he knew that the God that he served was a God that performed. He defied the odds of natural things.

08:22So when we come here and say, "Take over. Take over." I'm hearing that and I'm saying, "God, you about to do something crazy." Cuz I can I HAVE AN EXPECTATION BECAUSE I READ THE GOD OF THE BIBLE AND I DON'T THINK HIS resume has changed. He's still a God that heals. He's still a God that can raise your and a GOD OF RESURRECTION.

08:40>> >> HEAR ME, Y'ALL. I WAITED I waited to come back to say this. I don't ever as a church want us to be so sophisticated, organized, polished and programmed that we don't leave room that everything that happens you walk away and say, "We can explain that by human ability." The devil is a liar. I want some stuff TO HAPPEN THAT WE WALK AWAY AND SAY, "God had to do that."

09:06>> >> God help us. Because we've become a desensitized church. We've become a desensitized church to where we think we figured God out. And as long as we can fit him into the run of show, then we're good. A good Sunday for us is that there was no hiccups. The sound worked, the lights worked, and the That's a GOOD NO, A GOOD SUNDAY IS SOMEBODY WAS SICK AND IS HEALED. A good Sunday is somebody's addiction was broken. A GOOD SUNDAY IS SOMEBODY WAS

09:33DEAD-HEARTED AND was made alive to the beauty of Christ. And so I want to see when I'm saying when I'm singing take over, I want to see that consistently. I want to see that in our church. I want to see that in your lives. I want things to happen that you can't explain, that you don't got the resume for. I'm talking to somebody that you ain't got the qualifications, you ain't got the money.