Elisha Burned the Plough So He Could Not Go Back

Sermon outline

A true disciple has been touched by God in a way that leaves no road back, and what God delivered you from He has empowered you to deliver others from, beginning with being the voice in your own family.

1. Three kinds of ground: how God works in a life

   From the parable of the sower he describes three stages: the dry, cracked ground of a life without Jesus, the ground softened when Jesus comes like a flood, and the seed taking root. The softening is a ruffling, which for some means saying goodbye to old ways, old friends or even family. The devil's aim is to uproot the seed and return a person to barren soil, where there is evidence of past life but none now.

   Illustration: When his mother began seeing his father, her family put her out of the house, and he first met his grandfather as a teenager when the old man was close to death. He gives it as an example of the ground being churned for Christ to work.

   “Once it becomes a part of your life, I promise you, the devil can never steal that.”

2. Putting away the old man, the culture and the labels

   When God asked Adam who told him he was naked, the question exposed where his new identity had come from. Getting saved means putting away the old man, including cultural background and the racial labels people grow up with. He challenges anyone to find those labels in any version of the Bible, because they are not there.

   Illustration: He offers a million rand, then a million dollars, to anyone who can show him a race named the way South Africans name each other anywhere in Scripture.

   “When we come to Jesus, we put all that behind us.”

   • Genesis 3:9-11

3. Where a new believer's picture of Jesus comes from

   The early church struggled over whether a Gentile had to be circumcised to belong, and it took Paul to move the thinking from the law to the new creation. Today most new believers get their idea of Jesus from the person who led them to the Lord and the church that received them. If that person is not truly a disciple, they put their own limits on the new believer, and religion becomes about dress, eloquence and regimented prayer. There are no denominations in the Bible, just as there is no race in it, so every believer must read the Bible and know Him for themselves.

   Illustration: He says he hates it when someone speaks on his behalf from a conversation he was never part of, and that secondhand Christianity is the same thing.

   “Don't get caught in the details. If we get caught in the details, those details can lead to deviations, and those deviations can lead us to hell.”

   • Mark 16:15
   • John 14:16

4. What a disciple is

   A disciple engages God with the intent of becoming all that He has called them to be, not to become like the pastor or like another member. Leaders are there to guide, encourage, exhort and correct until the believer is independent as a man or woman of God but wholly dependent on the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Education, money, influence, looks, skin tone, tattoos or earrings make no difference: if God wanted you here, you are here.

   Illustration: Every boy of twelve thinks he is twenty one, and every girl of thirteen has the attitude of thirty one: the numbers swap around.

   “That is what it is to be a disciple, to follow with the intent of becoming all that God has called you to be.”

5. What God delivered you from, He empowered you to deliver others from

   He tells the class plainly that this is correction. Deliverance is not only for you: if God freed you from drugs, smoking or alcohol, He gave you the power to help others out of it. Pulling away from smokers or drinkers because you are now too holy for them is not holiness. He asks why the person you helped is not sitting next to you in church, and calls the class to think bigger than their own little world.

   Illustration: A former chain smoker who now cannot stand the smell of smoke, and so will not go near the smoker who needs to hear about Jesus.

   “If God delivered you, He has empowered you, given you the ability to deliver others from those things.”

6. Following Jesus is not about comfort

   God called Abraham away from his people, his culture and his comfort, and it was many years before the promise came. God promises to be our Comforter, not to make us comfortable, and blessing is a byproduct of doing things His way, not the goal of the commission. A believer who has come out of poverty but lives in fear of losing it all is not walking in prosperity, and one who manages every bridge to protect what they have is trying to be God.

   Illustration: Being blessed does not mean selling the house in Greenwood Park, buying a palatial home in Umhlanga and living out your days in peace.

   “Blessing is a byproduct of doing things his way.”

   • Genesis 12:1-3
   • John 12:24
   • Galatians 6:7

7. Be the voice in your family

   A believer's first duty is to be the voice in their family, saved and unsaved, not merely the lovable uncle whose words are optional. He argues that there is no reason to allow boyfriends and girlfriends before marriage is possible, and that a father who says it is fine so as to stay liked has put a noose around his child's neck. To have that voice you must hold yourself to a standard and be accountable daily, because you cannot hold the bottle and applaud the child for drinking.

   Illustration: When family keep asking him to pray for them, he asks why he is praying for them ten times a day and tells them he will pray once he has seen them in church three weeks in a row, so that they learn to depend on God and not on him.

   “If you're not prepared to be the unpopular one, but the one they'll come to when they're looking for advice, it means you don't have a voice.”

   • Proverbs 23:13

8. Elisha burned the plough

   When Elijah threw his mantle on Elisha, Elisha had already caught the anointing. He slaughtered the oxen, burned the ploughing equipment to cook the meat, fed the people and followed Elijah, leaving himself no way back. That is what it looks like when Christ truly touches a life: no going back to old rituals, ceremonies or the sangoma while coming to church. From Matthew 19 he puts the cost in Jesus' own words, and says you can still honour those who came before you while choosing Christ above them.

   Illustration: Coming to God with a back-up plan: if this Christian thing does not work, I will go back to what I was before.

   “It means I'm prepared to lose everything, including every relationship with my family, everything I hold dear, for the knowledge of God.”

   • 1 Kings 19:19-21
   • Matthew 19:28-30
   • Joshua 24:15
   • John 8:32

In this message