Don't Fumble The Handoff | Robby Gallaty | 2 Kings 2

just don't look at the screen, but we welcome you to Long Hala. fumble the handoff. Now, if you know anything about relay races, they are not won all the time by the fastest runners. In fact, you can have the fastest runners and still lose the race. Why? If you fumble the handoff, you have to have a clean handoff. If you fumble it, not only do you fail, but the whole team fails. Today, what we're going to see is in a very real spiritual sense, we're going to see Elijah handoff to Elijah. Anybody got confused this week by those two? Here's how I remember it. I know it's kind of goofy, but Elijah, the J comes earlier in the alphabet, so he's older, S is later. Anyway, that's all I got. So, that's what I do. So, Elijah is the mentor. Elijah's mentor. I'm a mess-up, so just bear with it. Elijah is the mentee. Okay. And what we're going to see is the moment that the handoff, the passing of the baton to the next generation, happens, and what's crazy is we are finding ourselves as a church long hollow in the very same spot. You see, at this point, Elijah is considered the greatest prophet in the world, and he's about to depart Earth. His work here is done. God sends a cherry to fire and a whirlwind. Hurricane Katrina's cut-sized storm, if you will, to take him up into heaven, and before he leaves his disciple, Elijah says, "I don't want you to go." He says, "No, I got to go." And what you're about to witness here, let me prepare you, is either going to be the saddest funeral in the Old Testament or the greatest handoff. And it all depends on how one generation hands off to the next. If you have a Bible, turn with me to 2 Kings, chapter 2. 2 Kings, chapter 2, is where we are reading in our F-260 plan. Anybody still reading along with us in our F-260 plan? If you're new to Long Hollow, we are reading as a church through a plan. If you're interested, you can text, I think the word "word" to 98173, and you can get, is that right, Robert? Word? I'm making stuff up at this point. Sounding good, I don't know.

Sex, or come see us, we'll give it to you. But you get the plan and we're reading five chapters a day off on the weekend. Every age and stage at Long Hollow, we want on the same page. So, literally, you're not just walking in here and I say, "Hey, open the Obadiah," and you say, "Obehu," right? No, it's, "Hey, we're reading 2 Kings." So, we read about 2 Kings, and we learned about, don't mess with a woman, but that's not what I'm preaching on. Jezebel, she ain't nothing to play with, but anyway, 2 Kings, I'm talking about her, we're talking about 2 Kings, chapter 2, verse 1. We like to say word at Long Hollow, if you're there, you can say word. The word of the Lord. The time had come for the Lord to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elijah were traveling from Gilgal, and Elijah said to Elijah, "Stay here, the Lord is sending me on to Bethel." But Elijah replied, "As the Lord lives and as you live yourself, I will not leave you." So, they went down to Bethel. Then the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elijah and said, "Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?" He's about to leave today. And he said, "Yes, I know, be quiet." Shut up. I mean, that's what he said. Elijah said to him, "Allegia, stay here, the Lord is sending me now to Jericho." But Elijah said, "As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So, they went to Jericho. Then the sons of the prophets, kind of like a broken record. They came again when they were in Jericho to Elijah and said, "Do you not know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?" Same song, different verse. He said, "Yes, I know, be quiet." And then it says, "Allegia said, say here, listen, the Lord is sending me to the Jordan.

But Elijah said, "As the Lord lives," what's this? "And as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So, the two of them went on together. I want to give you three insights about how we can not fumble the hand off, but more importantly, how we can see the power and the presence of God in our life. First thing we see right out the gate in the text is this. Number one, if you're taking notes, we must stay close to the glory of God. We must stay close So he's a disciple maker and Elisha is like a spiritual son in the faith. And God says, "Hey, it's time to go home, your work here is done. Come on up and you've got to leave." And three times the prophets say to him, "Listen, he's leaving today, just leave him alone." And three times Elisha says, "I'm not leaving. I don't care. I'm following him." He does not want to be separated from his mentor. Now, what a wonderful picture of discipleship, right? I mean, this is what we see in the text. The discipleship is happening where Elisha invests in this younger man and this man has hunger for more. Don't miss this. He is saying, "I am not going to settle for a synthetic surface level substitute for the glory of God. I want more of God." I wonder if that could be said of you. I said this before, one of the hallmarks of my time with the Lord during the revival was, "God began to impress upon my heart. Robert, you have as much of me as you want and you have settled

for so little." Friends, I'm here to tell you, and I haven't graduated obviously from this, but I'm here to tell you, there is so much more of God to have and we settle for so much less. Elisha is like, "Man, I'm leaving. Elisha says, "I'm leaving. Elisha is like, "Man, I'm leaving. Elisha said, "I want to be here to the moment of your departure." Now, you're probably wondering, what's the difference between the sons of the prophets and Elisha? Here's the difference. They both had the same information. They both knew the same person. They both knew the time of the departure. The difference was, the sons of the prophet knew firsthand what was going to happen. Elisha knew something differently. Elisha wanted to witness it firsthand. He wanted a front row seat. Here's my point. They had prophecy, sons of the prophets. Elisha wanted proximity. See the difference? I don't want to miss anything. I don't want to sit in the cheap seats in the back. I want a front row seat to the glory of God. I'm not going unless God is with me. I had my family in town. We had a 50-year-old birthday party, bonanza blowout at the Gallady.

Yeah. Turn 50. I don't feel 50. Anybody else with me? I don't fit. [laughter] Yeah, I don't feel -- I feel like 35. And then I wake up and then I'm like, "Did I just fight somebody?" I feel like -- I'm like, stuff I tell into my dream. Who knew? I just fought somebody. Maybe. Feels like I fought somebody. But anyway, some of my family's in town and they're still here and Candy's mom and the whole family's here. I was talking to my mom and sister this week. We were laughing because they were like, "Can you believe you're, like, "passoring a church in front of people?" And my sister's like, "You realize growing up, "you were like the shyest kid in the world. "You didn't want to be in front of anybody." In fact, she was reminding me, "You would hide behind Mommy." Who still calls her "Mom Mommy?" I get a name. Ain't no shame in this game. Anybody? Anybody?

[laughter] Mom. You'd hide behind Mommy. I'm a mom as boy. I'm okay with that, right? Like, was somebody knocked at the door? You know, I just run behind Mom and I just stand behind Mom. I was like this. She was like, "You know, I stand behind Mom." And then when I go to the store, I get behind Mom. If I was nervous, I get behind Mom. My sister on the other hand was, like, very outgoing. In fact, my sister didn't meet a stranger. I remember one time she went off with a couple. I came out. We didn't even know where she was. I was like, "Where's Lori?" There's some random couple sitting there. Everybody remember came out and heard, "Yeah." Blue life spent. They were like, "Wow." Me on the other hand, I couldn't leave Mom's side. I was thinking about that this week and I thought, "Wow. What if we lived like that with God?" Like we said, "God, I'm not going to go anywhere without you." Unless you're in front of me, I want to be behind you. What if, young person, you said, "I'm not going to enter this relationship if God's not in it? I'm not going to take this job unless God is there. I'm not going to move another step unless you go before me.

God, I'm not going to move to a new city unless you go with me." Here's the point. The benefit of walking with God is that when you walk with God, you experience the power of God. The power and Elijah is like, "Man, I'm going to stay here to the end." To the moment you leave, which leads us to the second point, once you start walking with God, then God calls you to step out in faith, watch this, and trust the Lord. We need to live in such a way that we are always stepping out in faith to trust the Lord. Now let me warn you. What I'm going to read to you is pretty bold. I mean, this is a crazy question, he asked, of Elijah. Notice what he says, verse 9. "When they had crossed over Elijah said to Elijah, 'Tell me what I can do for you before I am taken away from you.'" So Elijah answered, "Please, let me see you." I think the King James says, or the ESV says a double portion, anybody have that in there? Double portion, same idea. An Elijah replied, you have asked for something pretty difficult here. He's asking the greatest prophet ever to walk there. Hey, listen, I've seen what you do. Can I have double that? Yeah. You're gonna supersize my ministry. Can you do that, right? And he asked for some difficulty.

And he said, if you see me being taken away from you, then you'll have it. But if not, you won't. You have to admit, that's a pretty big ask, right? I want a double portion. Here's what he's saying. He's saying, can you do greater things, you call that, greater things in my life than God did in your life. Now, think of what he's asking. Elijah is considered the greatest prophet in the Old Testament. This is a radical request here. But don't hear what he's not asking. He's not saying, I want to be twice the prophet you are. He's not even saying I want to be twice the man you are. Here's what he's asking. And in order, let me just pull over. In order to get this, you have to understand the Jewishness in the context of the Old Testament. This kind of language we know, if you've read, is from the Old Testament, the book of Deuteronomy, where whenever you ask for a double portion, some of you know this, you're shaking your head. Every time you ask for a double portion, it's always given to who? The first born son, okay? Deuteronomy 21, 17. The first born son of the family is given a double portion of the father.

Elijah isn't asking for more talent. He isn't asking to be more powerful. And I say, he's asking Elijah, who's his spiritual father, treat me like a son in the family, a first born son. You know what that shows us? A church's job, any church in America is not to make the next generation that follows us a bunch of spectators to watch what we did years before. The goal of a church is to make them inheritors of the ministry we hand down. See the difference? And God answers that request. I mean, it's crazy. God's like, ah, okay, I'll do it. Yeah, I'll do it. Now, here's a cool study. If you ever wanna go on a little study this week, Logos will help you. Type in Logos or search it online. Count the miracles that Elijah did, and then count the miracles that Elijah did, and it'll blow you away. Elijah did exactly twice to the number of the miracles, to the number. But don't miss this. The double portion was not what he was asking. That's that poetry in the Hebrew language. That was a promise from God. Elijah was saying, God, I want you to do greater things in this way.

I wanna make a bigger impact than my spiritual father before me. Now, you're wondering, well, how does this even happen? Why is he even asking this? You gotta know something about Elijah. Elijah is one of the greatest disciple makers in the Bible. 'Cause not only did he pass on the mantle, you'll see the mantle's a coat or a jacket, but it's also a baton, spiritual baton. Not only did he pass the mantle down to Elijah, he administered and made disciples for about 40 years of his ministry. He affected people all around him. And you know something about disciples, you don't miss this. You haven't made a disciple until the disciple you've made made a disciple. Because of the disciple you've invested in hasn't gone on to make disciples, you just made a spectator. You just made a convert. You haven't made a coworker or a participator, right? So he knew this is important. It's not just, hey, here's the ministry, have fun, you know, you know, Bible fact. You know, you're gonna do something after I'm gone, coming close. A church that does ministry, always, a church that does ministry always leaves a memory. Watch this.

But a church that makes disciples always leaves a mantle. That's what Long Hollow is, by the way. We're not interested in doing ministry, which will be a memory when we're gone. We want to make disciples so we can leave a mantle. And I said this before, but the mantle is the jacket, but it's actually a baton. Our spiritual legacy passed on. Now, here's what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna give you this. If you wanna take a picture, get your camera out, 'cause I've used this to teach and train pastors and churches, leaders, I'm gonna put it on the big screen for you, you can take a picture. But this works in any organization. This is the organizational, it works in churches a lot in ministries, but it also works in your organization, in your business, at your office. This is the life cycle of an organism, organization, okay? They all start the same with either a man or a mission. And those in business or church planning, you'll know this. It's a man or group, a small group of people, or a mission. God is calling us to make disciples or reach Sumner County with the gospel. That was the mission, 1970. Or it was God sends a man and a woman to a city to reach them for the gospel. It always starts there. Okay, watch this. Starts with a mission and then it goes with a man. Same thing.

Then you get to the ministry. So after long hollow was started to take our church, then you start to see ministry happen in the community. People accept Christ. People are baptized. People go out. Then you create, you start really cooking with Greece. Now you have a movement. Now you create a church. People always say, "What is this cyborg?" People always say, "What is your greatest evangelistic "strategy at long hollow?" If you've noticed, we don't do signs in the yard. You ever notice that you never see a long hollow sign? Not against signs in the yard, they're kind of cool. I mean, they're nice. People say, "Well, you don't have signs in the yard. "Why don't you have door hangers on the door? "Here's why." I'm not saying that doesn't work. But we realize this has always been my strategy and how I've tried to lead churches. I want to create a church that is so amazing in a sense where you want to come and encounter God that you want to invite your friends. That's the kind of church. Because if we create a church environment where you can encounter God, then you're gonna go home and tell your best, "Hey, you need to come to wet long hollow."

And that's a movement. And here's where I feel like we are. We're between here and here. Now don't miss this. And you've all been at churches like this. You've been at churches that are in this movement. Everybody's talking, people are gonna say, people are being sent out, churches are being planted. But then if you're not careful, you start going down the bell curve and become a machine. How do you know if you're a machine? You're priding yourselves in the programs you offer. You're priding yourself in the events on campus. You're priding yourself in all services and big things here and you're not looking outward, looking more inward than outward. And if you're not careful, it's quick. You become a monument that people look at. And then finally, if you're not careful, you die and become a mortuary. Do we know churches like this? We all do. We grew up in some of these churches. Now watch this. Here's the pivotal point in the life of a church. And I think this is where we are, you would agree. This is where we are. And if you don't make a move to kind of re-energize, reinvent, pray, seek some, a new vision, mission from the Lord, then you become this.

But if not, you just hit another level. Here's my point. If the leadership of a church doesn't adapt to the times of the day, they ultimately die. They will die. How many people were here when Brother David, my predecessor was pastor along Hollow? This is for those who weren't here. This is one of his favorite things. Todd, you remember this? Y'all remember this. Brandon, you remember this. The message of the Bible never changes. This message is timeless. But the what? The method has to change. It has to change. And here's the hard truth. And when I first heard this, I'm like, no, I don't, and I'll prove it to you. Every church ever created in the world today, 2,000 years ago, every church is going to die and close the doors one day. Do you know that? Every one of them, I use that word every. Every church will die. Clearly this one, I hate to say it, it will. How do I know? Two years ago, I had an opportunity to go to Turkey to the seven choice churches that John writes to in the book of Revelation, Smyrna, Laodicea, Ephesus.

You ready for this? Every church, and these were thriving churches, a lot of them, every church does not exist today. They're all dead. That should shock you. So it's not if a church dies. I don't wanna be Debbie Danner. The question is, when it will die. And if you reinvent and pray and seek, then God says, no, I'm gonna put my grace on them. And here's the reason I'm telling you that. If you and I, Long Hollow, are not willing to step outside of our comfort zone, we're gonna suffer the same fate. Now here's the good news. We're standing on the shoulders of a small group of people who decided to step out in faith in 1978 and purchase 32 acres of land on Long Hollow Pike. People in the community in the congregation said, why do you need all that land? Who in the world would ever build, would people even come? And then years later, the leadership again started to pray and they started to step out in faith. And they said, we need to build a worship center to fit 2,600 people. And listen, people question that. This is the worship center in, isn't that crazy? People questioned it and said, how would we ever fill it? You think people, think people are gonna come? When we started our Gallatin campus,

we were one of the first in the country to really get involved in multi-site where we were streaming the service by video and to it. And when we started that campus, they said, who in the world would come watch it? Damn, we're still, guess what? are worshiping God at Gallatin every week, and it's growing. Okay? Here's why I tell you that. We are standing, feel the way to this, at a crossroads again. We're about to launch a new campus on Main Street. We're about to update the existing campus here. We're about to create a welcoming environment at Gallatin Legacy Park feel, and it's very easy for you, and I wanna just call it out so we're all aware. It's very easy for you to say, oh, we've never, we've never done this before. I don't know if that'll work, or why would we? Will people even, that's a natural response. And some of you, they're ready, you're like, I've been saying, I said, the moment you show them, listen to me. We can't force people to come to Long Hollow. We can't, I can't manipulate you to come. But God has given us people who are coming, and we have a responsibility to steward that for the glory of God. That's our responsibility as a church to great space

and a place where people can encounter the risen Jesus. Now, I said, I wouldn't do this years ago when I came here, and I'm doing it now, and I'm gonna tell you why, and I feel like I hope I have the right heart in doing this. You know, I'm nervous, and I'm like, I'm already doing it, maybe I shouldn't do it, I don't know. But I'm gonna tell you why I'm doing this. I wanna show you this for context, and I wanna show you how, just recently, I had a conversation with another pastor that literally did something inside of me that changed me, I think. But there's a magazine called Outreach Magazine. Y'all seen this before? We've been in this magazine for years and years. I've never said this, for those who are here, you'll say, I've been here 11 years, you've never talked about it, but I wanna tell you for context. This magazine, it's like a Christian people magazine, I guess. I don't know, but I don't read people magazine. It's like, it's like for Christian pastors and leaders, and every year, once a year, they chart the fastest growing and largest churches in America. And put it in context, there are over 300,000 churches in America, 350,000 churches in America, most in the South. (congregation laughing) I'm not against people planting churches, but when they say, man, God, call me to, you know, anyway.

(congregation laughing) Anyway, not gonna go there too, it's not this sermon. However, here's what my point is, this is crazy. Inside this, you can pull out this little page here. Long Hollow last year was the 14th fastest growing church in America. Praise the Lord for that. Praise the Lord for that. 14th fastest growing church in America, and just show you for context, we grew last year by 1,277 people, almost 1,300 people in a year. Now, I'll tell you that for context, because the first church, fastest growing church in America, you ready for this, grew by 7,701 year. Candy and I were at that church preaching their revival last week. And you know this, this is Joe B. Martin, he was just at our men's college. You remember, Joe B. Martin, he's pastoring, church of 11, 22, he was here last men's college. If you missed him, he's coming again. So don't worry, we got him locked in for the next year. And by the way, I'll tell you, we got Matt Chandler, Joe B. Martin, me and maybe another special guy, but it's gonna be electric, right? Sorry, ladies, but... (congregation laughing) Hey, no shame, we've been getting kicked down for 10 years, we finally,

the men are finally resurrected again, get out of here, man. Men are finally coming back, baby. Anyway, sorry, ladies, not sorry. Anyway, I'm sorry, no, I'm sorry. I am sorry, I'm gonna help, I'm gonna help. But anyway, no, Candy and I got somebody on top for the ladies. Not gonna tell you who it is yet, but you'll thank me. Okay, but anyway, so I'm at Jobe's church. Church of 30,000, 14 campuses, prison campuses, and they grew up at 7,700. It was unbelievable, I mean, the Spirit of God was there. And so at dinner after, I'm sitting at dinner with a bunch of pastors, and I said, "Jobe, Jobe's become a good friend." I said, "Jobe, let me ask you a question." I got a question, how did you grow by 7,000? I mean, that's like almost four mega churches in one year. How did you do that? And he said, "Well, it's simple. We changed our perspective." And he said, "You," and so I'll give you a little back. So in a church, when a church hits 80% capacity in the worship center, which look around, we're beyond that now, but normally, when you hit 80% capacity, you have to launch a new service. Or once you get past that, people stop coming. I don't know if you know this,

but parking and traffic flow hinders people from. So he said, and 80 was like the historic number. He said, "We lowered it to 70." And every time we had 70% capacity at the two main nine and 11 services, we added other services. 522, and then that one started to grow, Thursday night. And we did that for people that travel, and people who do travel bomb, people who watch Tennessee football. (laughter) I mean seriously, no, but seriously, you go Thursday and then you don't feel bad, you can go fishing, whatever. Okay, so you go Thursday. I'm telling you, come Thursday, don't come, but anyway. So then he said, that grew, so we started 722 on Thursday. And then we moved to, this is crazy, their Sunday morning service starts at 722 a.m. I didn't even know Christians got out of bed that early. (laughter) 722, 922, 1122, he said, then we started at 522 on Sunday night. And he said, we've had so many people, now we're going to start a Saturday night service as well. And so then I asked the question, I said, man, there is no way. How do you preach all those services? I said, I tried four, I'll just be honest, full disclosure. After we did four, one of the reasons we quit it, I would go home and I was limping in like I got hit by a Mac truck. I'm just being on four services, three lines of greeting. I didn't even know where I was. I was like, wow.

And so I said, I can't do it again. He said, there's no way, here's what he told me. He said, there's no way you could preach three services. He said, I don't preach all of them. I said, really? He said, no. He said, we show video services at the campuses, and we rotate video at the mothership. I said, okay, how did you get people at the main campus to watch a video? That's my question, good idea question. And he said, Robbie, and this is what changed to me. He said, Robbie, I got up on Sunday and I told him, God wants us to reach many people as we can with the gospel of Jesus Christ in Jacksonville, Tennessee. And if it means showing a screen in some of the services, I'm willing to do anything to reach everybody with the gospel. He said, if a screen is holding you back from making space and reaching souls, he said, then you need to take it up with the Lord. So here I am asking dumb questions, I'm like, did anybody complain? He said, yeah, yeah, he said, people complain. He said, but here's the thing, Robbie. If a born again, I'm talking to Christians now. Lost people, you know, people far from them. I'm talking to Christians, born again. If someone is going to complain, he said, about watching a video screen. And by the way, most of you are watching me on the screen now. Caught you. Caught you. You know how I know? I watched the screen in the front row. Okay.

I get you. Right? He said, if someone is going to complain about watching you on a screen that they're going to complain about, they're going to start complaining about other things in the church and you don't want them at your church anyway. He said, now we tell them when they leave, hey, listen, you are always welcome at Church of 1122, and you're always welcome to come back, but we really need your seat. Thanks. Amen. Amen. Amen. I was convicted. Like, I flew back. This is a crazy story. I didn't say this last story, but I tell you, this is bonkers, okay? Candy and I are in the airport coming home from that trip. We're flying home. And I'm thinking the whole plane about this. I'm like, well, how are we going to do this so long? I want to reach people, but I want people going to say, hey, I want people to like me. I want people to be. And the Lord just like, no, you got you, and I just wanted to confess this to you. When I came along, hello, I felt like I was leading when I got here, but from the emails in the, you know, the first couple of years were tough. I just felt like the criticism affected me and the loudest voices in our church crippled and shaped our lead. And I would always make decisions like, oh, what was so-and-and I just want to confess something to you, folks. I am not going to do that anymore, okay? And if people don't like that, people don't like it, because here's the thing.

We don't have time to waste. Jesus Christ could come back at any moment at any time, and we want to see as many people in this town in the world avoid hell and go to heaven, amen? Listen, this is a crazy story. I didn't say this last story. So we're waiting for our bags at the baggage game. I am off the plane. It's all I'm thinking about, the Holy Spirit. When he wants to talk to you, I'm hard-headed. So I got to heaven on repeat, replay, and then I was like, I got that. No, you don't have it, okay? So we're literally, I'm thinking about this, the services and reaching people and campuses. And all of a sudden, Candy and I, she'll tell you, we're waiting for our bags, and this guy, maybe you in this church, if you tell you, I can't remember your name, but I wouldn't say it. But he walks in to me and he says, Pastor Robbie? And I said, yeah. He said, I cannot believe I can just see at that point. I was like, oh, well, you go to Long Hollow? He said, yeah, I love Long Hollow. He said, I go to Long Hollow. He said, well, he said, I have to be honest. He said, I do go to Long Hollow, but I don't go all the time because of the traffic. because of the traffic. [BLANK_AUDIO] I'm hard-headed. Guys have got to give me signs like that. And here's the thing I'm saying that for. It's going to require all of us, you and me, to be uncomfortable, to be committed financially with our time and our talent.

We're going to have to sacrifice all of us in here. See, here's the point. Joby's church don't ask. They don't ask. They don't say, "What is being taken away from me?" They ask, "I'm going to do whatever it takes, God. What do you need me to do?" Whatever you need me to do. And you may be thinking to yourself, "Why in the world would I want our church to grow?" I like my seats in the back row, or I like my balcony spot. We're not going to message you in the balcony. I probably can. Now, I like this spot. I'm comfortable. Why would I want the church to grow? Why would I want any more people to come here? Look at me. What if the next person that we're going to reach with the gospel is your wayward son or daughter that you've been praying for for years? What if the next person we're making room for is your husband or your wife that is against the gospel? And that's the Sunday he comes and you drive up and say, "Oh, I'm sorry. It's a 20-minute way." We'll just go home. You see what I'm saying? What if it's your family member who is addicted? What if it's your imprisoned cousin who just gets out of Sumner County? Or better yet, look at me. What if that person is you? This is why when you're following the Lord and you're trusting my faith.

This is why it's important for us at that moment to strike the water to see God. This is the last point and we'll close here. We need to strike the water to see God. Now this is pretty bizarre what happens, but I just unpack it quickly for you. Go back, go down to verse 12, after Elijah leaves when he can't see him any longer. He took hold of his own clothes, tore them in two, picked up the mantle that had fallen off Elijah and went back and stood at the bank of the Jordan. He took the mantle, Elijah had dropped. Remember the mantle was a coat or a cloak, but for us it's a baton, a spiritual baton passing on to the next legacy or the next generation. He took the mantle, Elijah had dropped, and he struck the water with the coat, and he asked the question, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" He struck the water himself and it parted to the right and to the left and Elijah crossed over. Now picture the scene. Elijah has just taken up the chariot of fire, Katrina likes storm, hurricane, whirlwind, and then Elijah is standing there watching this flaming chariot and all of a sudden he grabs this mantle, it's like a spiritual baton. And then he goes to the water with this jacket and he strikes the water and asks this question, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?" Here's what he's asking. It's the question, look at me, if you miss nothing else, this is it. It's the question every generation will ask that follows us. Is the God who worked in my family before still working today? He's not inquiring about Elijah's ministry. He's inquiring if God's still working. Now if you caught what happened, this is pretty interesting. Go back to verse 8 earlier in 2 Kings 2, because if you remember before Elijah is taken up, he does the exact same miracle. This is a copycat miracle.

Notice what happens here. Elijah, the mentor before Elijah, with the code, does the same miracle. It says Elijah took the mantle, rolled it up, struck the water, which then parted from the right end to the left, and then the two of them crossed over on what? Dry ground. Feel the way to this. It's the same miracle, same bank, same river, same spot, same God, new ministry. Long holler, this is our story, this is our story. For 50 years, someone before us has stood on the bank of the river with a coat and struck the water and asked the question, "God, are you still working?" God has shown up, and that's what we find ourselves today. The generation before has given us the taught. That's what even greater is about, by the way. Even greater is an opportunity for all of us to walk back to the river, to lift up the coat of the past generation, and say, "God, do it again, God, do it again." If you know anything about the Olympics, maybe I'd like to follow the Olympics. If you saw, I like to watch the Olympics, I remember this. you remember this, the United States that year was entering into the four by 100, arguably the greatest four fastest men on planet earth ever, assembled in one team. These were the fastest men, Tyson Gay, if you remember him, Tyson Gay in a straight line, no human being could chase this man down, he was the fastest man on the planet, but America never made it even to the finals, to even compete. And it wasn't because they couldn't run fast, obviously they could, it was based on the handoff. You see, if you remember that race on the final turn, Darvis Patton's coming around

with the leg to handoff to Tyson Gay, who's gonna bring us home, inevitably, who's gonna be a landslide, and as he was handing out the baton, Gay reached back, and as he went to grab it, it fell. And as the baton was, I mean, probably one of the craziest pictures in American Olympic history. The baton was lying on the track and they were disqualified from the race. Now this is crazy, but think about this. Same day, same Olympics, 20 minutes later, the United States women's team did the exact same thing. The girls in the handoff dropped the baton and they were kicked out of the race. Here's what's crazy, the two fastest teams on earth, and both of them went home, not because they weren't talented, not because they ran slow, not because they pulled a muscle, not because they even checked out of the race. They went home because somebody, don't miss this, somebody dropped the handoff. For almost 50 years, somebody at Long Hollow has stood on the bank, picked up the code of a previous generation and asked the question, where is the God of Israel? And every time the men and women before us picked it up and said, he's still here, friends, listen to me, the cloak, the cloak or the coat or the mantle or the baton is in our hands.

I want you to see this. This even greater initiative is not about monuments. We're not building monuments. We're building mantles that we are passing on. It is the mantle for an Elisha right now that's sitting in middle school. He's in a hallway walking this week and he has never heard the name of Jesus Christ. It's for the college student right now who's addicted to pornography, yearning for someone to come up to him and tell him about the chainbreaker Jesus who can set him free. We're building it for the infant that you tuck in your crib at night and pray over that God would save their soul one day and they would surrender their life for Jesus Christ. It's the man or woman, some of you, who was lying in bed staring at the ceiling last night wondering there has to be more to life than this. We're building it for the addict who cannot imagine one day of sobriety and we have been tasked to go offer him the only person who can give him freedom from his sin. Friends, here's the thing. Everybody at Long Hollow knows how to run. That's not the question. The question is not speed because we all run at different paces. The question is, will we individually,

I'm talking to each of you, will we complete the exchange? So that when somebody who have never met 50 years from now ask the question, where is the God of my parents or grandparents? When we're long gone, they're gonna find out that God is still here. Long Hollow, our church is good at running. We're great at running. Let's not fumble the handoff. How do you do that? For some of you, you're like, man, I don't even know there was a race to be run. Well, that's the first step. The first step for you is to get off the sideline into the race and you do that by surrendering to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and you say, Jesus, I wanna be used by you. Some of you in here are believers and you're saying, man, I've been running the race, but I'm exhausted, oh, I don't know what to do. Your next step is to engage in growth for your soul. Every person in here, look at me, needs to be in a group connected as believers, growing in a discipling relationship. What that means is every woman, every man, no option, you're here. Or a life group on campus, off campus, or a D group throughout the week. But for all of us, I think it means we all participate

on the front end. Those incarcerated, those who watch online, those who are here in person, we all participate on the front end so that we can celebrate on the back end. I don't know about you long, how I'm ready to run the race mark. Anybody ready to join me? Father, we pray right now, yes, let's pray, Lord, we thank You that we get to be at this time and this season of our church. God, I had a friend call me this week and say, "Hi, in the world, you're gonna get all that money raised and how are people gonna give to that? What are you gonna do?" I said, "I'm not gonna do anything. I'm just gonna ask our people to pray and ask God what He wants to do." And God, if we just pray and say, God, what do You want me to do? How You want me to give? How You want me to participate? And then we obey, God, that's the greatest gift in the world for us and the greatest freedom to walk by faith. And we get to see You do the miraculous, God. That's what we want to do. We're tired of business as usual. We're tired of going through the motions, God. We don't want to be a church that becomes a monument to look at. Man, back in the glory day, back...

When was that, brother? That was 30 years ago. We're back when this used to be a Protestant church. Now, it's a cat... We're back when this used to be a thriving... Now, we don't want to say that. We want to say, "Look with God, the God of our forefathers, the God of our mothers before us is still here today." And God, we're asking to do it again. And we're asking to revive our church. And not just our church, but start with us. Start with me. Revive us, personally. For your name's sake, we ask it in Jesus' name. And everyone said. [BLANK_AUDIO]