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Transcript

Stand Up For Jesus! · Bible Tract Echoes Podcast

• 0:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey friend, welcome back to Bible Tract Echoes.
• 0:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Mike McCurray, your host.
• 0:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wanna thank you so much for taking your time and joining me right here today.
• 0:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes you just feel like you're in the groove, you know, you feel like you're ready to go in.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Today's one of those days.
• 0:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes you just gotta get your mind right and I'm excited for what we have on today's broadcast.
• 0:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: See we are in the middle of the week and maybe you're listening at another time, maybe you're listening on the man on YouTube
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: Apple podcasts, or Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts at, or maybe you're listening on terrestrial radio station.
• 0:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I can't tell you what an impact radio has had for the cause of Christ for decades.
• 0:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: And each one of you, you listen to radio.
• 0:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so very much.
• 0:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And at time, would fail me to go down the list of all of the radio stations that carry Bible Tract Echoes to each of you.
• 0:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you happen to be listening and you're a secretary, your
• 0:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: You're someone that invests in the cause of the gospel going out over the airwaves.
• 1:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to thank you specifically.
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: The sun has not set on a radio.
• 1:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: God's soon a great work through radio.
• 1:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was just in Indiana, a good church down there, and it was amazing to hear how an impact.
• 1:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: What an impact.
• 1:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Radio is had there, and of course I know all of it was constant.
• 1:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: I hear from folks in Arizona, from folks in the Philippines, and Africa, and from the south and northeast, the west, all over the place, people are listening.
• 1:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to thank you for that.
• 1:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to ask you if you want to go to St. King's chapter two.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're looking at the translation of Elijah.
• 1:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're looking at the fact that Elijah was caught up.
• 1:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was caught up by fiery chariot, and Elijah is protege.
• 1:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, it.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: It.
• 1:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's saddened him, but it also inspired him.
• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: He went and did some great things.
• 1:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's amazing to think that Elijah, the prodigy of Elijah, we're kind of talking about the overall arching thing is where is the Lord God of Elijah.
• 2:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to really land that plane, probably Thursday or Friday.
• 2:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Right now, we're giving some kind of introduction.
• 2:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're giving some thoughts about Elijah, his relationship with Elijah, the generational connection or disconnection.
• 2:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: It bothers me sometimes.
• 2:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to help you with that today.
• 2:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: We looked at on Monday.
• 2:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think we talked about the fact that Elijah never discouraged the soul of Elijah.
• 2:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was just to help.
• 2:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was a blessing to his mentor.
• 2:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yesterday we talked about fact that Leisha the young man never departed from the side of Elijah.
• 2:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was faithful.
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was available.
• 2:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: Nothing degrading was said about Elijah by Elijah.
• 2:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: In today, nothing Elijah did showed up Elijah.
• 2:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you're showed someone up before, maybe you watch sports, and you see a guy running in for a touchdown, and he shows up the guy that's chasing him, because he's just so fast.
• 3:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: He can't catch me, you can't catch me.
• 3:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Nan-an-an-an-abubu, right?
• 3:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've done it as kids.
• 3:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: We see our kids doing it.
• 3:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I was taught at a young age, and it was a valuable lesson.
• 3:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: Don't talk.
• 3:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Just let your game do the talking.
• 3:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: All right.
• 3:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you have any game, let it do the talking, because otherwise, you might have to grow.
• 3:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: You might have to put your foot in your mouth.
• 3:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I never get the sense in reading about Elijah's ministry.
• 3:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're in St. King's chapter two.
• 3:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll close it from the context here as we go along.
• 3:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I never get the sense in reading about Elijah's ministry that he ever felt the need to one up his mentor.
• 3:43
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, Alaisha, the Bible tells us if you add up all the miracles Elijah did.
• 3:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: And you add up all the miracles that Alaisha, the younger man, the next generation did.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Alaisha did double the miracles.
• 3:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: That his mentor did.
• 3:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: Think about that.
• 4:00
  [SPEAKER_01]: But he never acted like somebody.
• 4:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: He just acted like he served somebody with a capital S. Did a life-shave talent?
• 4:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yes.
• 4:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Look at who he was when Elijah called him when God put the two of them together.
• 4:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was plowing.
• 4:17
  [SPEAKER_01]: At first King's 19, we won't turn it for a second time, but in first King's 19, he was plowing with 12 yoke.
• 4:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: of oxen, but he wasn't high on his own supply.
• 4:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: He knew without God, he was nothing.
• 4:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder.
• 4:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: as you think about the people that God uses.
• 4:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: For most of us, I'm speaking for myself too.
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some of us, our ego is so big we could climb up on top of it and kill ourselves, jump it off.
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: But Alisha, he was content, whether he was speaking to kings, captives, or castaways.
• 4:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, there are some prophets think of Jeremiah and those that were contemporaries with him.
• 5:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some men got to prophesy to the kings.
• 5:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Some men prophesy to captives preach to captives and some think of Jeremiah specifically.
• 5:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was a prophet to the castaways, those that were the remnant that was left behind, but I don't think a lie shall.
• 5:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: Though, yes, he got to speak truth to power, we'll talk about that more in just a moment.
• 5:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: I don't believe he ever saw himself as anything more than a servant of God.
• 5:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Philippians 2-3 says, let nothing be done through strife.
• 5:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: or vanglory.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: But in lowering this of mind that each esteem, each other, esteem other, better than themselves.
• 5:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: James 410 humble yourselves in the side of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
• 5:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're in St. King's chapter 2, but look at St. King's chapter 3.
• 5:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you have a second flip over there, look at verse number 1, verse number 11.
• 5:58
  [SPEAKER_01]: See, here's Elijah.
• 5:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: And there's a kind of a quorum, a confederacy of kings, and they're talking that they want an answer from God, look at a verse number 11 of St. King's three, but Joseph had said, is there not here a prophet of the Lord that we may inquire of the Lord by him?
• 6:20
  [SPEAKER_01]: And one of the kings of Israel's servants answered and said, here is a lie,
• 6:29
  [SPEAKER_01]: of Elijah.
• 6:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, pause here for just a moment.
• 6:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: This Elijah character, this man, it seems he was very comfortable in his own skin.
• 6:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: He didn't say a whole whole lot of moment here.
• 6:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: I am God's man now.
• 6:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: I have the man of God's mantle.
• 6:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: Forget about the old man Elijah.
• 6:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: I want to be known for who I am.
• 6:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: Watch what I am about to do.
• 6:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: No.
• 6:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't known as the prophet who replaced Elijah, but as the one who poured water on his hands, the one who was a servant Elijah.
• 7:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, is there a man a god here?
• 7:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's his upstart Elijah.
• 7:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: He poured water on Elijah's hands.
• 7:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: He basically helped bathe the old man.
• 7:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: Let's ask him.
• 7:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, I should say, hold up a moment, put some respect on my name as they may say in today's vernacular.
• 7:22
  [SPEAKER_01]: No, no, not a friend, I am, if I can say this in a holy way, I am proud to be known as a mentee as a protégé.
• 7:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: of some of the men that haven't invested in me.
• 7:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: I worked for, I've mentioned this before, I worked for Pastor Joe Grimmoldy in Akrono, Ohio, for about five years before coming to Bible tracks and corporate him.
• 7:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if someone walked a micro, you were Joe Grimmoldy's assistant, weren't you?
• 7:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, much that would bother me, not in the slightest.
• 7:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't bother me to be known by the great man.
• 7:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've had the opportunity and the privilege to serve in some small
• 8:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: I try to be careful of folks that have to be known for being their own man.
• 8:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: Now, if you want to know if I have opinions, yeah, come ask me, I've got my own opinions.
• 8:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not a yes man for every elderly senior, senior, senior, elder, statesman, I don't just not a long and and given, but yes, yeah, that sounds great, I don't know.
• 8:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I also don't think my opinions are so important, everyone else has to share them either.
• 8:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Alisha, there's something to learn from this man.
• 8:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was okay not showing up, Elijah.
• 8:39
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've said this before, but if we'd give half as much grace to the older man of God as we demand from them, we might work together, work together a bit better.
• 8:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if we'd give half the grace, the older man as we'd expect to get when we are the older generation,
• 9:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: Alisha, no, he never departed from the side of Elijah.
• 9:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: He never showed up, Elijah, but he never declined to stand just like Elijah.
• 9:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: Maybe blunt, just because we know how the internet works and can build apps and websites and all that cool stuff, those are things we can do up Bible tracks and corporate.
• 9:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: We have those abilities, our team here is phenomenal.
• 9:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: And yes, overall we probably skew a little younger, but that doesn't mean we have to be soft, soap, pansies, without a backbone.
• 9:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, truly, if I lean one way more than the other, I can lean more grace than truth.
• 9:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: I really do.
• 9:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: But I've learned, God has showed me over the past years, that sometimes the most gracious thing you can do is tell the truth.
• 9:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I wonder what we're more afraid of.
• 9:59
  [SPEAKER_01]: Are we more afraid of our brethren and arms than we are of the holiness of God?
• 10:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: Are we more bothered by the fact that our Christian brethren may say, oh, that guy's man, he's quite a Bible thumber.
• 10:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: Are we afraid that the world might identify us in that way?
• 10:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Or we concerned that we have a real fear of God of respect of God.
• 10:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: I think back there's a very raw memoir I'm reading, a soldier that was in the Korean war in the Vietnam war.
• 10:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: I try to read a good bit and I was reading this and he talks about
• 10:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: the necessity to sometimes put the fear of God into soldiers, and realize this is a day, it's not a kindler gentler, US military that maybe we have today.
• 10:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: My dad was in the military for 20-something years, and so I know just a little bit about what I speak of.
• 10:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: I've not experienced it for myself, but even during his 20-something years, he observed a slight toning down of some standards and things like that.
• 11:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: But
• 11:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: You go on back to the Korean War.
• 11:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know, according to the rule of the day, I'm man, essentially, a guard's men could be shot could be court-martialed for falling asleep on guard duty.
• 11:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: Well, this man was talking about what they'd call NCO justice.
• 11:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: If an NCO non-commissioned officer came upon a fox hole during the Korean War and a man who was supposed to be keeping watch for his fox hole, for his squad,
• 11:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: He might take a trench knife, put up against his throat, just enough to maybe draw a little blood and shout his ear, do you want to die tonight?
• 11:47
  [SPEAKER_01]: because that's what could have happened if the enemy had snuck through.
• 11:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: Or maybe, just maybe even worse, he'd take a 45, take his service pistol, put it up against the guy's head.
• 11:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, put them not the muzzle, but put the barrel up against his head and shoot it into the side of their trench, into the side of the foxhole, ringing his ears and his head and almost certainly waking him up.
• 12:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: And then regardless, whether it was a trench knife for the 45, they would.
• 12:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: unfortunately, beat them senseless.
• 12:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: As a reminder, don't fall a sleep.
• 12:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Because if they shot every single man that fell asleep on guard, duty there'd be none left.
• 12:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: You said that's a bit harsh.
• 12:31
  [SPEAKER_01]: Oh yes, it very much is.
• 12:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's not what I'm calling for today.
• 12:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm on Chris and I'm already told you that I'm not four blue on blue for for Christians, killing Christians, not a chance, whether in Word or D. All right.
• 12:45
  [SPEAKER_01]: If I wonder, is there anyone that can shake you by your lapels and say, what are you doing?
• 12:51
  [SPEAKER_01]: We've been given some truth to hold to, are you going to stand and fight?
• 12:55
  [SPEAKER_01]: That's what Alaisha did.
• 12:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: He was willing to stand and speak truth to power.
• 13:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: where I can continue this discussion tomorrow on the broadcast.
• 13:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: When thank you for listening in, greatly appreciate your investment time.
• 13:11
  [SPEAKER_01]: Have a great day for his glory.
• 13:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: We'll talk to you soon.
• 13:15
  [SPEAKER_01]: God bless.
• 13:16
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for tuning in to Bible Tract Echos, the radio ministry of Bible Tracts Incorporated.
• 13:23
  [SPEAKER_00]: Want to see our gospel tracks and other resources?
• 13:26
  [SPEAKER_00]: Visit us online at bibletracksink.org That's bibletracksink.org Or follow us on social media to learn how you can partner with this ministry.
• 13:40
  [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks again for listening.
• 13:42
  [SPEAKER_00]: May the Lord richly bless you as you live for him.