How Do You Know When God Is Calling You? - 1 Kings 19:19-21

We're stepping through the Book of Kings, and we're looking at some particular verses centered around the prophet Elijah. And if you're not familiar with the book itself, it's essentially telling the story of a long line of kings who come after David. And sadly, again and again, we read how ancient Israel's kings, they failed to live up to the promises that God had made for his people. So God had promised Abraham, I'll make you into a great nation, and all people on earth will be blessed through you. But instead of being a blessing to all the nations on earth, Israel repeatedly turns away from God.

And they create a lot of hurt, and they create a lot of oppression and injustice. Despite that, though, God doesn't abandon them. Instead, he keeps calling them back through prophets. And prophets aren't fortune tellers. They have a specific role.

They speak on behalf of God. When you hear prophets in the Old Testament, they're talking about people who are primarily speaking on behalf of God. And their role was to be covenant watchdogs, really. They called out the injustice, the idolatry, the unfaithfulness that they saw among the people. And then they challenged the people to turn back and repent and turn back to God.

And so for each king, God raises up prophets to hold them accountable. And two of the most significant are Elijah and Elisha. Elijah, we've been reading about him recently. He's a bit of a wild man of a prophet. Spends a lot of his time out in the wilderness.

And he has this great adversary, an arch nemesis, if you will, King Ahab and his Canaanite wife, Jezebel. And Ahab and Jezebel, they had promoted the worship of BAAL throughout Israel. And for that reason, Elijah stood against them. And so one of the most famous stories in the Old Testament, Elijah challenges the prophets of BAAL to a contest. And they both build altars, they both prepare sacrifices, and they call out to their gods.

And the prophets of baal, they shout and they cry out to their gods all day long, and nothing happens. Then Elijah prays to the one true God, and he does answer with fire. It's this dramatic demonstration that the Lord is God, that there's only one true God worth worshiping, only one God who answers. But as we heard last week when Pastor Simon was preaching immediately after that great victory, it kind of looks like Elijah's life falls apart. Jezebel threatens to kill him, and Elijah, he runs away.

He becomes afraid. He's exhausted and discouraged. But God meets Elijah in that place, not through another spectacular fire or an earthquake or a storm, but through a gentle whisper. And in that, God reassures Elijah and then gives him a new task. He says, go and anoint Elisha as your successor.

And that brings us to the verses that we're going to read today. We're going to look at 1 Kings, chapter 19, just three short verses, 19 to 21. And what comes next is the moment where Elijah finds Elisha and anoints him. But there's a tension here that's worth exploring. God is asking Elisha to leave behind the life that he knows and step into something completely different.

And we need to pause there, because following God often creates that tension in us. And what happens when God calls us to something different, to what we're used to or something that we didn't expect? What do we do when following God means leaving something familiar behind? And perhaps most importantly, how do we know what it looks like to genuinely respond when God does call? So, Elisha, he's standing at this crossroads.

There's a decision in front of him, and so what does he do? We're going to explore that together this morning. We're going to look at 1 Kings, chapter 19, and we're going to read all three verses together. Please follow along with your own Bible if you have one. It will also be on the screen.

This is what it says. So Elijah went and found Elisha, son of Shaphat, plowing a field. There were 12 teams of oxen in the field, and Elisha was plowing with the 12th team. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak across his shoulders and then walked away.

Elisha left the oxen standing there, ran after Elijah and said to him, first, let me go and kiss my father and mother goodbye, and then I will go with you. Elijah replied, go on back, but think about what I've done to you. So Elisha returned to his oxen and slaughtered them. He used the wood from the plough to build a fire to roast their flesh. He passed around the meat to the townspeople, and they all ate.

Then he went with Elijah as his assistant. So I'm going to step through those verses for you and just give you some observations about those, some points that I think are significant in those three verses. The first is this. God calls Elisha in the middle of ordinary life. So verse 19 says.

It says, Elijah went and found Elisha plowing a field. It appears to be just another ordinary day. And take note that there is nothing particularly spiritual about what Elisha is doing. He's not studying the Bible at this particular point. In time.

He's not praising and worshiping God. He's not giving a sermon. He's working. He's plowing the field. He's just getting on with life.

And this is where God finds him. Elisha's call comes while he's doing his ordinary job, if you will. And I think that is significant because most of our lives are in the ordinary. We go to work, we study, we look after children, we clean the house, we pay the bills, whatever it might look like for you. And that's okay.

That's okay. Because what this is showing us is that God can speak to people in the middle of their ordinary lives. It doesn't have to be a dramatic experience for God to call you and connect with you either. You don't have to have a Road to Damascus experience like Paul had. It doesn't have to be a vision or a dream in the middle of the night.

It's. It doesn't have to be dramatic. Fire and smoke on top of a mountaintop. God uses people to speak through as well. So God's call can come in the middle of ordinary life.

And in addition to that, what we see Elisha doing here is faithfully attending to what is already in front of him. He's doing his regular day job. He's not lamenting that he doesn't have something more important to do. He's not striving to be in the spotlight. He's simply being faithful in attending to what is already in front of him.

And I think that should be encouragement to us as well. I think it suggests that our faithfulness in the ordinary might be preparing us for God's call.

The second point that I take from this is that Elisha understands that following God will cost him something. And so what we read next is that Elijah throws his cloak over Elisha, and Elisha immediately understands what's happening here. So in verse 20, he says, first, let me go and kiss my father and mother goodbye, and then I'll go with you. And so he understands that this is a call to follow in Elijah's footsteps, to become a prophet. And he accepts the call.

And that is huge. That's huge because Elisha isn't simply changing jobs. He's changing the entire course and direction of his life. And there is a cost to following. For Elisha, this means leaving the family behind, leaving behind the security of his job, the familiarity and the comfort of the life that he knows.

And we shouldn't skip over that. Sometimes following God means giving something up. And it might not necessarily look like it does for Elisha here. But it could look like giving up a career opportunity, the comfort of our lifestyle, our relationship, a particular ambition, the desire for control that we all have, or maybe a particular dream about what we think our life should look like. And Jesus himself, he makes that clear, doesn't he?

He says, if any of you wants to be my followers, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. And so following Jesus involves taking up our cross, which is talking about surrendering what we want in favor of what God wants for us. And Christian discipleship is not just about adding J. Jesus to the life that we already want, is it? Sometimes Jesus calls us to lay down the life we have and receive a new life that he gives us.

The third thing that I take from these verses is this, that Elijah doesn't keep a backup plan. It's quite striking after accepting this invitation to follow Elijah's footsteps. It says this in verse 21, Elisha returned to his oxen and slaughtered them. He used the wood from the plough to build a fire and roast their flesh. So this is his livelihood, the ox and the plough.

And he takes those things and he actually turns them into something good for the townspeople. And I think that must have been such a blessing for those people to have received this. The ploughs are used for feeding fuel for the fire. And then he takes the meat and he roasts it, and he shares it with everyone. What a blessing.

But at the same time, that's his old way of life gone. He has destroyed it. And you look at that and go, why would he do something so dramatic? And the answer is that he knows there's no going back. There's no going back.

He isn't keeping the plough sitting in the shed just in case being a prophet does. He doesn't tell his family, look after my oxen, because there's a chance I'm coming back. I'm going to just test and see if this works out. It's like he's saying, if God has called me, then this is the direction I'm going. There is a decisiveness to his response.

He doesn't say, let me think about it for a year and I'll get back to you. He doesn't say, just let me keep my options open for now. He. He doesn't keep a backup plan. He simply says, this is the call I've received and I'm going to follow.

And the final point I take from this is that just looking at those verses Together. Elisha doesn't know everything about his future. I think that's significant. He acts with this certainty about what needs to be done without having all of the answers laid out in front of him. There's no hint here that suggests Elisha knows what's coming next.

But if you've read the Book of Kings before, you know that there is a lot coming. There's a lot coming, isn't there? But at this point in the story, Elisha, he doesn't know what his ministry will look like or how difficult it will become. He doesn't know that one day he will become the leading prophet in Israel. He doesn't know about all the miracles that are in his future, about all the battles that are ahead.

He simply knows one thing. He knows that God has called him to follow. And sometimes that's all God gives us. Not the whole plan, just the next step.

And so if there's one main point I could leave you with, it would be this. It would be this. It would be faith is trusting the God we know with the future that we don't. Elisha's story is not primarily about giving something up. That's part of it, but it's primarily about trusting the God who calls you.

Elisha leaves the plow behind because he believes that what lies ahead with God is so much better than what he's going to be leaving behind. And that is the heart of discipleship, isn't it? Following God requires trust because we don't know everything that God is doing. We don't see the whole picture. We don't know what tomorrow will bring.

We don't know how every situation will play out. But we know the character of the one who calls us. And so think about Elijah's story here. Only a few verses earlier, Elijah, he was exhausted and afraid, and he thought everything was going wrong. He thought he was alone.

After that threat from Jezebel Elijah, he probably thought his ministry had come to an end. But in the background, God was still working things for good. Elijah couldn't see the whole picture, but what God was doing was preparing his successor, preparing Elisha to be his assistant, making a way for Elijah to find and then mentor Elisha. There was still a plan and a purpose there. God was working in ways Elijah couldn't see.

And the same is true for Elisha. Elisha couldn't see what God was going to do with his life. He was just faithfully attending to what was in front of him. He wasn't expecting that Elijah would turn up and throw his cloak over him. But what he does is remarkable.

He trusts the God who calls him without having everything laid out in front of him. And that's often how faith works, but so different to what we want. What we want is for God to show us the whole picture up front. We want to know steps one through to 10 straight away. We want to know how each situation is going to play out.

But so often God says, just take step one. And when you take step one, he shows you step two. And so what does this mean for you? The first thing I'd say is don't underestimate faithfulness in the ordinary. Part of the story is about Elisha spending his day working in a field.

And maybe you feel like you're just doing ordinary things, working, studying, raising children, serving in church, whatever it might be. And maybe you're doing the same things that you've done for years. I'd say don't assume that your faithfulness in the ordinary is insignificant. Elisha was plowing a field when God called him. And so you never know what God might be preparing for you while you're faithfully doing what's already in front of you.

And so be faithful where you are. You know, God sees that. And when you do hear that call from God, I'd say don't demand certainty before you obey. What you've read here is that Elisha leaves the familiar behind and he is so certain about what he needs to do that he goes and he burns his plough. This is perhaps the biggest challenge.

We often say, God, show me where this is going, and then I'll go. But so often God says, go, and then I'll show you. And so faith means trusting God before you know the outcome. And you may be facing decisions right now, right, you may not know what the future holds. You might be asking, should I stay in this job?

Should I take this opportunity? Should I stay in this relationship? Should I move whatever it might be? And sometimes the hardest part is not knowing how it will all play out. And just to be clear there, I'm not saying that you should just take every opportunity that is presented towards you.

There's some level of discernment required there to be discerning. You need to know what's written in your Bible. You need to be praying about it. So I'm not saying, saying that what this is about is about having everything lined up before you can make that commitment to obey God. We want God to give us that certainty before we take the step.

We want to know that everything will work out before we commit to it. And to that, God is asking, do you trust me enough to take the next step? That's what faith looks like. It's not knowing everything, it's not having everything lined up, but trusting the God who does. And so for us as Christians, this is.

This is about following Jesus, isn't it? Yeah, it's about following Jesus. It's about doing what it takes to be his disciple. Elisha had to leave something behind, and Jesus calls us to do the same. And it's not necessarily a job or a possession, but we all have things that we hold onto.

There's our plans, our comforts in life, our reputation. There's the control that we want in our lives, our ambitions. Or maybe it's just our idea of how our lives should work out. And sometimes following Jesus means opening our hands and saying, jesus, this belongs to you. And the reason you can trust and do that with confidence is because ultimately, Jesus is enough.

The Christian life isn't necessarily about giving things up because they are bad. It's about recognizing that Jesus is better than those things. Our plans might be good, our ambitions might be good. The comforts that we have in life, they might be good. But Jesus is better every single time.

Even the things that we love most in this life, they're not meant to take the place of Christ. And sometimes we hold onto those things because we're afraid if we let them go, we'll lose something important. But Jesus is saying to you, you can trust me with what you're putting down. Because when you have Jesus, you haven't lost everything. Actually, you've gained what is most important in this life.

So think about Elisha. He had a field, he had oxen. He had a livelihood. He had a familiar life and a future that he could probably imagine. And then Elijah comes and calls him into something completely different.

And so Elisha lets it go. And you could say, why does he do that? It's because he had come to believe that following God's call was worth more than keeping the life he already had. And that is the heart of Christian discipleship. At the heart of Christian discipleship is that concept, is that the question isn't whether there will be a cost to following Jesus, There will be.

The question is whether Jesus is worth the cost. And for the Christian, the answer is always yes. Because Jesus doesn't simply ask us to leave something behind. He gives us himself. He gives us forgiveness.

He gives us reconciliation with God. He gives us new identity, a new purpose in life. And ultimately, he gives us eternal life with Him. So when Jesus asks us to let go of something, he's not asking us to trade something valuable for nothing. He's asking us to trust that what we gain in him is so much better than what we're afraid to lose.

Sometimes faith, it looks like standing on the edge of what you know and saying, I don't know where this is going, but I know that one who I'm following, and that is enough because Jesus is enough. Let's pray.

Dear Lord, we just come before you this morning, thankful for who you are. Lord, we thank you that you love us, that you have forgiven us, you have made a way for us to be reconciled with God. Lord, in that place, Lord, where we know we are, we are forgiven, that we are loved, Lord, we commit ourselves to youo this morning. We declare this morning that we're gonna lay down those things that we're anxious and worried about, Lord, and we're going to listen to youo call, Lord. Where youe want us to go, we will follow, Lord, whatever that might look like.

It means laying down our comforts, our own idea of what our life should look like, whatever it might be, Lord, I just pray that we would be open to your call, that we would be discerning about whether or not it is your voice, that we would pray about it, Lord, and we would listen to you above all things. And we come before you in that place, Lord, and just ask you to give us that boldness that Elijah and Elisha have, Lord, in responding to your call, the decisiveness about knowing when to act, Lord, and knowing how to go forward, knowing that it is your call for us. We ask this in your name, Lord. Amen.