Speaker 1: And lift our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad and devil mad.
Speaker 1: Say this together, say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be here tonight in the presence of God.
Speaker 1: There's nothing like the Holy Ghost and His presence, there's nothing like the Word of God.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's the bread of life, it's the living bread and I thank you for it.
Speaker 1: Tonight I partake of it and I thank you for it.
Speaker 1: Tonight, I partake of it and I'm better for it.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, 2 Kings, please, Chapter 2.
Speaker 1: And it came to pass when the Lord would take up Elijah into heaven, by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.
Speaker 1: And Elijah said unto Elisha Terry here, I pray thee, for the Lord has sent me to Bethel.
Speaker 1: And Elisha said unto him as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
Speaker 1: And so they went down to Bethel and the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha and said unto him Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today?
Speaker 1: And he said Yea, I know it.
Speaker 1: Hold ye your peace.
Speaker 1: And Elijah said unto him Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee for the Lord has sent me to Jericho.
Speaker 1: And he said as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
Speaker 1: So they came to Jericho and the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha and said unto him Knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy master from thy head today?
Speaker 1: And he said he answered Yea, I know it.
Speaker 1: Hold ye your peace.
Speaker 1: And Elijah said unto him Terry, I pray thee here, for the Lord has sent me to Jordan.
Speaker 1: And he said as the Lord liveth and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee.
Speaker 1: And they too went on and 50 men of the sons of the prophets went and stood to view afar off.
Speaker 1: And they too stood by Jordan.
Speaker 1: And Elijah took his mantle and wrapped it together and smote the waters.
Speaker 1: And they were divided hither and thither so that the two went over on dry ground.
Speaker 1: And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha ask what I shall do for thee.
Speaker 1: And Elisha said I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.
Speaker 1: Anda said not be so.
Speaker 1: And it came to pass, as they still went on and talked, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, horses of fire, and parted them both asunder and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven and Elisha saw it and he cried my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the horseman thereof.
Speaker 1: And he saw him no more.
Speaker 1: And he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces.
Speaker 1: He took up also the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and went back and stood by the bank of Jordan and he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and smote the waters and said where is the Lord, god of Elijah?
Speaker 1: And when he had also smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither and Elisha went over and when the sons of the prophets were word of view at Jericho saw him, they said the spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha.
Speaker 1: And so tonight I wanted to share a message that I've preached numbers of times before, but I think it bears repeating from time to time.
Speaker 1: It's called the double portion.
Speaker 1: The double portion the key word in all of this entire testimony of Elijah being taken, body and spirit, up into heaven.
Speaker 1: Just think about that.
Speaker 1: He's up there right now.
Speaker 1: He's got a body, just like you and I.
Speaker 1: He's not been raptured, he's not.
Speaker 1: He's not been transformed like like the rapture is going to happen.
Speaker 1: We're going to all be made new.
Speaker 1: We're going to have new bodies.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have a new body and yet he's in heaven.
Speaker 1: Pretty amazing, there's another one like him up there, enoch.
Speaker 1: Enoch is just the same way.
Speaker 1: So you got two people, just like you and I, and yet they've been up there thousands of years.
Speaker 1: You know, kind of blows your mind when you really think about it, and yet they've been up there thousands of years.
Speaker 1: You know, kind of blows your mind when you really think about it.
Speaker 1: But the key word in all this testimony is the word father.
Speaker 1: You know Elisha knew the season of his father's departure, and so, you know, some of the other people did too, and he told them to shut up.
Speaker 1: None of your business.
Speaker 1: What's going to be happening here today?
Speaker 1: You really don't have anything to do with this.
Speaker 1: They might have known some things, but they, you know, don't be talking about it, don't be getting in the way here.
Speaker 1: This is grown-up time and Elisha's faithfulness was tested to the end.
Speaker 1: You know he was tested.
Speaker 1: Wait, here, I've got a guy.
Speaker 1: You know he was.
Speaker 1: He was tested.
Speaker 1: I wait, here, I've I've got a guy.
Speaker 1: You know I've called to go to Gilgal.
Speaker 1: No, I'm not leaving you.
Speaker 1: Go to Jericho, I'm going with you, I ain't leaving you, ain't no way.
Speaker 1: If he had, if he had decided to go ahead and not go with him, guess what?
Speaker 1: He wouldn't have gotten the mantle, he wouldn't have gotten his inheritance.
Speaker 1: And so his faithfulness was tested to the end and he became eligible for what we call the firstborn's inheritance.
Speaker 1: Everybody say the firstborn's inheritance.
Speaker 1: And so we'll get into that in a little bit.
Speaker 1: I'll read you the scripture.
Speaker 1: But let's go back to 1 Kings 19, when Elisha was called.
Speaker 1: Originally he was called 1 Kings 19, verse 15.
Speaker 1: I want you to see something here.
Speaker 1: If you read 18 and 19, you know, remember, 18 is when he was released to tell Ahab it's going to rain, but before he could lift the curse of the famine, that happened in chapter 17.
Speaker 1: Remember, in chapter 17, he went and said it's not going to rain until I say so.
Speaker 1: And then he had to go by the brook Cherith, because I mean he had to be fed by ravens twice a day and drink from the brook Cherith.
Speaker 1: And then, when the brook dried up, he went to Zarephath.
Speaker 1: The widow woman fed him for a whole year and she got a miracle out of it.
Speaker 1: And then, in 18, god said, okay, it's time for the rain, but he had to cleanse the land of the false prophets.
Speaker 1: So he had the 400 prophets, jezebel, 400 prophets, prophets of baal, and had them said I challenge you, today, let's find out whose god is real.
Speaker 1: You, you, uh, build an altar and put you some animals on there and call down fire from heaven.
Speaker 1: All day long they were screaming and hollering, jumping up and down, cutting themselves.
Speaker 1: Nothing happened there.
Speaker 1: God didn didn't answer them.
Speaker 1: It's a wonderful.
Speaker 1: So read it.
Speaker 1: I mean read chapter 18.
Speaker 1: It's powerful and way late in the day he starts making fun.
Speaker 1: He said well, I guess God must be busy, must be traveling, he must have gone to the bathroom.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you talk about mocking, I mean they're pulling their hair out.
Speaker 1: You're so mad.
Speaker 1: He said go get you some water, I'm going to kill me some animals.
Speaker 1: He killed some animals, put them on there, built a whole new altar you know stone and you know, dug trenches around it and filled the trenches with water, drowned the offering with water.
Speaker 1: All the wood was wet, the animals were wet.
Speaker 1: He called down fire from heaven.
Speaker 1: It burned everything.
Speaker 1: Water.
Speaker 1: All the wood was wet, the animals were wet.
Speaker 1: He called down fire from heaven.
Speaker 1: It burned everything up, all the water evaporated, all the stones melted, all the animals disappeared, I mean.
Speaker 1: And then he turned and he, elijah, killed 400 prophets of Baal.
Speaker 1: He slew them right on the spot and cleansed the land of idolatry and, of course, you know, made Jezebel man.
Speaker 1: You know, I have to ask him when I see him why did you, why were you afraid of Jezebel?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was afraid of Jezebel.
Speaker 1: He went to run and when she said, as I live and you so live, I will kill you for what you've done, she threatened him.
Speaker 1: He was wicked and he ran and he was discouraged and just and it looked like the end of his ministry really.
Speaker 1: And remember, you know, he went and you know.
Speaker 1: And then, you know, ahab, they went up on Mount Carmel and he sent his servant, you know, go, look for the cloud seven times.
Speaker 1: Finally, the seventh time, he said well, I don't see, but, but just a cloud the size of a man's hand.
Speaker 1: He said get thee down, don't let the rain stop you.
Speaker 1: I hear the sound of an abundance of rain.
Speaker 1: And so I've been at that place where that rain happened and it's a, it's a flash flood kind of a place.
Speaker 1: It just rain comes out of those hills and it comes roaring down.
Speaker 1: It doesn't take but just a little rain in an area and it comes funneling down into those hills and into this place, where they were, and it just it'll get 10 foot deep and raging torrents of water.
Speaker 1: It will drown you.
Speaker 1: And so the spirit of the Lord came upon Elijah and he outran Ahab's chariot all the way to Jezreel, which is 20 miles, but then later he's discouraged.
Speaker 1: Later, in the next chapter, he's discouraged, you know, and he said let's go back to 19,.
Speaker 1: 1 Kings 19,.
Speaker 1: Elijah, in verse 13,.
Speaker 1: Behold, there came a voice unto him, the last part of verse 13,.
Speaker 1: What are you doing here, elijah?
Speaker 1: And he said I've been very jealous of the Lord, god of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altar, slain thy prophets with a sword, and I, even I only am alone, I'm left, and they seek my life to take it away.
Speaker 1: And the Lord said unto him go your way to the wilderness of Damascus and, when you come, anoint Hazael to be king over Syria and Yehu, the son of Nimshi, shall you anoint to be king over Israel and Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abelam-mehola, thou shalt anoint to be prophet in thy room or in your, in your place, in your office.
Speaker 1: Now that kind of looks like he's being replaced.
Speaker 1: It looks like it might be the end of his ministry.
Speaker 1: Is what it kind of looks like, doesn't it anoint the next prophet?
Speaker 1: You're still alive.
Speaker 1: And uh, verse 17 it shall come to pass that him that escapes the sword of Hazael shall Yehu slay, and him that escapeth from the sword of Yehu shall Elisha slay.
Speaker 1: Yet I have left me 7,000 in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal and every mouth which hath not kissed him.
Speaker 1: So in other words, you're not all by yourself.
Speaker 1: I still got 7,000.
Speaker 1: So, you know, you kind of get the idea that Elijah is on the end of his ministry.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's had a short ministry but it's been powerful and so.
Speaker 1: But so then he goes.
Speaker 1: Let's keep reading verse 19.
Speaker 1: So he departed from there and found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen, that's pairs of oxen.
Speaker 1: You have a pair of oxen with a yoke dragging a plow and you got 12 of those.
Speaker 1: You got 24.
Speaker 1: That's quite a farming operation.
Speaker 1: That is a major farming operation.
Speaker 1: You got that many animals out there pulling those plows, I mean you're getting some work done.
Speaker 1: You've got that many animals out there pulling those plows, I mean you're getting some work done.
Speaker 1: You plowing up some ground, baby.
Speaker 1: And he's out there plowing with 12 yokes of oxen and he's with the 12.
Speaker 1: So he's not see he's got men working for him.
Speaker 1: The other 11 pair are driven by other people working, supposedly working for Elisha.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's a successful businessman and God said I want him as the prophet.
Speaker 1: Next prophet.
Speaker 1: He's going to take your place, he's going to be in your room.
Speaker 1: And so, and Elijah passed by him and cast his mantle upon him.
Speaker 1: Elijah cast his mantle upon him.
Speaker 1: Now, I thought he cast his mantle on him when he went to heaven.
Speaker 1: Well, he did, but originally he cast his mantle upon him.
Speaker 1: Now what I thought?
Speaker 1: He cast his mantle on him when he went to heaven.
Speaker 1: Well, he did.
Speaker 1: But he.
Speaker 1: Originally he cast his mantle on him because God told him to anoint him as prophet.
Speaker 1: So he did.
Speaker 1: So he's been called.
Speaker 1: Everybody say the calling.
Speaker 1: So you're reading about the calling.
Speaker 1: He was called, that's.
Speaker 1: That's the first time Elijah Elisha heard that he was called, as when this man comes by and throws his mantle on him.
Speaker 1: And so verse 20,.
Speaker 1: And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said let me I pray thee, kiss my father and mother, and then I will follow thee.
Speaker 1: And he said unto them go back again.
Speaker 1: What have I to do with you?
Speaker 1: What have I done to thee?
Speaker 1: In other words, when you really read that in different translations, he said that to test him and basically he's saying consider what I just did for you.
Speaker 1: In other words, don't stay with mama and daddy.
Speaker 1: You've got a calling to fulfill.
Speaker 1: He wasn't sure he was going to answer the call, so he's warning him, he's even testing him.
Speaker 1: And so Elisha heard that and he goes back.
Speaker 1: Verse 21,.
Speaker 1: He returned back from him and took a yoke of oxen one pair, and slew them and boiled their flesh.
Speaker 1: With the instruments of the oxen.
Speaker 1: He used the yoke as fuel for the fire and he roasted them, boiled them, and he gave unto the people.
Speaker 1: Fire and he roasted them, boiled them and he gave unto the people.
Speaker 1: He fed the people he was responsible for before he left them.
Speaker 1: He didn't leave them high and dry.
Speaker 1: He fed them and he felt and he left them.
Speaker 1: The other 11 pairs of oxen to continue in business.
Speaker 1: He didn't just leave, you know, with nothing.
Speaker 1: He took care of his parents, he took care of the people that were working for him and he arose and went after Elijah and ministered unto him.
Speaker 1: So he burned his bridges.
Speaker 1: I mean he, he that that was his personal yoke of oxen.
Speaker 1: He basically said I'm done with this, you're going to keep the rest.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm, I'm done with this, you're going to keep the rest.
Speaker 1: I'm slaying the ones that are mine.
Speaker 1: I raised them from babies.
Speaker 1: They know me, they know how to plow, they know what to do, they know how to stop, they know how to turn.
Speaker 1: They're valuable.
Speaker 1: He turned them into a barbecue and I mean he burned his bridges.
Speaker 1: In other words, he answered the call and he didn't make any allowances for going back.
Speaker 1: And it says he ministered unto Elijah.
Speaker 1: The word minister means to attend, to wait on, to serve.
Speaker 1: It implies yieldedness, servanthood and obedience.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like Joseph.
Speaker 1: Joseph was like that with Potiphar until Potiphar's wife falsely accused him, and then he was like that with the jailer.
Speaker 1: And how long, a long time, about 13 years in prison before he became about 30 years of age.
Speaker 1: We're 30 years old and the church is 30 years.
Speaker 1: 30 in the Bible is the number of ministerial faithfulness.
Speaker 1: Jesus was 30 when he came into being a rabbi.
Speaker 1: John the Baptist was 30.
Speaker 1: Amen, 30 is a significant number.
Speaker 1: We're 30 years old.
Speaker 1: We've been faithful in ministry Joshua, faithful with Moses.
Speaker 1: Just think how, in 40 years, he was faithful serving Moses.
Speaker 1: He didn't have any designs, he didn't have any ambition, he didn't throw his hat in the ring.
Speaker 1: And of course, david.
Speaker 1: David was called.
Speaker 1: He was anointed to be king at 18, maybe even younger.
Speaker 1: He didn't become king till 30.
Speaker 1: So there's a difference.
Speaker 1: You've got the calling and you've got the commissioning.
Speaker 1: But between calling and commissioning, commissioning is when you actually begin to do the thing you've been called to do.
Speaker 1: In between there is what is qualification.
Speaker 1: In between there is a place of testing and faithfulness that you've got to show God and show someone ahead of you and over you.
Speaker 1: You've got to be faithful to a father or else you're really not qualified.
Speaker 1: Not qualified.
Speaker 1: A lot of people just want to skip the qualification process.
Speaker 1: They want to go from calling to commissioning.
Speaker 1: That ain't how it works.
Speaker 1: I've seen it for years and it just doesn't work that way.
Speaker 1: When people are like that.
Speaker 1: You know you can't.
Speaker 1: If they don't change their mind, they're not going to be of any use to me, because they've got ambition.
Speaker 1: Ambition will kill you.
Speaker 1: It's a shortcut to heaven early.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of these ambitious preachers that are right now dead that I've met along the way.
Speaker 1: Very few of them survived.
Speaker 1: We're still here.
Speaker 1: So Elisha, 20 years it was 20 years from the time he was called till the time that Elijah went up to heaven and threw the mantle on him again.
Speaker 1: It's the second time he got the mantle.
Speaker 1: He got the mantle to begin with, but that was just a calling.
Speaker 1: He hadn't been qualified yet.
Speaker 1: He's not a prophet yet.
Speaker 1: He's a helper.
Speaker 1: That's what he is.
Speaker 1: He's a helper, he's a servant, he's a gopher.
Speaker 1: Go for this and go for that.
Speaker 1: I had a concrete man one time.
Speaker 1: They were on my make ready crew.
Speaker 1: The make ready crew was the crew that would dig the beams and cover the slab up with plastic, you know, and put the steel in the beams and get it ready for a slab to be poured, a reinforced concrete slab.
Speaker 1: So they did the make ready.
Speaker 1: Then I had a different crew that poured the concrete and finished the concrete.
Speaker 1: So there were two sets of crews.
Speaker 1: The first crew, though, was the make ready, and I'd go by there, you know, and they always trying to get me to go to the store for them.
Speaker 1: You know, here here's $2.
Speaker 1: Get me, get me a cake, and the rest in bologna.
Speaker 1: I said what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: They don't have, I can't buy bologna by the pound at 7-Eleven.
Speaker 1: You know, they were always trying to trick me into going and doing their errands for them.
Speaker 1: I'm the young kid just fresh out of college, wet behind the ears, and there they are.
Speaker 1: You know, guys are 30, 35, 40 years old, they're ignorant, they don't know, they've never been to school, they quit school and they're out there working for my concrete contractor, and his name was Trueheart Taylor.
Speaker 1: So help me God, that was his name was Trueheart Taylor.
Speaker 1: So help me God, that was his name, trueheart.
Speaker 1: And he would come by on Friday in a green Cadillac convertible and pay them.
Speaker 1: And he owned a gambling joint on Montgomery Road where, after they got paid, they'd go down to Montgomery Road and play dominoes and gamble all their money back to him, and he'd win it all.
Speaker 1: It was slavery, modern day slavery.
Speaker 1: And they're working, working for me as concrete guys.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know I'm I.
Speaker 1: It took me a while to figure all this out.
Speaker 1: I kind of felt bad about it, you know, felt kind of bad.
Speaker 1: I mean it's poor guys, but they, I mean that's what they want, that's what they were doing, what they wanted to do, nobody told them they had to.
Speaker 1: So, anyway, this one guy, I said what's your name?
Speaker 1: He said doodad.
Speaker 1: I said what Doodad?
Speaker 1: I said doodad.
Speaker 1: What are you?
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: What kind of a name is that?
Speaker 1: Why, how'd you get that name?
Speaker 1: He said well, they always telling me do this and do that.
Speaker 1: I guess you had to been there.
Speaker 1: Anyway, where were we?
Speaker 1: So he served 20 years until the day that Elisha was taken up to heaven.
Speaker 1: So let's look at Deuteronomy 21.
Speaker 1: Remember what did he say?
Speaker 1: He said now you know if you see me when all this is going down, when you see me you can have the mantle.
Speaker 1: What did he ask him?
Speaker 1: The double portion.
Speaker 1: Look at Deuteronomy 21.
Speaker 1: Deuteronomy 21.
Speaker 1: Trueheart Taylor.
Speaker 1: His wife shot him in the stomach.
Speaker 1: He was out of commission for many months.
Speaker 1: I mean I had to go hire somebody else.
Speaker 1: I mean he was too weak to come out there and run his crews.
Speaker 1: We had to go hire somebody else to pour our slabs and everything.
Speaker 1: It reads like a bad novel.
Speaker 1: All right, deuteronomy 21, verse 15.
Speaker 1: If a man have two wives, and one beloved and another hated, that's what you get for having two wives, one beloved and another hated, that's what you get for having two wives but anyway.
Speaker 1: And they have born him children, both the beloved and the hated.
Speaker 1: And if the firstborn son be hers, that was hated, then it shall be when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn.
Speaker 1: That's what happened to Jacob and Esau.
Speaker 1: Esau was the firstborn by just barely a nut, barely.
Speaker 1: They're twins.
Speaker 1: And remember, esau came out first hairy, redheaded, red white skin, hairy, red, hairy, you know.
Speaker 1: And then here comes delicate Jacob out the second time, you know, right behind his twin brother.
Speaker 1: But he had a hold of his heel and she had a whole lot of trouble in the womb.
Speaker 1: If you go back to Genesis and find out what happened to mama and mama almost died in childbirth, I mean and she had a lot of trouble during the pregnancy and the Lord told her you've got two nations in you that are not getting along.
Speaker 1: See, there's some things that's in the DNA and it's just there.
Speaker 1: It's not anybody's fault.
Speaker 1: It's nothing you can do to change it.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you there's nothing you can do in the Middle East to change what's going on there.
Speaker 1: That's one thing about Trump.
Speaker 1: He's going to have to learn the hard way.
Speaker 1: There ain't no deal to be made.
Speaker 1: You better leave it alone.
Speaker 1: I hope somebody can tell him he's a deal maker, he's a businessman.
Speaker 1: He doesn't know the Bible.
Speaker 1: This has been in there.
Speaker 1: They were born with it the hatred and you're not going to make a deal with them.
Speaker 1: There's no deal to be made.
Speaker 1: But anyway, getting back to this, so the law of the firstborn when you have your firstborn son, he gets twice as much as the other kids Because he's the beginning of your strength is what the Bible says.
Speaker 1: The beginning of your strength is what the Bible says, verse 17,.
Speaker 1: He shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the beginning of his strength and the right of the firstborn is his.
Speaker 1: So you know, mama figured out a way around that law and you know it was really God's plan for Jacob.
Speaker 1: See, because of the way they were born, god knew that Esau could not take the double portion.
Speaker 1: He didn't, he wasn't going to use it right, he wasn't, he wasn't qualified for it.
Speaker 1: And if they had just left everything alone, god would have worked everything out.
Speaker 1: But no, they did something, they lied, they deceived, they, they, they, you know, deceived Isaac and all.
Speaker 1: You know the story.
Speaker 1: And so you know it cost Jacob a lot of years of misery and it didn't help a thing.
Speaker 1: He wound up getting something I know God wanted him to have, but he didn't want him to have it that way.
Speaker 1: They sometimes, sometimes we can have something, but we've got to have it God's way, not our way Double portion.
Speaker 1: So this double portion.
Speaker 1: It took 20 years for Elisha to qualify for this anointing and he had to know, by the spirit, number one, his inheritance and number two, the timing of it.
Speaker 1: And he knew by the spirit that he was eligible for the firstborn I'm the firstborn.
Speaker 1: So he was able to move that out of the natural into the spirit realm and he could legally ask for the double portion of the anointing to come on him, without being prideful, without having any measure of jealousy or envy.
Speaker 1: Self-promotion, I mean, if you don't know the word, you just kind of think that Elisha is kind of promoting himself.
Speaker 1: Well, no, god wouldn't put up with that.
Speaker 1: No, he knew by the spirit that he had something coming that he had sown to and he had the double portion.
Speaker 1: And so Elijah said, okay, well, this is going to happen, but you're going to have to keep your eyes on me and not on the fireworks.
Speaker 1: I mean, it would have been easy for him to get distracted about those fiery chariots and those horses.
Speaker 1: He could have gotten all caught up in the in the fireworks.
Speaker 1: But no, he kept his eyes on Elijah and when Elijah was lifted up he didn't look at all that other stuff.
Speaker 1: He said my father, my father had his eyes on his father.
Speaker 1: He said the right words because he knew he related to him spiritually as a father to son, and so that gave him a right to the firstborn's inheritance spiritually.
Speaker 1: Are you getting this?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 1: These things really mean a whole lot to me because all of this kind of played out in my life, in my ministry with Brother Osteen and all of that, what God did with that.
Speaker 1: And this church is strong, where a lot of people's churches disappeared because of the law of the double portion.
Speaker 1: Everybody say the double portion.
Speaker 1: You know, when God selected me to change ministries at Lakewood, we were prayer partners.
Speaker 1: We were functioning there and happy to do it.
Speaker 1: It's an honor to be a prayer partner.
Speaker 1: Pray for the sick every service, go out with people that are, you know, answering an altar call, sit down with them and pray with them and find out what all they needed and follow up with them and all that.
Speaker 1: We did that for years.
Speaker 1: But when we got back from Corpus Christi, we spent a year and a half in Corpus.
Speaker 1: We came back.
Speaker 1: Gladys said well, you want to, let's get back in by there, william and Barbara wanting us to get back under the prayer partners.
Speaker 1: I said you know, I just want to wait a while.
Speaker 1: I want to see what else I feel like there's.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I can't explain it, but I don't want to do it right now.
Speaker 1: I need to wait.
Speaker 1: So I had an unction not to go back in there and get underneath them again and wait and see what God wanted.
Speaker 1: And right away I noticed that we were still in the old building.
Speaker 1: We hadn't built a new building yet.
Speaker 1: We're still in that old building there it's gone now and the one with the eight foot ceilings and the TV monitors hanging down where you had to duck underneath them.
Speaker 1: That was the ugliest building you ever saw.
Speaker 1: But anyway, god was there, holy Ghost was there, and so I noticed that.
Speaker 1: You know during the service that they had a guy that was opening the services in prayer and he was late.
Speaker 1: It seemed like he'd be late.
Speaker 1: They had a guy that was opening the services in prayer and he was late.
Speaker 1: It seemed like he'd be late.
Speaker 1: And Doreen was the worship leader, really anointed lady to lead the worship.
Speaker 1: She was really good and she'd be waiting, standing on one foot and another and looking at her watch, because Brother Osteen wants everything to happen on time.
Speaker 1: He hates any kind of late anything, he wants it right on time.
Speaker 1: And this guy was messing up up and he was coming late.
Speaker 1: So when it got time and he wasn't there, she'd look for somebody to open the service in prayer.
Speaker 1: And she met my eye and I went like that and I went up there and opened the service in prayer Thousands of people sitting there and went and sat down.
Speaker 1: The guy never did show up that Sunday so I thought, wow, that's kind of.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the reason I haven't gotten back into the prayer partner deal, maybe I need to do this, maybe I need to be available, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm not after the guy's job, but he's not showing up and he was doing some other stuff in TV and he was too busy.
Speaker 1: They had him spread too thin and so the next week same thing happened and so I did it again and he showed up while I was praying but he didn't say anything to me.
Speaker 1: And the next week, well, she's looking around and she just hated to call on me because it's been two weeks in a row and here I am.
Speaker 1: And she saw Bob Bobola.
Speaker 1: I don't know if y'all know Bob.
Speaker 1: Bob worked at NASA and he was an engineer when the great Apollo 13 miracle happened.
Speaker 1: A bunch of those people that worked at NASA when Apollo 13 happened, they all knew it was God and all of them got saved.
Speaker 1: He was one of the ones that got saved.
Speaker 1: Astronauts got saved.
Speaker 1: You know, all those engineers in there got saved.
Speaker 1: I mean, they all knew there was no way that that space capsule got back to earth except God brought them back.
Speaker 1: There was no way that happened without God, and so they all got saved.
Speaker 1: He was one of them.
Speaker 1: So they got Bob up there and Bob opened the service.
Speaker 1: You know, it didn't bother me, I don't care, I'm not after anybody, I'm just trying to fill a slot that's available.
Speaker 1: So finally, the next Sunday I got up there.
Speaker 1: Well, this guy did hear about it.
Speaker 1: He starts seeing he's got pressure now because people are saying, hey, you're late every time and Doreen's getting other people to fill in for you.
Speaker 1: So I saw him out of the corner of my eye and headed up there and he is running full speed from the side and he's trying to get there ahead of me.
Speaker 1: And I'm sorry I should have just stopped, but I didn't.
Speaker 1: I just kept walking and I was closer to the microphone than he was and I didn't hurry, I just walked normal.
Speaker 1: I didn't hurry.
Speaker 1: He was running full speed and I got the microphone in my hand.
Speaker 1: I had my foot on the first step and he came up beside me, grabbed the microphone out of my hand, ran up to the platform and was totally out of breath and couldn't talk and he tried to pray and it was.
Speaker 1: It was really really, really cringy, as my grandchildren would say, a cringy moment and so, oh, you know, I just kind of I tried not to smile I really did, but I couldn't help it.
Speaker 1: So I smiled barely and he came and apologized.
Speaker 1: I said, oh no, no, you don't owe me an apology, I don't.
Speaker 1: I should have just stopped.
Speaker 1: I saw you out of the corner of my eye but I knew you were running, I knew you were going to have a hard time praying and out of breath.
Speaker 1: I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: You don't have to apologize to me.
Speaker 1: I'm just here to be a blessing.
Speaker 1: I'm not after your job.
Speaker 1: Brother, just relax.
Speaker 1: It looks like they got you too busy.
Speaker 1: I guess that's good, you know, I just well, anyway, they fired him and hired me.
Speaker 1: I mean, fired him, they didn't fire him, he didn't work, you know.
Speaker 1: I think he might've been on staff, though come to think of it but he stayed on staff, but they just shifted him out of that and and I got the, I got the, the job of opening the services in prayer, and so I would say God, how in the world this is crazy for this to happen.
Speaker 1: Out of all the people in this church that I've been selected to do this, it's amazing.
Speaker 1: So I kind of recognized it was a big deal.
Speaker 1: Brother Osteen called last night and said hey wrote us a note on Sunday morning and we want to go out to lunch with you.
Speaker 1: And they took us to lunch at the Omni, at the brunch at Omni, a real fancy place.
Speaker 1: And, john, how in the world did you get to do what you're doing for us?
Speaker 1: I said the Holy Ghost.
Speaker 1: He just slapped his leg because that's his favorite answer, holy ghost.
Speaker 1: And we just got to know him and they fussed it in front of us.
Speaker 1: We're glad I was looking at each other and they're fussing to each other and kind of a little mini argument and, oh, my goodness, I think, oh, I wish I was some talk about cringy because you don't know, I mean, but they didn't get, they were just real, they didn't care, they just being themselves and, uh, they didn't care, they just be in themselves.
Speaker 1: And then they told you know, tell stories.
Speaker 1: She's told a story on him.
Speaker 1: She said you know, one time we were fussing and we weren't speaking and I just thought, god, you're telling me this story.
Speaker 1: I just didn't know how to act, I didn't know whether to smile, I didn't know.
Speaker 1: You know, you don't know what to do, I don't know these people.
Speaker 1: They're bigger than life, I mean God.
Speaker 1: They're worldwide ministry.
Speaker 1: Everybody in the world knows who they are and they're telling me this story about their marriage, that we weren't speaking to each other, we were fussing.
Speaker 1: And back then, you know, dodie said I sat on the platform behind John and John was preaching and he got through and it was over with and he said you know, marvin, come on up and close the service in prayer.
Speaker 1: Y'all glad you came today.
Speaker 1: Y'all glad Did you get blessed today?
Speaker 1: Yeah, da, da, da, da, da.
Speaker 1: Well, marvin didn't come up, marvin didn't move and so he said Marvin, yeah, come on up, come on up and close the services in prayer.
Speaker 1: And Marvin didn't move and Dodie leaned over in the chair and said His name is not Marvin.
Speaker 1: I had to laugh at that one.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's no way not to laugh.
Speaker 1: His name is not Marvin.
Speaker 1: And he said Well, what is it?
Speaker 1: Repent?
Speaker 1: He said Dodie, repent.
Speaker 1: Finally, you know Fred, or whatever the guy's name I don't remember what his real name was and we just laughed and laughed and finally Fred came up and closed the service in prayer.
Speaker 1: She had that power over him.
Speaker 1: She made him repent before she'd tell him his name, his real name, because Dodie never forgot a name.
Speaker 1: It didn't matter how many thousand people were there.
Speaker 1: If she met you, she knew your name.
Speaker 1: She's amazing.
Speaker 1: She had gifts that weren't well known, but she had mighty, mighty gifts on her life.
Speaker 1: But or does she still does.
Speaker 1: But, uh, I said well, I said all I can say to that testimony is this you can call me Fred, you can call me Marvin, just call me.
Speaker 1: That's what I said to them.
Speaker 1: And so from then on, forever and a day, I'm Marvin to Dodie, she calls me Marvin, and when she sees me, oh Marvin.
Speaker 1: We did a funeral together, right here in this room, and I saw her.
Speaker 1: You know, it's been years ago now and it was Ruthie Dearman's funeral.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, the Ruthie funeral was here and we did it together.
Speaker 1: And she said, oh Marvin.
Speaker 1: And everybody looked at me wondering what in the world?
Speaker 1: What does this have to do with the double portion?
Speaker 1: Well, it just has to do with faithfulness.
Speaker 1: It has to do with qualifying for the double portion.
Speaker 1: Let's look at Luke 16.
Speaker 1: I'm going to wrap this up.
Speaker 1: I've got a lot more to say, but I want to give you this first, luke 16,.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, verse 11,.
Speaker 1: If, therefore, you've not been faithful verse 10, he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.
Speaker 1: So God always, he always tests you on least first.
Speaker 1: A lot of people want to go to the much, but he starts with least, and he that is unjust in the least is also unjust in much.
Speaker 1: If, therefore, you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon my margin says riches if you're not faithful over the riches, if you're not faithful over the tithe, when it's just a little bit, I've been where the tithe was zero because I had no income.
Speaker 1: I had to be faithful over what I had.
Speaker 1: So we gave offerings even when we had zero.
Speaker 1: I mean, if there was anything, if we, if we could do anything, if we'd sell something and give an offering, that's how we would.
Speaker 1: It wasn't income.
Speaker 1: Then you're selling something that you own and then you give an offering.
Speaker 1: We did that.
Speaker 1: But if you're not faithful in the unrighteous mammon and riches, who will commit to you the true riches?
Speaker 1: Which is the anointing and the office that God might want to call you to, like the office of the prophet or the office of the pastor, and I had a calling to the office of the pastor when I got saved and I knew I did and I accepted it.
Speaker 1: But I had a lot of years of having to be faithful in the unrighteous mammon.
Speaker 1: Faithful in little are you with me?
Speaker 1: Verse 12 and if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
Speaker 1: You know, these are things that I had to get a hold of years and years ago when god promoted me and put me in the position that he did.
Speaker 1: I had to, knowing what I knew about that he had called me to pastor and yet I wasn't.
Speaker 1: I was after a fashion, but this was his ministry, not mine, so I had to be faithful in that that was his.
Speaker 1: I had to be faithful.
Speaker 1: So a couple of years later, early 90s, I think it was Justin Osteen Justin was Brother Osteen's son by his first wife, who didn't want to be a pastor's wife, and so, when he was still a Baptist preacher, she left him, divorced him and they had one child together and that was Justin, his oldest, and Justin was.
Speaker 1: You know, he was around his half-brothers and sisters, joel and, and all the family, lisa and Tamara, and everybody, but not full-time.
Speaker 1: He wasn't raised in that house.
Speaker 1: He was raised by his mother and dad had visitation, I'm sure he had vacation time with him and stuff like that, but they were not raised together so they weren't close.
Speaker 1: The rest of the family's close, but he's not.
Speaker 1: He's kind of an offshoot.
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't know all these things, but I got close enough to the family to observe this.
Speaker 1: Justin just really took a shine in me, loved me, and he came on board at one point as the administrator of the ministry.
Speaker 1: He was the chief operating officer of the church and he knew eight languages.
Speaker 1: I think he might have worked for the State Department or I think he'd either United State, one of the two.
Speaker 1: He was a brilliant guy, very sharp on management, and so he had management seminars for churches and for pastors and for people that were on staff, where he would go over how to handle the offering, all your procedures you know, to handle the church's money.
Speaker 1: But mainly, just like it was a management seminar like you would have if you're in business and you'd go to a seminar where they teach you more management skills on hiring and people skills and things like that and people skills and things like that.
Speaker 1: He said you know, john, I'm having this management seminar and he said I've got a scholarship for you.
Speaker 1: It's $300.
Speaker 1: It's worth $300.
Speaker 1: I'll just give you a scholarship to come to it if you're interested.
Speaker 1: I said absolutely, I'm honored, thank you, it's all day.
Speaker 1: I said, okay, I can be there.
Speaker 1: So I was there and it was really good, I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1: Morning session, you know, and then we had lunch, got back to the lunch section and up on the board he had this overhead screen like this one and he had a management flow chart up on there and at the top of the chart, you know, you had a box and you had J-H-O, john H Osteen.
Speaker 1: Pastor Osteen was at the top of this chart and you had a line that went down like that and a horizontal line and then you had lines that went down with boxes and you had, you know, of course, dodie was next to him up there.
Speaker 1: And then you had, you know, of course Dodie was next to him up there.
Speaker 1: And then you had, you know, joel, and you had Lisa and you had Justin and you had, you know, you had, the family.
Speaker 1: That's all that was under Brother Osteen was the family and then under each of the family members was their group of either staff members and or volunteers that reported directly to the family members, and so he was filling that all out.
Speaker 1: He was showing you, know, as a seminar, he's showing you how you need to organize your church and have everybody with lines of accountability and responsibility and everybody knows what everybody's doing.
Speaker 1: God's not the author of confusion and he's in the middle of that.
Speaker 1: I've just found it fascinating.
Speaker 1: I'm just sitting there, you know, and somebody in the back of the room says where is John Griner on that chart?
Speaker 1: I turned around and I was angry.
Speaker 1: I thought how dare you?
Speaker 1: That's rude, what business is it of yours?
Speaker 1: I mean golly.
Speaker 1: And I didn't.
Speaker 1: I turned red.
Speaker 1: I mean, it embarrassed me, you know, I didn't know.
Speaker 1: I still to this day I don't know who it was.
Speaker 1: Where's John Griner on that list?
Speaker 1: And Justin said, oh, that's easy, just like that.
Speaker 1: He responded, just like that, oh, that's easy.
Speaker 1: He went up there and he drew a line from Brother Osteen, directly from Brother Osteen to me, and put JG there, separate from the family and above them.
Speaker 1: And I looked at that and I almost passed out the weight of what God had done, the position he put me in.
Speaker 1: I didn't even know.
Speaker 1: I mean, as far as I was concerned, I worked for everybody.
Speaker 1: If Lisa told me to do anything, I did whatever Lisa told me.
Speaker 1: If Joel told me and of course, none of them ever did well, lisa would every now and then ask me to do announcements, but other than that I didn't have anybody telling me what to do.
Speaker 1: It was Brother Osteen that I reported to and I realized at that moment, folks, that you know, this was a serious situation that God had placed me in and all these verses that I'm going to share with you tonight.
Speaker 1: God began to give me revelation about them and how important they are for you to be faithful.
Speaker 1: Whatever I mean.
Speaker 1: You know it's not like I have anything special I'm not, but God has special things for each one of you.
Speaker 1: We're coming into a time when all of us are going to have to be counted.
Speaker 1: We're going to have to stand up and be counted and be available.
Speaker 1: I made myself available and that's why it's not so much ability as availability and humility and the willingness to be corrected, the willingness to endure someone, even mistake.
Speaker 1: You know misunderstanding you, that's going to happen.
Speaker 1: Well, those things are busy, guys.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I'd say something.
Speaker 1: He'd misunderstand me.
Speaker 1: And you know there's a time or two when he kind of got aggravated and you know I had to just be quiet, I had to be patient until, you know, I got a chance to straighten it out.
Speaker 1: One time a person came up to him and lied about me and unfortunately he kind of believed him.
Speaker 1: So he called me in, told me what this other guy said.
Speaker 1: I waited for him to finish.
Speaker 1: I said what else did he say?
Speaker 1: He kept going.
Speaker 1: You know, I said well, it just couldn't be further from the truth.
Speaker 1: I mean, I said well, it's just couldn't be further than from the truth.
Speaker 1: I mean I just I'm going to have to go talk to him because he has no right to tell you any of this.
Speaker 1: He didn't tell me this.
Speaker 1: If he's got a beef with me, he should come to me.
Speaker 1: He shouldn't be coming to you.
Speaker 1: And I said so I will be talking to John now.
Speaker 1: John, I said well, I'm not going to hurt him.
Speaker 1: I'm just going to tell I'm going to rebuke him.
Speaker 1: If your brother offend you, rebuke him.
Speaker 1: If he repents, forgive him.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm going on.
Speaker 1: But he should never have told you these things.
Speaker 1: Number one they're a lie.
Speaker 1: That's not true.
Speaker 1: It's an exaggeration at best and mostly it's untrue.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm going to let him know that.
Speaker 1: And I did and he did and he did and he got it calmed down and Brother Osteen learned something about me.
Speaker 1: He learned that I'm not a marshmallow.
Speaker 1: Are y'all getting anything out of this tonight?
Speaker 1: Look at Malachi, chapter 4.
Speaker 1: We'll close with this.
Speaker 1: Getting late, everybody say the double portion.
Speaker 1: You know Pastor Osteen passed, I got the double portion.
Speaker 1: Now I'm not saying I've got his mantle, I'm not saying his anointing passed on me.
Speaker 1: I'm saying I got a double load of what I sowed Because he's got a lot of people that say they're his sons and all of that.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people that think they are.
Speaker 1: But I know I am and I know my position, that I had, and so I don't worry about what other people say or what other people received.
Speaker 1: I know what I received and this church has been the beneficiary of it.
Speaker 1: Malachi, chapter four and again it's so important about fathers and sons.
Speaker 1: Malachi four All right, my new Bible is sticking together.
Speaker 1: You can tell I haven't been in Malachi in a while.
Speaker 1: Verse five behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
Speaker 1: You know, a number of years ago God told me there's a dearth of the word.
Speaker 1: I said, lord, how is that?
Speaker 1: How is that December of 03.
Speaker 1: I said, lord, how is that December of 03?
Speaker 1: It's the dearth of the word.
Speaker 1: Right before we moved into this building, I was in the lobby when it was under construction.
Speaker 1: He just spoke that word.
Speaker 1: I said how can it be?
Speaker 1: There's church on every corner and what do you mean?
Speaker 1: There's the dearth of the word.
Speaker 1: Why is it so scarce?
Speaker 1: Why is there a scarcity?
Speaker 1: It's a famine of the word.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: He said, your children don't know what you know and I you know.
Speaker 1: I just took it as my children's church.
Speaker 1: I started making, but really, what he was talking about, it took me a while to really warm up to what he was talking about.
Speaker 1: He was talking about ahead of time, because we're living in that age right now.
Speaker 1: That's been 21 years ago, and so he was talking about the lack of fathers and sons in the ministry.
Speaker 1: He's talking about the lack of of sons giving honor to their fathers and being faithful to their fathers and, likewise, fathers to pour into their sons and and it's been a curse that's why so many churches have failed, that's why so many churches have closed, that's why so many pastors have left the ministry.
Speaker 1: A few years ago, it was like 4,500 churches would close in a year and only 1,000 new ones would open.
Speaker 1: And it's a little better now, but not much better.
Speaker 1: I don't have any figures right this moment.
Speaker 1: At one point in the 2000s I want to say about 2010, 1,800 pastors leave the ministry every month in America.
Speaker 1: 40% would not be in the ministry.
Speaker 1: In 10 more years, 65% would leave their position for similar pay outside the ministry.
Speaker 1: They're unhappy.
Speaker 1: See what is that a symptom?
Speaker 1: It's a symptom of not having a father.
Speaker 1: It's a symptom of fathers and sons that don't exist and that sounds terrible.
Speaker 1: Well, we're fixing to have a revival.
Speaker 1: The church is not.
Speaker 1: God's not through with the church.
Speaker 1: The church is about to burst open, the church is about to blow up, and I believe the revelation of fathers and sons is vital to our doing the right thing so that we can reap the benefit.
Speaker 1: We can reap this last final harvest, so we're reaping the benefits of the double portion.
Speaker 1: Come on, lift your hand and receive tonight Thank God for the double portion, the right of the firstborn.
Speaker 1: Hallelujah, did you get anything out of this tonight?
Speaker 1: It's kind of meat, I know, but that's the kind of church this is.
Speaker 1: It's a church that's benefited from the double portion, praise God.