Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Welcome to the leaders notebook with Dr. Mark Rutland. Dr. Rutland is a world renowned leadership expert. He is a New York Times best selling author and he has served as the president of two universities. The Leaders Notebook is brought to you by Global Servants. For more information about Global Servants, please Visit our website, globalservants.org Here is your host, Dr. Mark Rutland.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: All right, so let me sort of bring you up to speed on what this series is like. We're calling it also featured in the the concept is that often when we do character studies in the Bible, we only deal with the big people, Moses and Abraham and Paul the apostle. We don't talk about the lesser people, the people around them. I put it in terms of movies or television shows. So there's a movie about Wyatt Earp, but Doc Holliday is also mentioned in the cast.
And so what I'm trying to say is let's look at the people around some of these people. And each week I have mentioned character actors or actresses, if you will, that are in movies or shows. A lot of times we recognize their faces, but we don't even know their actual names. So I'm going to put three up that the first one I think you'll recognize is from the Seinfeld show. And second from the left. Whoops, wait just a minute, go back. Second from the left is Jason Alexander, the guy with the glasses on there, but he is better known as George Costanzas. And then you'll see Barney Fife is the next one with Andy Griffith. His name is Don Knotts.
And then I think you'll recognize the next one is Demond Wilson. You know Red Fox, and he was the show was Sanford and Son. Everybody knew Red Fox. Demond Wilson played Lamont, Red Fox's son. You might be interested to know that Damon Wilson is a very, very serious Christian and has written several books, as a matter of fact, since he left the Hollywood scene.
Now, in each of those shows, and I chose television shows this time instead of movies, but in each of those shows, none of those people were the deal. Jerry Seinfeld was the deal. Andy Griffith was the deal. Redd Fox was the deal. But the story couldn't have been told. There was no television show ever named Sanford. And the character of Barney Fife was absolutely indispensable to the homespun humor of the Andy Griffith Show. There couldn't have been an Andy Griffith show without Barney Fife. And there couldn't have been a Barney Fife without the actor who was Don Knotts. And by the way, you might be interested to know that Don Knotts and Andy Griffith were lifetime friends.
They.
They were friends after the show went. Went completely off the air. And when Don Knotts left the show, they kept trying other deputies, but none of the other deputies worked. There just wasn't a replacement for Barney Fife and Jason Alexander, who played George Costanzas on the Seinfeld Show.
He and Jerry Seinfeld were friends before the show started, and they were friends when it was over. So it's interesting, each of these three plays an indispensable role in a television show that wasn't theirs and in which they never starred. That's the concept of this whole series.
Tonight, we're going to talk about people around the great prophet, either Elijah. This is not a study of Elijah. This is a study of some of the people that are also mentioned in the cast of the Elijah movie. If you have your Bibles, if you'll take those and turn to 1 Kings, chapter 18, 1 Kings 18, and verse 17.
So let me just give you the backstory before we read this single verse.
The wicked king of the northern kingdom, Israel, you remember, this is after Israel is split. And the northern kingdom with its capital at Samaria up in the Jezreel Valley, is the king, There is Ahab, and the southern kingdom is Judah, with its capital at Jerusalem.
So Elijah deals mostly with the northern kingdom of Israel.
Now, the king Ahab been summoned out to meet Elijah the prophet. And when they meet Elijah, Ahab says to Elijah, verse 17, 1 Kings 18:17. And it came to pass when Ahab the wicked king, saw Elijah the prophet, that Ahab said unto him, art thou he that troubleth Israel.
Let's pray. Lord, in the next few moments, I pray that your spirit will deal with us. We thank you, Lord, that we are here to seek a word from you. We thank you for it in advance. In the wonderful name Jesus, the strong son of God. Amen.
When we think of Elijah, we immediately think as we ought to do of him as the great prophet, the dean of the prophets.
He was one of the. One of the great men of the entire Old Testament and really sort of the dean of the prophets.
We think of him as the righteous man. He could pray and seal up heaven. He could pray and make it rain. He could tuck up his garments and outrun the king's chariot. But those are all Elijah. We want to talk about some of the people around him.
How did they view Elijah?
Well, the first we've already read about is Ahab the king.
Ahab saw Elijah as a troublemaker.
Now, that is extremely important to understand when people descend into wickedness, those around them that stand fast for righteousness, which will be viewed as troublemakers.
Many years ago, I was a associate pastor at a Methodist church in Atlanta, in Decatur, to be precise.
And a married couple came to see me for.
Not really for counseling. He just wanted. The husband wanted me to tell the wife to do what he wanted.
He was.
The husband was not a Christian at all.
He was living in real wickedness.
But he had stumbled across Ephesians 5. 22.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your husbands as unto the Lord.
So they came to see me. The husband was strident and demanding, and the wife was broken. She was just weeping and. And she was. She was a broken woman.
He was wanting to join a wife swapping club in Decatur and wanted his wife to join with him and wanted me to tell her that she should do what he said because he was the head of the household and based on Ephesians 5 and 22, that. That she should do what. What he said.
And I said, sir, I need to tell you something.
I said, I want to tell you that you are trying to use the Bible in order to live in a way that totally and completely violates everything the Bible stands for. I not only will not tell your wife that she should obey you, I'm advising her to divorce you immediately.
I'm advising her to live in rebellion against your wickedness.
Your wickedness justifies her rebellion. In every other case, rebellion is under witchcraft. But when there is wickedness that prevails in the household, rebellion becomes righteousness.
He slammed his fist on my desk and he said, you're destroying my marriage.
And he got up and stormed out of the house, out of the office.
She was just weeping and weeping, and she said, what do you think I should do? I said, sister, listen to me.
He's done for.
I said, I'm not saying that there couldn't come something, some breakthrough from God, something could happen. But I said, that man is totally committed to the kind of debauchery and wickedness, and he is determined to drag you into it. I said, I plead with you, flee the wrath to come.
I will never forget that man screaming at me, you. You are ruining my marriage.
When people are dedicated to wickedness, those who are committed to righteousness look like troublemakers.
When. When we pray, those who hate prayer will hate us.
The Ahabs of this world are those who have so compromised to such Ahab had in order to pacify his gentile wife, Jezebel. We're Coming to her in order to pacify her, he had compromised the entire country. He had built temples for her and for her God, baal. And in order to pacify her and keep his wife happy, he was entirely polluting the culture and righteousness and religion of Judaism in the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
There is a woman in California.
She has just been fired from her job.
She is a middle school physical education teacher in California named Jessica Tapia.
She was asked, ordered, I should say, to lie to parents about their children who were quote, unquote, transitioning from one gender to the next.
She was to hide that from parents, and she refused because of her Christian faith.
The superintendent for human relations for that county school board wrote her, among other things, this, which I'm going to read to you now.
Based on your religious beliefs, you cannot be dishonest with parents.
Consequently, the district will release you from your employment effective at the end of the day, January 31st.
He Straight out admits it.
Your religion keeps you from being dishonest with parents. Therefore, we're going to fire you because it is the stated policy of the school board that you be dishonest.
In other words, he says, art thou, he, she, that troubleth California?
Yes.
I want to share something with you tonight.
I pray that even from this small room and this number here tonight, that God will raise up troublemakers for America.
I don't know.
I don't know everything that's going on at the extended meetings at Asbury College in Wilmore. I have long history with Asbury and love it very much. I've preached up there in the old days and have been there, and my sister attended there, graduated from there. So I'm familiar with Asbury College and I don't know all that's happening there. Maybe it's going to be an extended season of worship or something.
Here's what I believe.
If it comes to anything, I pray that God will raise up from that meeting or for those who attend that meeting, those who trouble America.
America needs to be troubled.
It needs to be disturbed by those who say, I will not lie, I will not steal, I will not cheat. I don't care if it is the policy or the procedure manual or. Or if it is the end of my job. My faith will not allow me to do those things.
She would not allow.
I don't mean to shock you, but she said, furthermore, because she's a physical education teacher, she would not let. How can I say this? In a worship service, she would not let boys who are anatomically boys, disrobe in the girls locker room, she troubled California.
I don't know Jessica Tapia, but my heart goes out to her because she is a troublemaker to those she's considered a troublemaker.
When there are school boards that want to allow pornography to be put in school libraries and hide it from the parents, the parents who show up at school boards and demand transparency and to have an effectual voice in the education of their children, they are denounced as troublemakers.
Ahab hates righteousness and considers it to be troublemakers.
The more compromised they are, the more troublesome you appear to them.
Those of you in this room, you just need to hear me. Everybody wants to be liked. Everybody wants to be loved. Nobody wants to be called bad names and hated by society and despised by culture. I know nobody grooves on that. But what I need to say to you tonight is that the more dedicated to Christ you become and the more adversarial to Christ culture becomes, the more you just look like a troublemaker.
It's not simply that they admire and respect your faith and say, okay, that's fine. And if they love the Lord, that's their view. That's their idea. That is no longer the case in many places and in many circles in America, and it's no longer the case of the federal government.
And it is that if you stand for righteousness, for holiness, if you stand for the reality of what the Christian family is supposed to be, to know what is being poured into our children, you will be considered and denounced.
Troublemaker.
The spirit of Ahab is loose in the world.
And those who stand against it, those who pray like Elijah prayed, those who live as Elijah lived, those who love the Lord that Eli, that Elijah loved. Elijah was not considered a hero by Ahab.
He wasn't considered a great prophetic voice.
Ahab never even doubted his power with God.
Elijah prayed, and the heaven was sealed. It did not rain until Elijah prayed again. When Elijah prayed again, it began to rain. And Elijah said to Ahab, get in your chariot and drive for Jezreel, because it's going to rain so much that the wheels of your chariot will bog down in the. In the flood that's to come. And you better. You better get in that chariot and go. And Elijah and Ahab. The king got in his chariot, told the driver to go, and they ran straight, straight up the Jezreel Valley from Mount Carmel. I've been there many times. Ran up the Jezreel Valley from Mount Carmel up to Samaria. And the old prophet tucked up his robe and out Ran the chariot.
Ahab the king never denied that.
He never denied that Elijah could seal up heaven and make the rain never to come. He never denied that he could pray again and make it rain. He never denied that he would prophesy a flood. He never even denied that under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, it could outrun the chariot. The only thing he said was, it makes trouble for me.
And I just need you to hear tonight. The spirit of Ahab denounces the spirit of righteousness as making trouble.
Now, the problem with Ahab is not simply that it denounces righteousness.
It opens the door for a spirit that is worse.
So the worst spirit than Ahab is Jezebel.
Ahab views Elijah as a troublemaker.
Jezebel, Ahab's Syrophoenician wife, a Gentile to which this Jewish king should never have been married to her to start with.
But Jezebel views Elijah as a mortal enemy.
Now, that's the next step.
The first step is to be denounced as a troublemaker.
The next step is as Jezebel said. She said, I will do everything it takes, anything it takes for you to be killed.
The spirit of Jezebel sees the spirit of Elijah as a mortal enemy.
She was a true cultural corrupter.
She was a dedicated idolatress.
She worshiped other idols.
I want to say something to you about idolatry. In the American scene, there are two kinds of idolatry.
One is to worship a false God, a golden calf, an idol of some kind.
Jezebel's case, baal.
That is a kind of idolatry. We don't have a huge amount of that in America. Unless you want to say we idolize our money or we idolize the stock market or something like that. But it's not really. We don't. Nobody really. A few really build a golden calf and worship it.
There's another kind of idolatry, and that is not to worship another God, but to worship God as other than he is.
When you hear language that talks about reimaging God, re understanding, we're going to change God to be the God we want him to be. We want God to look in our shape. We're going to remake God in our own image to align with our culture.
That is blatant idolatry.
Idolatry can be to worship a false God. It can be to worship God as other than he is.
Baal, you might be interested to know this is the Canaanite God that she worshiped. BAAL actually means the owner.
There is something of that in other languages.
In Take, for example, in the English court, somebody might say lords and ladies.
So someone might bow before a duke or an earl or something and say, my lord. He doesn't really mean the lord God of the universe. He means the lord of the manor, the owner of the area.
We do the same thing in Spanish, senor, but you might also say Senor Martinez. It can mean Mr. Or Lord, and in many languages, in Swahili, it is buena, and we can say buena Johnson, or we can say buena, the lord.
But BAAL was considered the owner, the lord of everything, the owner.
So the worship of BAAL was the absolute separation from the true God who made everything, everything.
Let me rephrase that. Many of the things that are happening today in the wicked elements of American culture, and I know this is a bit of a cutting edge prophetic teaching tonight, but I felt moved to say this tonight.
Many of the things, and it's just an example, but it is an example.
But I'm not trying to preach to the peanut gallery tonight. I'm just trying to give you an example.
The whole issue of transitioning sexually, of just saying I'm not going to be a man anymore, I'm going to be a female, or vice versa, is actually a denial of the ownership of God.
It is fundamentally denouncing that God who is the maker and owner of the universe. And it substitutes not some Canaanite God, baal. It makes me BAAL of my own life. I am the owner, my life.
It is absolute idolatry and it will spring forth.
I feel like I'm trying to frighten you tonight. I don't mean to do that, but what I'm trying to say to you is this.
The level of anger toward the spirit of righteousness is directly proportional to the depth of the idolatry.
The deeper a country, a culture or a society sinks into BAAL worship, to worship the owner, whatever that owner is, may not be some golden statue, but whatever, whatever the extent to which a society or a culture or nation sinks into having any other owner than the Lord God, as that idolatry deepens, the anger will rise and eventually can become murderous.
I'm just saying, apart from some kind of a genuine move of God in Western culture as the idolatry of self ownership, governmental ownership, by the way, if the government is the Lord of your life, or if you are the Lord of your life, whatever BAAL arises in your life, though you may not bow down, not you one, one may not bow down and worship a Statue of baal but you. But one substitutes the.
The absolute ownership of the Creator God of the universe.
To whatever extent that substitute happens, the anger will rise in direct proportion.
When you hear voices of anger rising to a fever pitch, beware.
Beware. Because the next step is not simply that you are a troublemaker. It is that you are a mortal enemy.
There are people, I just want to tell you this whether you know it or not, and I don't mean to shake you, but there are people that right now do not consider you a neutral antique in the Western culture.
They consider you not only a troublemaker, but a mortal enemy. That everything you stands for, that everything you stand for and all that our faith stands for is contrary to, to what they want in the ownership of this country.
And that they will view you eventually, they will view the righteous as mortal enemies and mortal has to do with life and death.
That's probably not what you want to hear on a Wednesday night, but I think we need to brace ourselves in this country that, that the voices of self ownership that deny the ownership and sovereignty of the Lord God will rise in anger as their idolatry deepens.
Now, there's a third person that's in the Elijah movie, and that is Elisha, who followed him his.
In modern terms, modern church terms, he's the associate pastor of, who became the pastor when Elijah retired.
He's the student, he's his mentee.
How did. If Ahab views Elijah as a troublemaker and Jezebel viewed him as a mortal enemy and swore that she would have him killed, how did Elisha view Elijah?
First of all, he viewed him with frank admiration.
He was a great prophet, a great man, a man with signal power with God that could pray and cause a drought, pray again and cause a flood, who was a man of incredible authority with God.
Elisha admired and honored Elijah.
He approved of him, but he did not envy him.
We're going to come to that, but I want you to just mark that word down. He never envied what Elijah had. He admired what Elijah had.
Secondly, he served Elijah.
The first description of Elisha, the, the prophet who followed Elijah, the first description we have, it just simply refers to him as him who poured water on Elijah's hands.
So it means that he began, you know, whether they didn't have faucets.
So he put his hands over a basin and somebody would come with a jug of water and pour hand water over his hands.
So the spirit of servanthood, Elisha viewed Elijah as someone that he wanted to serve.
He poured Water over his hands.
Third, he wanted to learn from Elijah and emulate him.
He wanted to learn how to be a man of God. He wanted to learn how to be a prophet of God. He wanted to learn how to move in the supernatural power of God.
And so he not only learned from him spiritually or theologically or in terms of knowledge and understanding, he learned from him in the operation of the supernatural.
But finally, this is the remarkable thing and the good thing about being a mentor.
Elisha surpassed Elijah.
Elijah is the more famous of the two names.
But in point of fact, if you consider the miracle, the miraculous nature of their two ministries, Elisha's is greater.
Elisha is more powerful. He does greater things than Elijah did.
When Elisha realizes through the power of the Holy Spirit that Elijah is about to come to the end of his ministry, Elisha gloms on to Elijah and he says, I'm not letting you out of my sight.
Elijah keeps testing him.
He says, stay here. I need to go across the Jordan to the other side.
And Elisha says, I'm coming with you. You can't get rid of me.
As they get to the bank of the Jordan river, there are all these prophets.
And the Word of God, the Spirit of God has made it clear to all of them that the time of Elijah's ministry is over. They don't know what it means.
They just know that Elijah's ministry is coming to an end. And so they say to Elisha, do you realize your boss is leaving? He's finished.
And he says, stay here. I know. Stay here.
Elijah parts the Jordan river and they walk across. He and Elisha walk across to the other side, and Elijah says, what do you want? I'm leaving.
What do you want? Listen to what Elisha says.
He says, I want a double portion of the anointing. That's on you.
That's a very complicated phrase in Hebrew.
And I do want to say to you, it's not altogether clear that the English rendering is. That is the right portion is the right translation. It could just mean the fullness.
The fullness of the amount.
But even if it means a double portion, he's not asking out of envy. Remember I said he doesn't envy him. What he's saying is, I want to go even further in kingdom things than you have.
That is actually what we want from our followers, from our class, from our teachers.
I probably shouldn't use personal examples, but our son just begun new ministry at a church in Cartersville, and I got a text from somebody at the church. The other day. And they said, you better watch it. He's great.
He's going to pass you.
And I texted him back and said, please, God.
Please, God. What would make me any happier? What would make me more excited than for every person I've ever. To whom I've ever preached, or any person I've ever taught, or any student, the thousands of students at two different universities. What would make me happier than for every one of them to accomplish far more than I have in my paltry little ministry? I would be thrilled with that.
But Elijah says, okay, now you've asked a tough thing.
That's tough.
But he says, if you see me when I go up, if you see me when I go up, God will grant your prayer.
The next thing that happens is one of the most misunderstood things in the Bible.
There comes chariot of Fire, and it comes through even. There is an even a gospel song that talks about Elijah going up in the chariot. He doesn't get in the chariot.
The chariot comes through and comes between Elijah and Elisha.
So it says, the separation is happening.
Elijah's moving into another dimension.
But if Elisha lets his eyes follow the chariot, if he becomes distracted by this supernatural occurrence when Elijah goes up, his prayer won't be answered.
But he keeps his eyes on Elijah. And Elijah doesn't go up in the chariot. He goes up in a whirlwind.
But Elisha sees him the whole way. He. And as he goes up, his cape or his mantle falls to the ground, a symbol, my authority and my ministry have fallen on you.
And Elisha picks it up and goes out to the Jordan river, which they have just crossed dry shod.
And on the other side are those 400 prophets.
And they see only Elisha. They know Elijah's gone. They don't know what happened in there, but they know Elijah's gone. And they're looking at Elisha and they're wondering, is he the new prophet? Is he the one? Is he the one?
And Elisha takes the mantle of Elijah and slaps it down on the river. And he says, where is the God of Israel?
Where is the God of Elijah?
In the water parts.
And Elisha walks in to the supernatural ministry that God has given him. And truly a double portion of the anointing that was on Elijah.
Let me give you a little strange thing as we start to come to a conclusion. Jezebel, her name in the canonidish language would actually be Jezebel.
And it means, where is the prince?
Where is the prince?
Now, here's what it comes from it comes from a worship experience in the cult of baal.
They believed that through part of the year, BAAL descended into the underground, and until he would come back again, they would go into the temple of BAAL and cry out, yes, Abel, where is the prince?
Where is the prince?
Summoning BAAL to come back up.
Elisha says, where is the God of Israel?
And God parts the water.
Our prayer of faith, 21st century, unshaken and undeterred and unafraid by the dreadful atmosphere in which we find ourselves, where a schoolteacher can be fired in a written letter because your religion keeps you from lying to the parents, you're fired.
We're in strange territory, young people.
Are you listening to me?
We're in serious times.
Here's what I would say.
Where is the God of Israel?
Let God arise and his enemies be scattered.
We have nothing to fear.
We have nothing to fear if we are to be taken or marched away to concentration camps or fired from our jobs or to suffer. We must count it all joy that we have been chosen, worthy to suffer for God.
But we dare not compromise. We dare not give in to the spirit of Ahab. We dare not hide from the spirit of Jezebel. But we must ask, oh, God, in this day, in this age, we thank you for the things you've done in the past. We thank you for the revivals you've sent. We thank you for the great preachers. We thank you for the great ministries. We need a double portion.
We need more, God, we need more. And we need courage and faith and joy, unspeakable and full of glory.
We need this in the present age.
The spirit of Ahab sees the people of God as troublemakers.
The spirit of Jezebel is the next step down.
She sees the people of God as mortal enemies, the enemies of life and death.
She sees us as an existential threat to everything she believes and stands for.
The spirit of Elisha, in the face of both of those things, says, give me a double portion.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we confess to you we've never been this way before.
We've never seen these things, God. We know there are countries where horrible things are happening, where people are being persecuted.
We know that things like this happen in communist China. We know that, God. We read the newspaper. But, God, we're seeing things in our country we've never seen before.
We confess to you, God. Maybe we've stood around and let it happen. Maybe we're to blame. God, we confess not asking you to hide us. We're asking you to make us bold.
We're not asking you to shelter us. We're asking you to give us a double portion.
I pray God, that the spirit of Ahab in this world will see troublemakers everywhere.
And, Lord, I pray that the spirit of Jezebel that would threaten us and would hate us with a mortal hatred, that we would stand bold and unafraid.
And, Lord, that like Elisha, we would pray whatever thing you put on Billy Graham, whatever you put on Oral Roberts, whatever you put on Dwight L. Moody, whatever you put on Spurgeon, Lord, we're not asking for that. We're asking for more than that, and we believe you for it. In the wonderful name Jesus, the strong son of God, Amen. Amen and amen. Well, praise the Lord in the house. Go on and magnify the Lord.
I hope.
I hope that you won't see that teaching as a downer.
It's not my job tonight to frighten the wits out of Christians. That's not what I'm trying to say.
I just feel that in the interest of prophetic clarity, we have to be honest about where we are and what we're facing. That's all I'm trying to say tonight. But I'm saying we face it unafraid.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: You've been listening to the leader's notebook with Dr. Mark Rutland. You can follow Dr. Rutland on x@dr. Mark Rutland, or visit his website, Dr.markrutland.com where you can find information about his materials and his app. Join us next week for another episode of the Leader's Notebook.
