Elijah’s Legacy: Faithfulness, Fruitfulness & Finishing Well - S22E8

Summary

Podcast Summary: Elijah’s Legacy — Faithfulness, Fruitfulness & Finishing Well

Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin, S22E8 | September 8, 2025
Host: Pastor Joby Martin
Guests: Pastors Brett, Britt, and Chris

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Overview

In this episode, Pastor Joby Martin and his team of pastors (Brett, Britt, and Chris) engage in a heartfelt and theologically rich conversation to conclude their series on Elijah. They explore Elijah's enduring legacy through themes of faithfulness, fruitfulness, gospel-centered goodbyes, leadership succession, and the importance of finishing well. The discussion weaves together biblical insights, personal anecdotes, and practical applications for church leaders and believers alike.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Saturated Week and Obedience to God's Word

• The episode opens with light-hearted banter around "Saturated Week," a church event focused on immersing in God's Word and presence (01:17–01:55).
• Pastor Chris: "Get saturated in his presence and his word with his people. That's just it...the Lord is on the move around here, so don't miss it." (01:25)

2. Gospel Goodbyes — The Pain and Power of Healthy Farewells

• Exploring the concept of “gospel goodbyes,” the pastors discuss the bittersweet necessity of sending out leaders for kingdom expansion, drawing on Elijah and Elisha’s separation as a model (02:00–08:55).
• Pastor Britt: "Very few things in life are forever. And so I've had a lot of really great seasons that have been good gospel ministry, good gospel friendship, gospel brotherhood...that season came to an end, and we moved on to the next thing and praise God for it." (04:51)

3. Multiplication Versus Comfort in Church Life

• Discussion shifts to why many churches resist multiplication and prefer “holy huddles,” often rooted in a cultural pursuit of comfort instead of kingdom risk (08:00–09:22).
• Pastor Chris: "We are obsessed with comfort...And the gospel is the opposite of that. The gospel is going." (08:17)

4. Hearing God's Voice — Lessons from Elijah

• Drawing from James's description of Elijah as “a man like us,” the team tackles the modern challenge of “hearing God” amidst life's noise (09:22–11:54).
• Pastor Chris: "If you aren't hearing God, do you think it's because he's not speaking, or is it because your life's too loud to hear him?...We need to consistently put ourselves in the kind of environments where God's voice is the loudest." (09:22)

5. Legacy and Remembrance — The Power of Looking Back

• Elijah’s final journey with Elisha to key historic sites is seen as a model for cultivating remembrance and trust in God’s faithfulness (13:25–16:09).
• Pastor Chris: "He just takes him to place after place...where the faithfulness of God was just on the big screen. Like, remember this, remember this...because in just a minute I'm going to be gone. And I need you to remember God is faithful." (14:02)

6. Personal Legacy — The Story of Gretchen’s Granddad

• Pastor Joby tells a moving story of his wife's grandfather, a first-generation Christian and church planter, whose faithfulness has had multigenerational kingdom impact (16:22–22:11).
• Pastor Chris: "The reason you know Jesus is because that man taught me about Jesus...that's what I want with my life when I die." (18:31)

7. Faithfulness AND Fruitfulness — Untangling a Theological Tension

• Robust discussion resolves the misconception that God values faithfulness at the expense of fruitfulness; rather, the two are deeply intertwined (23:40–29:15).
• Pastor Chris: "So God, God wants fruitfulness. It's just up to him. Faithfulness, like our obedience is up to us, you know, and so the, the well done part is good and faithful." (24:49)
• Pastor Britt: "How do you separate faithful and fruitful? ...If you are unfaithful, it will not be fruitful." (25:02, 26:03)

8. The Role of Humility and Submission in Leadership Succession

• Drawing parallels between Elijah/Elisha and real-life pastoral succession, the team emphasizes humility, submitting to authority, and the dangers of self-promotion (33:03–38:37).
• Pastor Chris: "If you find yourself in the second seat of what God's doing and you're trying to nudge out the first, you're working against the Lord...God will not bless disobedience." (33:03)
• Pastor Britt: "You just got to be willing to go all in with someone...somebody else has got to be the loudest voice in my life in regards to important decisions." (36:48)

9. Anointing and the Holy Spirit’s Uniqueness

• The difference between God’s specific anointing and general gifting is discussed, noting that obedience leads to the Spirit’s empowerment for exponential impact (47:27–48:31).
• Pastor Britt: "Anointing is the power the Holy Spirit gives for a gift to function with ease, for exponential impact." (47:42)

10. Perspective — The Key to Enduring Hardship and Staying Faithful

• The pastors reflect on the importance of seeing life's challenges through a God-centered perspective (51:07–53:51).
• Pastor Chris: "If you could see this from my perspective, you wouldn't be worried...sheep get worried because they can't see far. And the shepherd is up above and can be like, no, we're good." (51:34)

11. Finishing Well — The Ultimate Testimony

• A central motif in the episode: finishing the race faithfully, drawing inspiration from Elijah, Paul, and personal mentors (61:27–64:57).
• Pastor Chris: "I just figured out how to be the greatest pastor in America...We just gotta finish. That's it, dude. That is it. And to God be the glory, whatever the results are." (63:26)
• Pastor Britt: "I think Elijah legitimately saw God as worth it...If that cost him his life. Worth it. And he lived that his life that way." (60:41)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Timestamp | Speaker | Quote/Highlight | |-----------|------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:25 | Pastor Chris | "Get saturated in his presence and his word with his people. That's just it." | | 14:02 | Pastor Chris | "Remember this, remember this...because in just a minute I'm going to be gone. And I need you to remember God is faithful." | | 18:31 | Pastor Chris | "The reason you know Jesus is because that man taught me about Jesus...that's what I want with my life when I die." | | 25:02 | Pastor Britt | "How do you separate faithful and fruitful?...If you are unfaithful, it will not be fruitful." | | 33:03 | Pastor Chris | "If you find yourself in the second seat...and you're trying to nudge out the first, you are...working against the Lord." | | 47:42 | Pastor Britt | "Anointing is the power the Holy Spirit gives for a gift to function with ease, for exponential impact." | | 51:34 | Pastor Chris | "A lot of Jesus's teaching on worry could be summed up like, if you could see this from my perspective, you wouldn't be worried." | | 63:26 | Pastor Chris | "We just gotta finish. That's it, dude. That is it. And to God be the glory, whatever the results are." |

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Saturated Week & Church Culture: 01:17–01:55
• Gospel Goodbyes: 02:00–08:55
• Comfort vs. Multiplication: 08:00–09:22
• Hearing God Amidst the Noise: 09:22–11:54
• Elijah’s Legacy Journey: 13:25–16:09
• Gretchen’s Granddad Story: 16:22–22:11
• Faithfulness & Fruitfulness: 23:40–29:15
• Leadership, Authority & Succession: 33:03–38:37
• Anointing & Gifting: 47:27–48:31
• Walking, Pace, and Perspective: 51:07–53:51
• Finishing Well: 61:27–64:57

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Takeaways and Practical Application

• Pursue faithfulness and trust God for fruit: Faithfulness to the assignment precedes visible fruit, which is ultimately God’s responsibility (24:49).
• Don’t fear gospel goodbyes: Healthy sending is integral to kingdom multiplication, even if it’s painful (06:10).
• Submit to godly authority: Leadership rises from humility and willingness, not self-promotion (33:03, 36:48).
• Legacy is built on everyday faithfulness: The unseen acts of devotion have incalculable impact on future generations (18:31).
• Aim to finish well: No matter your past, perseverance is what matters most (63:26).

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Final Reflection

The episode closes with a challenge to embrace the example of Elijah: Do the next faithful thing, invest in others, resist comparison, seek the Lord’s voice above the world’s noise, and finish the race for God’s glory. Listeners are reminded that legacy is not measured in immediate results but in decades of faithfulness, often seen only in retrospect.

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For church leaders and believers seeking encouragement, practical wisdom, and a reminder of the high calling of gospel ministry, this conversation delivers both depth and heart. Elijah’s story is echoed in everyday choices—just do what the Lord says, leave the fruit to Him, and persevere to the end.

Transcript

[Pastor Joby Martin]

Welcome to Deepen with Pastor Joby Martin. The Church of 1122 is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. And we're praying this message helps you deepen your relationship with him. Now let's dive in.

[Pastor Brett]

What up? It's saturated week.

[Pastor Chris]

Let's go. That's why I have this really big T shirt.

[Pastor Britt]

Was that your. Was that your excited face, Finky?

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah, I don't have one. Oh, maybe I do, but. You mean to make it again?

[Pastor Chris]

No.

[Pastor Britt]

Yeah, let's do it one more time.

[Pastor Brett]

Not now. I'm gonna, like, get juked out.

[Pastor Britt]

Oh, okay.

[Pastor Chris]

All right.

[Pastor Britt]

Well, I don't want you to take yourself out.

[Pastor Chris]

Saturated week.

[Pastor Brett]

I love saturated.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah, you're not a hype gum. Well, but we've got merch.

[Pastor Brett]

We do have merch. Buy yourself some merch early if you.

[Pastor Chris]

Want a real big T shirt. This is my normal size, right? It is. It's. It's just the extra large pro tip.

[Pastor Brett]

Size it down.

[Pastor Britt]

Size it down.

[Pastor Chris]

Size only in this one. The other ones are, you know, normal.

[Pastor Britt]

Hey, you got a whole new round of swag coming your way, buddy.

[Pastor Chris]

I get.

[Pastor Britt]

Yeah, it's going to be L on the back.

[Pastor Chris]

Let's go.

[Pastor Britt]

You can be. You can go, like, all, you know, tight, tight, tight on the arms, you.

[Pastor Chris]

Know, I like this. This is good. Sleep in it.

[Pastor Brett]

You said, Pastor Joby, that the. One of the defining characteristics of Elijah is that he did what the word of the Lord said. And so saturated is all about that is to just hear the word of the Lord, right?

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah. Get saturated in his presence and his word with his people. That's just it. You know, I wish I was smart enough to could take credit for planning the series on. In the arena into Elijah, into saturated. But it does seem like we have been on this ramp towards something really, really big. And, yeah, the Lord is on the move around here, so don't miss it.

[Pastor Brett]

And we want the fire to fall, Right?

[Pastor Chris]

That's right. That is right.

[Pastor Brett]

Amen. We're wrapping up our Elijah series. It's not about how you start. It's how you finish. I want to ask a question. We have a phrase. You didn't talk about it tonight, but gospel goodbyes. And this kind of the end was where you ended when Elijah is taken up in the chariot. But what's a gospel goodbye? And then what's. What's a hard one you've had to say in ministry?

[Pastor Chris]

I'm not good at this because I need very, very, very few people in my life to feel very content, and I have them. So I've had dear friends that I've done ministry with that I love dearly. And then when they gone, then I'm just kind of like, I just move on to the next thing very quickly. And that's terrible, isn't it?

[Pastor Brett]

Well, it reminds me of what Elisha was saying, which is like, oh, I don't want to. I'm not gonna let you out of.

[Pastor Britt]

My sight, because I'm gonna tell you.

[Pastor Chris]

I mean, we've told the story about getting into church 11, 22, 10,000 times. I was like Elisha to Elijah with Pastor Jerry. When he first had the idea, he was like, maybe we should think about planting a church. I was like, let's don't do that. I. How about I just work for you? Like, you just stay here, you know, been like a father in the ministry to me, and I'll just. We'll just do that. But then when he pulled the trigger and said, no, this is. This is what we need to do, that I was ready to go. But. But, you know, I don't know, man. I don't. In fact, I had to send out a text to my two of my Mac carriers and be like, guys, I hate to do this, but I'm going to have to get my team to start scheduling regular time with us because we haven't really hung out in. Jeff got a new job, and Charles moved out of the hood. And so we. We had. We don't just bump into each other like we used to. And if I don't consciously make that happen, I'll just be totally okay only bumping into the people that I'm supposed to do life with every once in a while. Does that make sense?

[Pastor Britt]

For sure.

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah.

[Pastor Chris]

So on the one hand, I'm an easy friend because I could not see somebody, like, honestly, like Pastor Brittany. It's funny. People on staff think we are, like, bosom buddies. We. We hardly ever see each other. It's crazy. But when we do, it's just like, we have been hanging out our whole life. We just kind of pick it up. So there's positives and negatives. If you. If a person needs me constantly to keep up with them, it's. I'm gonna be a hard one to be close to. You know what I mean?

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah.

[Pastor Chris]

Because I've got, like, my. You know, my wife and my kids were real tight. And then I got some people I love dearly, but if I don't see them for a long time, it Kind of doesn't bother me too bad.

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah, that's.

[Pastor Britt]

Yeah. There's certainly some names I could say. I probably won't, just because it goes on the interwebs and I. But the. This same reality, I think. You know, I think. I think it is. It's friendships, people you care deeply about. But very few things in life are forever. Very few things are forever. And so I've had a lot of really great seasons that have been good gospel ministry, good gospel friendship, gospel brotherhood and community that came to that season, came to an end, and we moved on to the next thing and praise God for it. And sometimes you don't even realize the gospel goodbye is happening, you know, or you think it's like, oh, well, no, it's fine. It's going to stay the same, even though things are different, but it's not going to stay the same.

[Pastor Chris]

And so I'm more proud of what so, like, take. It's not like me and Todd Hickox are hanging out all day, every day. I. I have been nothing but pleased by the incredible role he has played here at 11:22, you know, and from it, just from like, earthly speaking as a. We don't use this terminology around here. As a boss, hate to lose him, but, dude, I'm nothing but pumped for that guy to go and plant a church. You know what I mean?

[Pastor Brett]

You know, his core team's meeting already without him, like, before he got there.

[Pastor Chris]

Good.

[Pastor Brett]

They were meeting.

[Pastor Chris]

Good. Good. Yeah.

[Pastor Britt]

Those kind of gospel goodbyes. I'm actually really hopeful and prayerful. Say we're going to say a lot more of them, you know, that we have a run here where we're able to raise up. Just like we were talking about tonight. We're able to raise up the generation.

[Pastor Chris]

Let's go, man.

[Pastor Britt]

Of pastors and preachers and kingdom contributors out there that are just doing all kinds of good gospel work, and they're here for a season to get filled up and learn whatever God's got for them, and then they go on, praise God. Like those kind of gospel goodbyes, man. The more the merrier.

[Pastor Chris]

No doubt.

[Pastor Britt]

You know?

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah. The way I understand it is that the gospel multiplies.

[Pastor Chris]

Right.

[Pastor Brett]

And it is natural that we're gonna have to say, well, you got to go over here, and I got to go over here to be obedient to God.

[Pastor Chris]

And Elisha cried for a second.

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah. And you said that he said his sadness was appropriate.

[Pastor Chris]

No problem. Even when it's God's plan and on God's timing and God's purpose. You can cry a little bit. It's fun, for sure.

[Pastor Britt]

Yeah. We met with a. A guy today that's going to be new to the staff and served here for a season and went through a ministry internship here, much like what John Lammy referenced in the video this week, the School of Ministry internship. Praise God. And then he spent a year, a little more than a year, serving as, like, a volunteer executive pastor at one of the churches that we planted out of here. And so he left this fellowship week in and week out to go and serve faithfully at a new budding church plant, which I'm just like, as a volunteer, more or less, with a lot of responsibility. I was like, man, that's just. That's just really awesome, you know, so the more of that kind of thing we got going on, the healthier and better it is.

[Pastor Chris]

You know, the other thing, too, if you cut me, I bleed evangelism, not fellowship. So I. I rarely wake up in the morning thinking about what has been. I almost always think about what's coming. And so my wiring is about where we're going, future, future relationships. You know what I mean?

[Pastor Brett]

But why does it seem. Why do you think it seems pretty common for churches to want to do the holy huddle thing? I mean, maybe not ours, but, like, you know, churches in general, we've probably been a part of some that. That whether it's to the. The idea that, hey, we've grown enough because we.

[Pastor Chris]

Because we are obsessed with comfort.

[Pastor Britt]

Yeah, it's just easier.

[Pastor Chris]

It is baked into the American dream. I mean, what is the pursuit of happiness if it's not comfort? You know, it's not the pursuit of adventure.

[Pastor Brett]

Right.

[Pastor Chris]

And it was almost life, liberty and personal property. And so we equate money with happy, with comfort. And everything we do is try to insulate us. And the gospel is the opposite of that. The gospel is going and, you know, gospel goodbyes for the advancement of the kingdom. So it's very normal and natural to. To want to do that.

[Pastor Britt]

And I think we're talking about it peer to peer in most of our relationships or these. These guys, Elijah and Elisha. This was very much a supernatural kinship. Paul, Timothy, father, son kind of thing, you know, and so it was a huge part of it. Straight up. They just loved each other. They just. It wasn't just that they appreciated each other for what they brought to the ministry into the season. They, like, they really loved each other. And so there's a lot going on there.

[Pastor Brett]

You also mentioned, Pastor, that in James he says, elijah is a man like us. And so you. One of the things you said, if you aren't hearing God, do you think it's because he's not speaking, or is it because your life's too loud to hear him? And again, Elijah seemed to hear God regularly. So what is it about? What made him able to hear it?

[Pastor Chris]

Well, at one point, God had to go put him in a cave because he wasn't listening, because he was. Ears were full of fear and he was believing the lies. His fear was, you know, fear's a liar. And fear was telling him, jezebel is stronger than God. Your days are done. You should just pray to die. And so God was like, all right, I'm taking you to this cave, and I got to turn down the noise of the earth or the world so that you can hear me. Because the thing is, is that John, then Jesus says, he's the good shepherd. It just says, my sheep hear my voice. Not, might not, ought to not sometimes. Then he says, a stranger's voice, they will not follow. If that's not convicting, then you should take the Bible more seriously, because I. We all follow strangers voices. We follow ads that we see. We follow the opinions of others. We follow popular culture. We. We follow some lie we grew up believing. And we need to consistently put ourselves in the kind of environments where God's voice is the loudest. Pastor Britt and I say it all the time. We run what. We run a bunch of retreats for adults around here. And we say the problem with adult discipleship is adults quit going to camp. And what we mean by that is you've got to get into a different environment, have a different normal. Turn down the noise of the world, turn off your phone, turn down the distractions so that you can tune your ear in to hear God. That is what saturated is, by the way. And sometimes at one, an hour and a half on a weekend service, it just ain't enough to stick. You got to. You got to do it a bunch of days in a row, you know, and that's what it is. Like, saturated for us is getting in that cave so that we can hear the still small voice of God, so that not. So that we can stay in saturated and just sit and soak like a sponge that doesn't squeeze out is nasty. Like the Dead Sea is dead because it doesn't. There's no output. So we don't do saturated for saturated sake. We get saturated in the presence of God. So then we can go do like Paul says. And pour ourselves out for the sake of the gospel.

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah. Don't just show up for one night of saturated. I mean, like, I. I have really learned that over the years that the cumulative effect of the gathering, the worship time, the hearing of the word, it really makes a big difference.

[Pastor Chris]

It's a journey, too. So it's amazing how the spirit of God puts it all together, because all I do is tell the preachers. I'm like, y' all just preach. Just whatever you want to do. Talk about Jesus, talk as long as you want to. We. You are going to be in front of some hungry, thirsty people for the presence of God. Ready, Break. And then. It's crazy how he weaves it together. Yeah. Like we planned it.

[Pastor Brett]

You know, speaking of listening to ads, one of my algorithms really got a hold of my being over 40 now and needing to get some of these special items that help you not be sore. I've got all these little. Like, this will help you stretch, and this will help you not have pain on the. You know, I get a.

[Pastor Chris]

A rp, man. This is yours.

[Pastor Britt]

Thank you. Something today about putting an onion in my sock.

[Pastor Chris]

Oh, yeah, I saw that. You wrap it up in, like, Saran Wrap and onions. What am I doing? You're gonna be single. You might feel good by yourself. I feel great.

[Pastor Britt]

Really.

[Pastor Brett]

It's the thing.

[Pastor Chris]

I don't have anybody to talk to about it, but, man. Yeah. Like, sucks the toxins out of the bottom of your feet, maybe. Or it might give you cancer. You never know. A week.

[Pastor Brett]

So let's talk about this reverse tour that he. I mean, we talked so many about, so many details about the life of Elijah. But then when he's about to go, I spent a lot of time on that. But he. He does something that might not seem obvious at first. He. He goes to these different cities, and they cross the Jordan, and that's where he ends up going up. So unpack a little bit more of that. I just found this book recently about typology. So that's a thing that you can study, that there's these different repeating patterns throughout the Bible. And so this. This might be one of them, where there's that journey through the wilderness.

[Pastor Chris]

So you don't. You don't get a lot of detail on how Elijah discipled Elisha. Okay. You don't see a class structure. It's very much like Coach Lee discipled me. It was just boy getting the truck. And as Elijah did his ministry, Elisha was always there. He saw it. And so what? It seems like to me is obviously Elijah knows he's about to hand over the baton. Right? And so it looks to me like he just takes him to place after place after place in the history of Israel where the faithfulness of God was just on the big screen. Like, remember this, remember this, remember this, because in just a minute I'm going to be gone. And I need you to remember God is faithful. It's not because of me, it's not because of any one man, but you can trust the faithfulness of God. Remember what he did at Bethel. Remember what he did at Jericho. Remember what he did at the Jordan. And he just does this over and over and over.

[Pastor Brett]

And he'd already taken him to Sinai.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah.

[Pastor Brett]

You know, just add that to the list. The only thing he didn't do is go back across the Red Sea.

[Pastor Chris]

And. And I think a lot of this is, you know, I've given the, the deer. I didn't do it this weekend. But the deer hunting illustration, like when I'm tracking the blood trail on a deer, the reason that you mark it is so that when you get to a place and you can't tell where the deer's going, if you look over your shoulder, the direction that he has been going is the best predictor of where he's going. And so, I mean, you guys used to work at a church called 12 Stone, which is cool. That, what a cool name that oftentimes in the Old Testament when God would do a miracle, he'd say, stack up 12 stones so that when the next generation comes and be like, dad, what happened right there? You can point to the faithfulness of God. Now our Big 12 stone is the cross. You know, that is, that is the, the cornerstone of God's faithfulness. Because God demonstrated, proved, put on display his love. Not so much just look at your circumstances. But look to that and you know, once and for all, he fully finally proved his faithfulness at the cross.

[Pastor Britt]

You talked, you talked a little bit about like generational legacy leaving and the rear view you mentioned tonight, the new outpost. And bro, tell the story about Gretchen's granddad. You've done it before to our church.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah, yeah, it's been a long time. So Gretchen's granddad was the pastor of Lone Star Church in Clifton Forge, Virginia, when, I mean, dude, he was the first generation Christian in his family. All of his family were atheists. He was in line to inherit Simpson Bottle Company or something like that. It was a, a soda company in the Northeast from like Massachusetts or something like that. And it would I mean it was worth millions of dollars, like in the 50s or something. This was a really, really big deal. His name is Lloyd. Lloyd gets saved like and has. And goes to his dad is like, I'm going into the ministry. I'm not going to take over the bottling company. And, and the dad was like, well then you're out of the will. So he walks away from that. And what he wants to do is he wants to be a pilot to like delivered goods to missionaries in tough places. His eyesight wouldn't allow it. So he started like itinerant preaching, became a church planner. So Gretchen grows up in the church that he plants. Okay. Lone Star Church. It's still there. It's right around the corner from their house. I've preached there two or three times. They had me there last year. I did like a homecoming. Dude, it was awesome. Like, met in the gym, had lunch after. I mean, it's just the sweetest people. I love these people. They gave me my wife, you know what I mean? Like she got saved at their camp. I mean I, I love it. I love it. So anyway, so he pastors that church forever. And then he retires and he, he's like, there's no retirement in the Bible. So then he moves to Patrick Henry Boyce home. He and, and Gretchen's grandmother. And for like 10 years it would be like seamark here. And they just served as house parents for 10 or 12 years. Just raised these boys that had fallen out of the foster care system. All right, so when I met him, when we got. He did our wedding and shortly after he passed away. And dude, he was, I mean, he was so awesome. He was, he's kind of like Dr. Paul. He was at that age where he just said whatever the crap he wanted to say, you know what I mean?

[Pastor Britt]

I do know.

[Pastor Chris]

And he was awesome. And you. He's a preacher his whole life. So he's like, he's witty and he's, he's just great. I remember one time at a, at a Easter dinner or whatever. We're over there and it's a big table and everybody's at my in laws house and one of the cousins had come in and she had all kind of different color hair and all kind of piercings and he was just like, well, the Easter eggs here, you know, it's just that kind of. He was that guy. So he loved me, I loved him. Well, he passes away and the family asked me to be a part of the funeral, bro. I've been married to Gretchen like Three months. I mean that's pressure, you know. And so we show up to the funeral and dude, Lone Star Church is, it's a, it's a normal denominational church, rural church. It might seat 150 people, 200 people, I don't know, it might have 100 people on a regular weekend kind of attendance thing. And bro, we show up to the funeral and the standing room only in the chat, in the worship center, what we would call the worship center, they have a fellowship hall that is all the way full. There are people standing outside, they're just piping it out. And then I noticed there are cars, dude, from like I'm a. I look at license plates and there's. This is in Virginia, outside of Roanoke, Virginia. And there's Ohio and Pennsylvania and Florida, I mean just all over the place. And I'm like, gee, what is going on here? Did your granddad have like a radio ministry or a tape ministry or, you know, because there's a lot of guys ministries that far exceed just the size of their local church. And she was like, no, remember he was a. Him and my grandma were house parents of Patrick Henry's boys home. All those boys had grown up, they were like 30 years old. And they all came to his funeral. So we go to the, we go to the graveside. I was, I was going to do the graveside thing. So I had my little black book from seminary, you know, and I go walking up and I'll never forget there's this dad, he's 30 year old guy and he's got, he's standing there with his son and you can tell because he's got like Ronald McDonald red afro hair. And his little boy is right there with him with the little miniature Ronald McDonald red afro hair. And as I'm walking up to go to like the top of the carpet or whatever, he leans over and he says, the reason you know Jesus is because that man taught me about Jesus. And in. It takes longer to explain than the vision or image I had for my life in that second. And I thought that's what I want with my life when I die. I do not care if I'm like Christian, famous or any of that, but I want generations of people to show up and stand around and say, the reason we know Jesus is because that dude in that box was fateful to do with what God told him to do in his life. And that's what, that's what Gretchen's granddad was. And from that moment, I mean he, he has been like, you Know, sometimes you can kind of, you get some blessings of inheritance and then sometimes you marry into it. I married into that one. He's like a patriarch in our family because of his faithfulness. And it's incredible, man, what a cool.

[Pastor Brett]

Full circle thing that the sermon you preached tonight was, was preached in, in that church.

[Pastor Chris]

And so now that church that he pastored for all those years that Gretchen grew up in and all that now, and how cool is the church to be kingdom minded enough to. On Thursday nights they do an 1122 outpost and. And a dozen people showed up tonight to be a part of the very first one there. So praise God.

[Pastor Britt]

Praise God, dude.

[Pastor Chris]

Good on him and good on the current pastor and the, the legacy that that church. See, that's the kind of thing, man, think about this. The faithfulness of that little church. Nobody's heard of it. You know, they're not coming to a church leaders conference there, okay? That church produces this little girl that grows up to this godly woman that when a youth pastor was believing the lies of the enemy, thinking his ministry was done, that girl speaks life into me and says, you should give it one more chance. And now look, all that God has done and it doesn't happen without the faithfulness of the people of Lone Star Church that discipled Gretchen nicely all those years years ago. Like, when I say, you have no idea what hangs in the balance. The amount of people that are going to get saved and baptized that's saturated. Like somehow in the kingdom of God, you know, in their big Amway pyramid scheme in the kingdom where like, somehow we know in full and God begins to allow us to put it all together and then we get these crowns of obedience and then we lay it at the feet of Jesus, say, here you go. It's all for your glory. Lone Star Church plays a significant role in the 1,958 people we baptized this summer. And nobody on the planet would put those things together. So it's incredible how God does that sort of stuff.

[Pastor Brett]

Well, help me with. Help me with this. I heard somebody say today or yesterday. No, my daughter was saying that she heard a message and it was like, well, she heard that phrase, God wants faithfulness, not fruitfulness. And I think what.

[Pastor Chris]

Wants is the wrong word.

[Pastor Brett]

I think what. And there was the peril of the talents and rewards.

[Pastor Chris]

So I'd say rewards, not wants. Does that make sense?

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah. So when you tell that story, though, I don't think that because, you know, a lot of people might think, oh, the small church people serving faithfully and that's what God rewards. But I think it is still bearing fruit. I mean, look, that story you told, that's fruit.

[Pastor Chris]

Crazy fruit. That's the kind of thing. All right, so back to Elijah. Elijah's like, I'm the only prophet. God's like, dude, I got 7,000 more. Okay. Just right over there. You're not. You don't see the whole picture.

[Pastor Brett]

Right.

[Pastor Chris]

So you want to be really careful about measuring as man would measure and then thinking God's cool with your measurement. So God, God wants fruitfulness. It's just up to him.

[Pastor Brett]

Right.

[Pastor Chris]

Faithfulness, like our obedience is up to us, you know, and so the, the well done part is good and faithful.

[Pastor Brett]

That's good. Yeah.

[Pastor Chris]

Now, now you can't be. If you're a five talent guy, you got to go for it, though. You know what I mean?

[Pastor Britt]

Yeah. How do you separate faithful and fruitful? I mean, that's the real question. Because it's not. There's something theologically off wonky at the bottom of that statement.

[Pastor Brett]

Haven't you heard it said, though?

[Pastor Britt]

I have, but there's something at the base of that, that just saying it's not right. And I'd have to dig into it. I don't know anybody would intentionally. I, I think I get the spirit of what you're trying to say, and especially in the parable of the talents. But the thing about the parable of the talents was they were fruitful.

[Pastor Chris]

Right. But they just didn't. The one thing I would say is God does not compare them to each other. He just compares them to what they had been given. What they had been given.

[Pastor Britt]

Yeah. To what they did with what they had been given.

[Pastor Chris]

Correct. And that's the difference. So I think the problem is if you compare. If a pastor compares what he's doing to another pastor, as opposed to just comparing himself to what God has called him to do. That's why he says, well done, good and faithful servant, not good and fruitful because the fruit is up to the Lord. But if you are unfaithful, it will not be fruitful.

[Pastor Britt]

No question.

[Pastor Chris]

Right. Because the one talent guy hides it. And there's way too many churches. Here's what a bunch of churches do, just straight up. You hide the talent and then blame the lack of fruit on your lack of faith. And you don't get the. Well, you get wicked and slothful servant is what you get.

[Pastor Britt]

Yeah. Because it's simultaneously true that God doesn't owe us anything and God doesn't have to do Anything or manifest anything in real time that we would be able to tangibly count or measure as fruit. God does not owe us that. You know what I mean? And the. And. And then the fruit itself is not, as defined in Galatians 5 is not so much things you can grab on to. Right.

[Pastor Brett]

It's.

[Pastor Britt]

It's things that are happening to you. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness. But you can look back over your shoulder and see how God has grown you up and matured you in these things over time. If you're walking in the Spirit, right. And not to say you get perfect, but you certainly get more and more mature, more and more aware of where it's operating and where it's not, you know, where you still have room to grow. So all that to say the assumption that God. I think it's a faulty assumption to think that God. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do think it's a faulty assumption to think that God would want you to be faithful in doing the things that he's put in your hand, and then he wouldn't also then want to bless it and grow its impact and grow its fruit. Like, I feel like the assumption that I would draw from the New Testament and from the Old Testament would be, if I'm faithful unto God, I may go through dry seasons, but over the course of time, God wants to grow fruit. He wants a harvest.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah. I think God's faithful to his promises. And we're talking the parable of talents is about ministry effectiveness. That's a big part of it.

[Pastor Britt]

That's right.

[Pastor Chris]

And you, God is faithful to his promises. You, you make much. You lift up Jesus. He will draw all men unto himself. You will be my witnesses. The Spirit comes upon you, you will receive power, and you will be my witnesses. God will save people, every tribe, tongue and nation. If you don't preach, they won't get saved. You put all those things together. And I do think so. I think a part of the hero of the parable of Talent guy is the 2 talent guy, because he doesn't compare to either the 5 or the 1. He doesn't think he's better than that guy or worse than that guy. He just does his thing, you know? But there's not a part of the parable where somebody is faithful and not fruitful. Exactly right.

[Pastor Britt]

So what he said.

[Pastor Brett]

Pastor Chris said it. It was a brief little statement in the bumper video, but he said, we're taking the word of God to these places and seeing life transformation.

[Pastor Chris]

Bro. Baptized seven people In a nursing home.

[Pastor Britt]

Talk about Pastor Chris for a second.

[Pastor Chris]

Dude, I love the cheers people gave him. Like a.

[Pastor Britt]

He's so great.

[Pastor Chris]

He's so great.

[Pastor Britt]

He's an. He's the exact. Exactly what you just said. That Chris is not sitting around trying to figure out, am I 1 talent or 2 talent or 5 talent or 11 talent or whatever. He ain't trying to worry about none of that. He is just. I've known him for 11 years. You've known him longer. He has always only done the thing that God put in front of him, as faithful as he possibly could.

[Pastor Chris]

Correct.

[Pastor Britt]

Completely submitted unto authority and completely focused on the person like Elijah, who's on the other side of him doing what the Lord said. I mean, it's inspiring for sure.

[Pastor Chris]

Well, somebody asked me why we moved him. I moved him from. It was definitely a team decision from the campus pastor of San Pablo to our pastor to senior adults. And I just said, you put your best people on your most important things. That was it, dude. Because he's the best. And especially in the 10, 10 life when God laid on my heart, it's womb to tomb. And there's a whole bunch of senior adults that we don't want them buying into the, you know, collecting seashells and wasting their life. And I'm. And we're thinking, okay, who's the best? Who's the best? And he's the best.

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah.

[Pastor Chris]

I mean, so he. He's so good. He's such a good campus pastor. He still. Even when he does connect moments now, I'm like, so good.

[Pastor Britt]

He's great.

[Pastor Chris]

He's so good. But yeah, dude, that's it. And then a part of it, man. You could trust him in something new because he's been so faithful with everything we've ever put in his hands.

[Pastor Britt]

No question.

[Pastor Chris]

He is the. He is the epitome of. I'm more about what I'm a part of than the part I play.

[Pastor Britt]

And he's one of those guys like. Like I don't get to hang out with him a ton. I wish, but I wish because he's like the best hang in the world. The best, you know, so any. Chris, I love you. We love you.

[Pastor Chris]

No doubt.

[Pastor Brett]

Like you said, Pastor, we don't see the curriculum of Elijah developing. Elisha. We know that there's a father son relationship. But I thought of something. When he's taking him on this journey, it kind of makes me think, I bet you Elijah had already been to these places. And so he's probably walking his disciple through these ex. Through an experience to teach him. And so it made me want to ask a question about leadership development or development of others and walking them through a process, maybe think almost of ordination. You know, like, if you're raising up other leaders, you walk them through a process of remembrance. That's that they need to experience, and it's for them to walk through. You know what I mean? Is there anything. Anything more you could say about that?

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah, Pastor Brett and I very much have the same philosophy of leadership development, which is, first of all, leadership is a gift. It is not a title you can sign up for and you cannot develop. You can't take somebody without a gift and develop a gift in them. That's the spirit. Put that gift in there, not a program. We are very much the. Like, we're gonna throw a bunch of people in the deep end, and the swimmers get elevated and the drowners, God bless them. I don't know what happens to them. And honestly, I. And. And so if you're not up for that, this ain't your spot. I mean, you can't work for me and you. That's how we do it, you know, for sure. And so if you look at Elijah, can you see a miracle that Elisha does before he does the first one? Like, before Elijah's gone, You don't let. You don't even see Elijah doing, like, all right, here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna watch me do it. I want to watch you. He doesn't do that. Elijah does his deal to his very last day, and then he gone.

[Pastor Brett]

And then more miracles recorded from Elisha. I think there are.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah, yeah. This is a little bit of a picture. Like, you're gonna do even greater things. And then Elisha, it seems to me, is like, well, here we go. I mean, my father in the faith said, I have what it takes. You know what I mean? So I'm going to try to do the Jordan thing, because I got to get back home, and we cross over here, so I got to get back. And so he just is like, where is the Lord of Elijah? And he. And then the Lord's like, yeah, man, I got you.

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah.

[Pastor Chris]

Now, the one thing that did that the Lord laid on me in my. In my study was that double portion thing. I've heard a lot of charismatic talk about the double portion. Never had anybody talk about the father, son relationship. This had nothing to do with, I want to do twice as much. It was everything to do with, I want to be your firstborn. In the ministry. And that is a real key to ministry effectiveness. God always works in and through authority. And so one of the things that you see here, and this would be a warning. If you find yourself in the second seat of what God's doing and you trying to nudge out the first, you are. You're working against the Lord, not the way God works. Elijah's like, please don't go. And Elijah's like, I'm going. He said, would you please just. Just keep it like this. You be the boss. I'll work for you. No problem. Like, think about this. Jesus does not give Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven until Peter sees Jesus for who he is and says, you are the Christ, the son of living God. He doesn't say, I got an idea. How about put me in charge of your church when you leave? That's not what he does. He submits himself to the authority of who Christ is, and only then after he submits to authority is he trustworthy to be given authority. So a warning to all the people out there that think God's got a call on their life, and the way to accomplish that is be subversive to the authority God put over you. God will not bless disobedience. It's not how it works.

[Pastor Britt]

It's like a vacuum of power. I've seen it a thousand times.

[Pastor Chris]

Oh, my gosh.

[Pastor Britt]

It's like. It's like as soon as you start down the road of in disguise trying to help. And I say help in quotations. You're trying to help the church or the organization or by helping everybody see your boss's shadows and weaknesses. Like, that's how it starts. It starts real subtle, and it starts with just trying to help people see how everybody needs to get together to help the boss and all. All it is is just a.

[Pastor Chris]

A.

[Pastor Britt]

It's demonic, man. It's just.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah, that's the word. I read about that once. And his name was the. The. His name was Lucifer, man. And he was the second in command. And he's like, I got an idea. I'm gonna climb that hill, and I'm gonna sit in that seat. Lord was like, listen, this has happened to me. I bet it's happened to you way more. The number of churches that will reach out to me and be like, hey, we're looking for a pastor. Can you help? And I'm like, well, tell me a little bit about it. Like, where's the last pastor? What happened to him? Oh, great guy, great guy. But, you know, we. We. It was his time to go. And so he's. He's. He's gone. He faithfully served for however long. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, is he helping you? Oh, no, no. Who is? Oh, we got a committee. Have any of y' all been pastors? No, none of us. Sweet. So now you've got a family, and you kick the dad out, and now you're trying to hire another person to come in and be the new dad. That doesn't go good. Rarely, if ever, that does not go good. Man. All you see in the scriptures is people raise up either actual or spiritual sons and pass batons. That's what you see. Paul to Timothy, Paul to Titus, Elijah to Elisha. That. That is what you see. It doesn't have to be actual signs. It's spiritual sons.

[Pastor Britt]

And so I think on this issue, you have to go to the extremes. You. You have to go. You just got to be willing to go all in with someone. I feel like I. I tried my best to do that with you. You do try to go all in, all the way. And I'm not, like, chest beating here, but an example of this would be to your, like, people calling. I've received a handful of calls over 11 years. Not a lot.

[Pastor Chris]

Dude, I'm sure everybody's trying to hire.

[Pastor Britt]

You, and so not really. Not a ton. The last one I got my. I probably started doing this about three calls ago.

[Pastor Chris]

You say, no, enough, and then I.

[Pastor Britt]

Give them your number. Oh, you don't even know this. I just say, I'm gonna text you Pastor Joby's contact. You call him, and if he thinks it's a good idea, then I'll. I'll talk to you about it. But I've just decided that I'm under his authority, and somebody else has got to be the loudest voice in my life in regards to important decisions. And so I'm not. That's. I just decided to start doing that. I don't even know if it's right or wrong. It just is. Like, that's just how I've chosen to live my life.

[Pastor Chris]

That's what I did with Pastor Jerry. I just like, buddy, this is your church, not my church. I work for you. You work for Jesus. I believe Jesus going to tell you what to do with your church. I'll do what you tell me to do. My vote is, can you just let me keep working for you? That's what I want to do. And he said, I think you should plan a church. And I said, yes, sir. So then what I did is Put together an elder board. I was like, all right, I got to like. And Pastor Jerry's still my pastor. You know what I mean? That. That is the way to go about it. And part of the reason I didn't talk about succession, I'm. By the time this comes out, I'll be 52 years old. If, as far as the plans of man go, I want to be the lead pastor of this church for almost a couple more decades.

[Pastor Britt]

Let's go.

[Pastor Chris]

And I. I will be like the. I'll move. Dads don't move out. They move to Granddad. And if you do this thing right, and if things are family, hopefully what will happen is when it's my time to pass the torch, then I just move to Granddad and can continue to serve this church in whatever way is best for me and then be the biggest cheer. Listen, when JP Was playing coach, pitch baseball maybe, or something like that, God gave me a vision. Again, it'll take me way longer to explain than it went in my head. I'm the first base coach. He is. We're playing. Our team is called the Pirates. He's tiny. Maybe it was T ball. It was T ball. And we're in Atlanta beach. And you put your best batter as the last batter in T ball because you just run until they get the ball back, okay? And so he gets up there and he strokes one, and I'm just cheering for him. And as he runs around the bases and I look at the crowd and I had a bunch of thoughts, okay? And I remember thinking, I used to stand at the plate. I don't stand at the plate anymore. I stand here at first base and coach. And I don't care at all if anybody in the stands knows about my former baseball career, which was. I don't know if you call high school a career, but. Right. Not at all. I was just so excited about my son that I just wanted to cheer him on and help the Lord. Just. Again, it'll take way longer to explain than just the quick image I had. And I thought, that's ministry. If you get this thing right. Like, right now, I'm in the batter's box all the time, you know, no problem. And I'm about, like, cleanup or whatever, you know? And there will be a day where I'm going to gladly move to just first base coach. I still want to be a part of the team. I still want to help. And then my new job is just to cheer on the next generation of leaders, and in particular, whoever essentially is like, my Spiritual younger brother or Son at 11:22. And I don't need any accolades about anything else. I just want to cheer on what God is doing, not hold on to, like, my part of it. And do you know how much freedom there is? And we've already had these conversations with the elders and we've prayed towards and kind of set some things up towards that. And the thing we have in mind, we talk about this internally. I think it would be good for, especially 1122, to hear the primary way we make decisions around here is not what's best for us, the staff. The primary way in alignment with what God tells us to do, is what serves our people the best. And so I feel like the Lord's given me a clear vision over the next few decades of the future of our church in regards to, like, what's next. That's it. And so there's so much freedom.

[Pastor Brett]

I have never thought about that as a litmus test to, like, appropriate leadership aspiration. The difference between, do you want the guy ahead of you gone or do you want him to stay? I mean, God's going to put you where he wants you as a leader. And you can either have an attitude of like, get this guy out of here, or like, please don't leave.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah.

[Pastor Brett]

I mean, think about. Think about Moses and, and Joshua. No, you know, Joshua was. He was his dude forever, and he did not get leadership until he was gone.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah.

[Pastor Brett]

And God says he's dead. Step it up and lead. You know, I mean, that's pretty powerful, I think.

[Pastor Britt]

Look, man, we're heading into the. We have saturated coming Wednesday. We're hosting the Church Leader Summit Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday morning. It ends saturated starts Wednesday night. For all of our listeners, the Church Leader Summit's like an opportunity. We have to just bless other churches. We have a thousand plus church leaders coming in. Be a really cool opportunity. We've been blessed. We want to do a lot of. So that be a blessing to them, you know, and steward what God's done here. And man, Lord knows we don't have it all figured out. That said, God's doing a thing here. We want to open our doors and.

[Pastor Chris]

Help it get on like others have.

[Pastor Britt]

Done for us as far as it can be helpful.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah.

[Pastor Britt]

A lot of church leaders also listen to the Deepen podcast and so welcome. We're glad you're here. All the things. This is just a. This is an Elijah Elisha. Call it a gospel fact. The next best person to lead this or to lead that or to take a mantle of Authority in any pastoral ministry position, you're giving. Giving the. The next best guy is the one that doesn't want it and does not think he's ready.

[Pastor Chris]

Yep.

[Pastor Britt]

The guy who's arguing as to why he should be the one everybody's listening to and he should be. That's. You can't trust him. You just can't trust him. But the one who's saying h. Like, I don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I'm ready, you know, but you've been watching them. You've been pouring in. You've been. And there's like a false humility, but then there's like the legit humility of like, man, I'll. I'll do whatever y' all ask me to do, and I'm happy to step into it as far as you think it's helpful, but I just don't think I'm ready for this.

[Pastor Chris]

So that's the person you. Here's another story. Hey. Only reason I tell it is because now we're 13 years into this church plant, and I think you know my heart. So 1122, the service starts, right? And when we first started, it was follow. We like. It was a team decision to start it. I had a lot of input on what the thing was going to look like. Went pretty good for about seven weeks. And then we got into. There wasn't a clear leader. Ben and Carrie Williams, who come from a very charismatic background. These are the first times I had ever been around people that used the word anointing talking to me a lot. We were Baptists. We didn't talk about anointing. And they were like, you have to take this thing over. And I just looked at them, said, that is. That cannot be my idea. There's no way in the world I'm going to my Pastor Jerry and saying, I need to be in charge of this thing. If you guys want to run this thing up the flagpole, that's fine. That I refuse to self promote and so whatever. And again, in my secret place, I'm praying that will be done. God, I'll do whatever you want me to do. What I wanted to do was hang on to student ministry. I loved it so much, but I'm telling you, so they did that. And about that same time, the Lord did a thing in my heart that shifted gears. And then Pastor Jerry came back and says, we want to give you. We want you to be the point leader of 1122. And then in that moment, I had to go in and go, okay, are you sure? Because I can't do anything a little bit. So you either got to give me like full reign under your authority, under your leadership. You're my pastor, but can I just, you know, do what I want to do? And he was like, yeah, go. But it was with his blessing. I did not pull the Dick Cheney move. I've said this before. Dick Cheney was put in charge of the committee to find the vice president. And he was like, got him. Then he made bank with Halbert. I mean, like, it really worked out for his own portfolio. And I refuse to be the guy that's like, you know what? We need more of me. That, that's not it. And there is just freedom. You've said this a million times, Pastor British, you can't give me what God hasn't, and you can't keep from me what God has. So do you actually believe that? One of the places you see it like crazy in scripture is when Joseph, like Old Testament code of many colors. Joseph is standing before Pharaoh and he has the ability to interpret dreams. And he's coming out of jail, right? And Pharaoh says, I hear that you can interpret James. And he goes, nope, the God of Israel can interpret dreams. And tell me. And here's what he said. That's a death sentence. Because Pharaoh thinks he's God. And he's like, I will not self promote. I will trust God. And then God promotes him and he becomes the senior VP of Egypt and saves the day. But there's so much freedom when you trust God. Try to do the next thing and then God blesses it. That's different than you're trying to manufacture momentum and manufacture a following.

[Pastor Britt]

You know, Does Elijah ever talk about his own anointing or is it only referenced by someone else?

[Pastor Chris]

I think I've read this a hundred times in the past seven weeks, and I can't think of one time where he's like, at one point he says, if I am the man of God, fire will fall down. He doesn't even. He's not even like, watch this. Do you know who I'm talking to? No, he's still like, if the Lord's hand still on me fire when he burns up the 50 people twice.

[Pastor Brett]

It's a little bit like Samson, right? Like, if you, if you would give me an answer here, let this happen. And then God does it.

[Pastor Britt]

There's something to that.

[Pastor Chris]

Very much so.

[Pastor Britt]

There's something too, that Elijah is not running around chest beaten about his, his uniqueness and anointing you know, but Elisha is like, you obviously have a. A un. A power for a unique purpose among God's people.

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah.

[Pastor Britt]

And that's what an anointing is. You know, anointing is one of those words that can be like, ethereal and out there somewhere, but an anointing. The anointing specifically here. And you also see it in reference to David and Saul and that whole King interchange thing. Anointing. Rt. Kendall's definition is the power the Holy Spirit gives for a gift to. To function with ease, for exponential impact. And so it's like he just magnifies, gives you a gift, and then he. There's a whole lot of obscurity by cultivating that gift and obscurity, which is what you see with Elijah, then at some point, that gift just like, gets a Holy Spirit injection of extra power. And it's just. There's an ease to it, and it has exponential impact. That's what the anointing is.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah. When I'm trying to explain it and put it on the bottom, I. I have to wrestle with this. The outputs just far exceed the inputs. And there's a bunch of other people with the same inputs preaching, preaching. Got the same Bible. Everybody loves Jesus the same. Honestly, other people's prayer life's probably way better than mine. And yet the fruit is so far exceeds what, you know, has to do anything with your own ability. You know, a couple weeks ago, when I told the story about Gretchen being the angel and all the things, and my whole family was sitting on the front row. No, I mean, it wasn't even because of that story. That's just how. How everybody schedule worked out that week. So it's kind of awesome. We get home and we're talking about it. Or maybe it was the next day, and I was just saying thanks, and she just said, bro, I mean, your wife would just be brutally honest, okay? She ain't talking about anointing. You know what I mean? Typically. And she's like, can you imagine our lives if you'd have taken that job and. And been like a coach for Wrigley Gum or whatever, you know, And. And then she begins to process, verbally process her own thoughts. And she goes, actually, I think you wouldn't have the gift. I think God only gave you this to talk about Jesus. And if you were trying to talk about some other thing, I think he'd say, this is what she's telling me in our kitchen. I think he'd just take it back and just give it to somebody that would make much of him. I could not agree more. You know, I could not agree more. Sometimes people will be like, you could be a comedian. I could not be a comedian. I have no idea how to talk about anything but this. You know, every thought I have, every principle I have, every leadership idea I have, every passionate thing I have is a. It's just. I just think about these Bible verses that run through my brain and I don't know how to explain it. I'm actually one of the worst people to try to help write a sermon, you know what I mean? Because I don't know how to do it. I don't know how. I know how to know how you do it. I know how I do it. But you know, which. I said it in grace trainer time. When a mosquito grabs onto a freight train, he does not feel bigger. So when you see fruitfulness and then, you know, you. It doesn't make. It doesn't make me feel. Look at me. It's like, holy moly, Lord. Wow, look at you. You know.

[Pastor Britt]

You talked about this. It's a really. One. What you just shared is a really beautiful perspective. But that word perspective is something you talked about tonight. Yeah, Having perspective. I think you're referencing to prayer. And I mean, how much of life's battle is won or lost through perspective? Is it not the game that is. It's just. It's just all about how you see and perceive the events that are happening around you.

[Pastor Chris]

A lot of Jesus's teaching on worry could be summed up like, if you could see this from my perspective, you wouldn't be worried. And then he gives you examples. He's like, see those birds and see those flowers? They ain't worried because they know I got them, you know, and you know, sheep get worried because they can't see far. And the shepherd is up above and can be like, no, we're good. There's. There's green pastures over there, there's still water over there.

[Pastor Brett]

It makes me think about the thing with life's 10 of what happens to you and 90 of your attitude about it.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah.

[Pastor Brett]

You could. Another way of saying that's your perspective on it, you know, or the. Is it Spurgeon, if you're going to inherit a million dollars and your carriage breaks down, you're not going to complain about walking the rest of the way. You know, it's all about perspective.

[Pastor Britt]

Speaking of walking, sometimes I do like. I think if I had to live it, I wouldn't be jealous. But I do think in my where a Hurry. Busy filled world. Sometimes I get a little like, I read the stories of Elijah and Elisha and they're just walking around and it's taking them forever to get from one city to the next. And like all the relationship and time and this hanging, you know, that's a pretty like. Yeah, sometimes I get jealous of that.

[Pastor Chris]

We've talked about this for the. The posture of Christianity is walking, no doubt. You know, I. I've got a moose hunt coming up. Me and some guys are going to Newfoundland, Canada. And so I'm watching every YouTube moose hunt from Newfoundland. And it's cool, you know, I watch all these moose die on these things and that. It's interesting. Last night, I mean, pretty busy. We're coming into a real busy week. So I was watching one last night and these three dudes are just sitting on this rock just glassing. And I immediately thought, oh, I can't wait to get bored. I can't wait to have a few days. I mean, we're just sleeping in tents and we're out there and there's no cell phone covers and all the things. And there's going to be a time where I'm just sitting on this rock, just looking, making moose noises. Right? And I can't wait to just sit up there and have nothing to do until the sun goes down. That's crazy.

[Pastor Brett]

I have to ask this. So when he says, ask what I should do, he says, let there be a double portion of your spirit on me. He doesn't say the spirit of the Lord. And then to your point, Pastor Britt, the other prophets say the spirit of Elijah is on Elisha. They don't say the spirit of the Lord. The next verse, they reference the spirit of the Lord. In the angel's visit to Zechariah, talking about John the Baptist, he says he will, he will be raised up in the spirit and power of Elijah. What is that about?

[Pastor Chris]

I think it's the Holy Spirit. It's the Old Testament way of talking about the Holy Spirit. I think this is both true in the positive and the negative. There's only two sources of spirit, God and the devil. And so the, the, the phrase used the spirit of Jezebel, that means there are demonic forces. Like, think about this again. I think part of what proves my point, the crabby kid that falls. The king that falls in the lattice and is gonna die, whatever his name was, he. He asked for Beelzebub. It's the first time it shows up in the Bible. In Matthew 12, I think the pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons in that same spirit's name. It's a thousand years later. And same. Same spirits, different days. So the same thing is true on the positive end, too. Okay. Because even in the New Testament, the Spirit of Christ is used. That's just another way to say the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of the Lord or the Paraclete or the Comforter. These are a bunch of names of the same thing. This doesn't mean, like, Elijah's attitude or Elijah's moxie or not. That's not what this means. It's like the Spirit of God is in Elijah. They're calling it the Spirit of Elijah.

[Pastor Brett]

And a little bit like Jesus name, like in Jesus name.

[Pastor Chris]

It's a little bit. Yeah. In character, in nature, with the Spirit of God that.

[Pastor Brett]

That we know by what Elijah represented. Like, Elijah carried the Spirit of God, so they're saying it that way.

[Pastor Chris]

But so it's a little bit different too, because not every Yahweh follower in the Old Testament was indwelled with the Spirit of God like every New Testament believer in Jesus is. But the Spirit of God manifests himself in certain particular people at a particular time for a particular reason. In the New Testament, the earthquake divides the separation once and for all. The wind of the Spirit blows on the church, and the fire of the presence of the Spirit indwells every single believer. So when James in James chapter five says, dude, just pray like Elijah because he's a normal guy, but the spirit of God was in him. And guess what? The spirit of God is in you. So pray for healing.

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah. Speaking to perspective, when we were getting ready for this, I know we all like Rich Mullins, and he has a song called Elijah these Are the Days. That's a different song.

[Pastor Britt]

I know, I know, but it's still.

[Pastor Chris]

When I go, I want to go out like Elijah.

[Pastor Britt]

That's right.

[Pastor Brett]

And a line in that song, he says, I'm gonna look back on the stars and it's going to be like candles in Central park. And it won't break my heart to say goodbye.

[Pastor Chris]

He was ready to go.

[Pastor Brett]

That's a good perspective.

[Pastor Britt]

No doubt.

[Pastor Chris]

And he went out like Elijah. Died in a Jeep wreck and a big ball of fire. Yeah.

[Pastor Brett]

We're almost out of time. But, Pastor, you said you had six takeaways. And I wrote them all down.

[Pastor Chris]

Good.

[Pastor Brett]

Because you told me to. And then you said I could go. I could give 20. So what? Which ones didn't make the list?

[Pastor Chris]

Same Demons, New Days. That's a big One man like this, it's not new. The spirit of Jezebel, this, like, overbearing evil. Just turn on the news. The spirit of Ahab exists in evil. People that tolerate. And whatever you tolerate, Jezebel will dominate. The spirit of Obadiah to kind of go along, to get along. Ned Flanders, quote, unquote, Christian that, you know, this is the kind of guy that's spineless on things that God's word is clear about, like marriage, abortion, you know what I mean? These kind of things, or what the gospel is. That's the kind of guy, it's like, well, I'm a Christian, but, you know, I don't believe in a kind of God that would send people to hell. And, you know, he like, amens you at church and then he amens the. The secularists when they talk to. That's the kind of thing that would be one.

[Pastor Brett]

I love what you've been saying. The line, it sticks with me. The Bible doesn't tell us what happened. It tells us what always happens.

[Pastor Chris]

That's it, dude. That'll change everything. So that when I preach, that's what I. So I've talked about this kind of a lot. So I get asked to help preachers preach, and I don't know what to tell them. So I asked Britt to help me, give me words to what I do, you know, because he's like, you're a real student of preaching, so it's very helpful. So I try to answer these three questions, what happened? So what? And then here's the part everybody skips. Now what? So when I look at the Scriptures and it's not enough to just say, here's what happened. A commentary can tell you that. So what always happens? So what are you called to do? What Action is the truth of the word of God leading you to move towards.

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah. And you did that a few times in the message. You said, do you have people in your life that are telling you the truth? You know.

[Pastor Chris]

Any.

[Pastor Brett]

Any other ones that. Anyone that you can think of, takeaways from Elijah's life?

[Pastor Britt]

No. I mean, I'm sure you said this a hundred times, but just do what the Lord's telling you to do.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah, do.

[Pastor Britt]

Do what the Lord says. And so that's it.

[Pastor Chris]

Yeah. Like when. When Elijah is faithful to just take care of the widow, he has no idea that he is going to go down as the greatest of all the prophets. So he was trying to do. He was not seeking fortune, fame, or notoriety.

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah.

[Pastor Chris]

And. And he was faithful in utter obscurity. You know, he did not video it and put it on his YouTube channel about him taking care of the widow. He just did that because that's what God told him to do.

[Pastor Britt]

Yeah, he certainly didn't start a comment page where he was watching other prophets do stuff and offering his opinion on it.

[Pastor Chris]

Just.

[Pastor Britt]

Just for what it's worth.

[Pastor Brett]

Yeah, very much. Very much. There's a just do the next thing element in his life.

[Pastor Britt]

I think Elijah legitimately saw God as worth it, and God is worthy. I think he had a biblically faithful, biblically authentic fear of the Lord. I think he had a true reverence for God Almighty, and I think he saw God as worth it. If that cost him his life. Worth it. And he lived that his life that way.

[Pastor Chris]

He really did. Even in his low points. I mean, even in his lowest points, he ran to God. He prayed to God, I'm done. Take me. Like, he still is submitted to God. He wasn't going to take himself. He's going to say, God, will you take me out? And then the word of the Lord comes to him again, and he likes. He's like, all right, I guess I'm not done. I'm coming back.

[Pastor Brett]

I think you'll be able to pick up on what I thought. But when you said, it's not how you start, it's how you finish. I hear that both as a comfort and a warning.

[Pastor Chris]

Very much so.

[Pastor Brett]

So why don't you explain both parts of that?

[Pastor Chris]

You know, Dr. Piper's don't waste your life just consistently rings in my ear. When somebody found the. Not the one he held up on the stage, but the addition of the Reader's Digest that he held up that told the story of the people collecting seashells. I have it in a sealed bag next to the chair that I write sermons in. Then I work on it, and I keep it there. That's a tragedy because you. I mean, even when Elijah is kind of loses his mind a little bit in the cave, you know, he tries to do the resume thing for a second. It's like, I was jealous for the Lord, and you saw what I did, you know, And God's like, stop, stop. You don't get credit. Like, what? Your schedule does not reflect the score at halftime. It doesn't matter if you're leading at halftime. All that matters is if you're. Did you what happened by the end of the game? And so we currently live in a culture that says about three quarters of the way through your life, you get to cash out. And that was your score. And then you just coast to the end. That is antithetical to the gospel. And if the spirit of God lives in you, perseverance will be a part of your life. It'll be a defining characteristic of your life.

[Pastor Brett]

And you know, the apostle Paul said things like, pray for me so that I won't have run my race in vain. And he's Paul, right? So he's thinking, I still need to finish well. So it's a comfort if you've screwed up and it's a warning that you can't rest on your laurels. And coach coast.

[Pastor Chris]

I mentioned this before. So Gretchen's grandfather's funeral was a defining moment in what I thought about ministry. Another defining moment for me was Billy Britt's funeral because I was at an event somewhere and I had to get there. And so we. There's no way I'm missing that thing. So I. We show up and just want to sit and support you and your brother. And you know, and in, in huge, like up on the, over the casket, it said, I have fought the good fight. I finished the race. And I just sat back and just heard an hour worth of testimony on the faithfulness of Billy Britt. And I know the fruitfulness of his ministry because I know his sons. You know what I mean? And I've mentioned this before. I get in the car to go home and I called Gretchen and I was like, I just figured out how to be the greatest pastor in America. And she's like, what are you talking about? That is not language I would use, you know, And I just said, we just gotta finish. That's it, dude. That is it. And to God be the glory, whatever the results are, you know, and we are not taking our foot off the gas at all, nor did your dad. But you just to your last day, you just give it all. And so that you, like Paul can say, man, I have fought the good fight. I finished the race. I'm ready to go home. To God be the glory.

[Pastor Britt]

No doubt.

[Pastor Brett]

What a fantastic way to wrap up this series. Been great. You want to pray?

[Pastor Chris]

Love to father in heaven. Lord, we love you because you love us first. God, we lift up you the the rest of this week and all that you are going to do to just put your glory on display through and in front of your people. God, we thank you for the life, the testimony of Elijah. God, we pray that the same spirit that you gave to him through the blood of Jesus, you pour into us. God, may we just be faithful with it and may the point of our lives. Just point people to you. We pray in Jesus name.

[Pastor Brett]

Amen.

[Pastor Chris]

Thank you for listening to the podcast the End. You nailed it.

[Pastor Joby Martin]

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