We are in the third message of our Series “Greater Things”. I do not know how you’re feeling, but my heart is on fire, I am very happy and with great expectations for what God will do in the upcoming months and in the coming years.
This series is based on this tremendous declaration of Jesus:
““I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.”
John 14:12
God has greater things for those who love Him! Living a basic life is not for us! I do not want to live a simple, mediocre life, I want to live the plans of God!
Today’s word: Greater Things Have a Price !
Last week, we saw that God called Elisha, a simple man, a farmer, to live greater, better and supernatural things.
I want to read these 3 verses which contain tremendous revelation for us.
19 “So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his mantle on him. 20 Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,” he said, “and then I will come with you.” “Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?” 21 So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant.”
1 Kings 19:19-21 NIV
As soon as Elisha heard God’s calling, he went to said goodbye to his father and mother and returned, burned the plowing equipment, cooked all the oxen, gave it to the people and went to follow the calling of God.
Elisha decided to abandon everything because of his calling. Being chosen by God is the result of your responses and decisions!
It is not God’s calling that will determine your success but rather your response to the calling.
If you want to live a greater life, you will have to burn your plows, kill your oxen, leave your Dad, Mom, family and personal plans.
The Bible is full of examples of people that sacrificed everything to experience greater things; they had to abandon their own plans and renounce their personal dreams.
Let’s start by Abraham.
“Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.””
Genesis 12:1-3 NKJV
God goes to Abraham and asks: Do you want to live for something bigger? Then leave your land, leave your father’s house , your people and your culture and go to a place that I will show you.
Abraham did not even know where to go, but he accepted it, he followed God’s instructions and his choice defined his calling. Many are called but few choose to obey and pay the price.
Moses is another example of someone who accepted God’s calling to bigger things and sacrificed and burned his plows.
“By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.”
Hebrews 11:24-26 NKJV
Moses was the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, the successor of the world’s greatest empire and he abandoned everything because he was looking for greater things!
He refused the throne of Egypt and went to live as a simple shepherd , along with the people of God. But because of his decision he became one of the greatest men in history because he decided to live greater things with God.
It’s always worth it to leave something that is valuable to you but not part of God’s plan for you!
Leaving behind out of love is a demonstration of faith and God honours those who have faith!
“And without faith it is impossible to please God.”
Hebrews 11:6
Burning your plows, leaving something valuable behind shows great faith, this is what it means to live by faith!
Look at the disciples of Jesus, they were fishermen, they were simple people and Jesus goes to them and calls them for greater things!
““Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.”
Matthew 4:19-22 NIV
Jesus came to those fishermen and said: Follow me! And they immediately dropped their nets, their boats, their families and followed Jesus.
Matthew, one of the disciples, who had one of the best jobs of the time, who earned a lot of money and was rich, he too heard Jesus’ calling:
“After this, Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. “Follow me,” Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him.”
Luke 5:27-28 NIV
Jesus comes to him and says: follow me, and Matthew left everything. He left his work, his family and followed Jesus.
The apostle Paul is another example of a man who heard the calling of God for greater things
“As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.””
Acts 9:3, 5-6 NKJV
Who are you Lord? I am Jesus! Paul asks: What do You want me to do?
Jesus said: “Get yourself up, go into the city and someone there will tell you what you must do.”
Paul was a Pharisee, a great leader in his religion and the first thing that Jesus tells him is: “Someone will tell what you must do”
Paul was a scholar, an intelligent, very proud man, and Jesus comes to him and says: now you have to learn, someone will teach you, you need to be under authority! And so Paul was discipled first by Ananias and then by Barnabas.
Jesus made an invitation to Paul: I have something greater for you! Paul heard this calling, he left everything behind, he let himself be guided by his leaders and eventually became one of the greatest Christians in history.
I received my calling from God but all my ministerial calling, my ordination to my ministry and my move from Brazil to Ireland was under the guidance and direction of my pastors, who are still my leaders until now.
God calls us, the calling is directed at us, but God always uses people to treat our character and to direct us. We must always be guided by our leaders.
To Abraham in the Old Testament God told him to leave, but to Peter in the New Testament He said: Come!
“Jesus said, “Come, Peter.” Then Peter left the boat and walked on the water to Jesus.”
Matthew 14:29
Jesus said to Peter: Peter, you must break free from this place of security, get out of this boat and come experience greater things.
Jesus challenged Peter: have faith, do not be afraid, for I have bigger things for you!
Get out the boat and walk on the waters!
God is telling you, come, I have bigger things for you! Get out of your boat, abandon your boat, leave your nets, because I have greater things for you!
Answering the calling of God is to demonstrate faith, even when you do not know what will happen and have no idea how it will end.
If you walk in faith and trust in God, you will see your life delivered and will experience the supernatural.
By trusting in God you placing the results on His hand!
Some people never get the best of God because they do not want to abandon what holds them to their past.
To live greater things, there is a price to be paid and you must abandon some things!
What I’m teaching is not just a theory, because ever since I was born again, 38 years ago, my life has been a life of renounce and surrender.
In order to follow God’s calling I had to sacrifice many things in my life, I had to leave my job when I was a successful professional. For my love for Jesus I lost 80% of my salary to become a full-time pastor. After a few years, because of my missionary calling to Ireland, I had to leave a successful church with thousands of members, leave my family, my friends, my disciples and my pastors to come to Ireland and start all over again.
Everyday God calls me to sacrifice something for Him! Every day God calls me to surrender something! Every day God calls me to trust and burn some plows.
If you want to live something greater, you have to evaluate the risks!
Greater things have a price, but if you live a mediocre life, the cost will be even greater.
I want you to tell you something very serious: the bigger risk is not in you starting a new life. The worst that can happen is you never trying and staying with your same old life, that is the worst outcome!
The example of this is that rich young man who decided to stay in his same life.
“Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.”
Mark 10:21-22
The Bible says Jesus looked at him and loved him! With all his love Jesus said to the young man: One thing still lacks in your life: Burn your plows and follow me!
He was sad and said to Jesus! I cannot!
He didn’t want to abandon his plans, his old life and even after hearing a calling from Jesus himself, he decided to follow his own plans.
We know what happened to Elisha because he said yes! But we do not know what happened to that young man who rejected the calling for a greater and better life!
We know what happened to Elisha, he was twice more used by God in miracles than Elijah, the greatest of all prophets.
What happened to a young man who decided to follow his own way? We do not know! Nor did he ever know what he lost! He just said no, I do not want to burn my plows! I cannot follow this calling!
He never knew what he had lost!
Maybe you will never know what you are losing because you are saying no to the calling for greater things!
Burning your plow is risky, there is no going back! Following Christ has a price, greater things have a price!
You pay nothing to receive your salvation, your salvation comes by faith.
But following Christ has a price: renunciation, obedience, faith, surrender, humiliation, repentance, etc.
Following Christ is expensive, but how much more do we pay if we decide not to follow Christ?
From the point of view “of faith”, the price is eternal condemnation, but from the point of view of Christian life, How much does it cost us to say no?
Remember that After salvation, God has plans for all of us! God has something for you to accomplish here in this church, here in this city and in this nation.
God has greater things for all of us, God has called you, He wants you more involved with His kingdom, God wants to take you on a greater spiritual level! Can you imagine happens if you say no?
God has something for you, but you choose something else! What are you losing?
I do not know, maybe you’ll never know! Only when you get before Him will you find out!
He will show you his plans and ask: What did you do with the gifts I gave you? How did you use the time I gave you? I had many things in store for you to do and you never got to see any of them!
You can only imagine the disappointment, sadness and regret for not having accepted to live the calling of God here on this earth.
Elisha and the rich young man were called by God, the two could have a beautiful story, but only Elijah was courageous enough to burn what held him to his old life.
Because Elisha obeyed, he went down in history and his name and his miracles are registered here in this Bible today.
Your name may be registered in the history of Monaghan and Ireland because you were a servant that obeyed God, served people, saved people and healed people.
The cost of following Christ is great, but the cost of not following Christ will be even greater.
The first step is to be sure that you are a true born believer.
The second step, if you are a true believer, is to fulfil your calling!
Jesus says : Come and follow me! But He will not force you, you will have to surrender, give up your life to live for him.
You will have to leave your old life behind to reach this new life.
Do you know what God wants you to leave behind?
Some are divided between two loves: between the world and the church (God). Some are serving two masters!
How do you want to ever be happy if you have two masters pulling you in different directions?
God wants you to burn your connection with the things of this world.
You will only live bigger things if you abandon the world and abandon your own projects. If you do not want to abandon the world and do not want to burn your plows then get ready for a life of continuous loss.
To experience greater things you will have to break up with your past, you will have to say no to sin, you will have to humiliate yourself, ask for forgiveness, to take pride out of your life and recognise your sins.
You will have to give up many things to obey the calling of God, but you will lose much more if you decide to stick to your old plows and your pride.
Elisha had a calling but his calling only began after he had made his choice.
What will your choice be today? Do you want to live greater things? Or do you want to follow your heart, your plans and your old life?
I can assure you, if you surrender to God today and renounce your plans and burn your plows you will never regret your decision. You will be a happy, complete and fulfilled person because you know you are living in the center of God’s will.
May you be faithful to God’s calling, writing a beautiful story and reach heavens as a good and faithful servant!
May God bless and keep you