Creating a Coaching Community

Our Bible verse for today is from Mark 6, 6-13.

He was amazed at their lack of faith, then Jesus went around, teaching from village to village, calling the twelve to him.

He began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.

These were his instructions.

Take nothing for the journey, except a stuff.

No bread, no bag, no money in your belts.

Wear sandals, but not an extra shirt.

Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the town.

And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.

They went out and preached the people should repent.

They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

God is painting his story on the canvas of generations in the colors of the nations.

This is what I sensed the Lord said to me when our family finished up at a church that we'd been at, and I'd been a pastor at for nearly 19 years.

And when we finished, I had this sense of, oh, that's a shame.

I wanted to be part of more of the story of what God was doing at that church.

But I didn't know what God was doing in our life, and he's sovereign and he knows the big picture.

And as I was grappling with the loss, I felt like God said that to me.

I'm painting my story on the canvas of generations in the colours of the nations.

And the power of that is just that none of us can live long enough to see all that God wants to do.

Amen.

He's doing a work that's long, you might say.

History is a long game, and salvation history needs generations to be knitted together.

And that picture, I think, is a beautiful and powerful one.

The canvas of generations, sewn together.

And he is painting a story, and one person who feels like they are indispensable and essential for the kingdom.

Over time learns, no, you're not.

Amen?

You're not.

But you're important, and God loves to use us.

And of course, we have a role to play in what he is doing in his kingdom coming in power, in all sorts of little villages around the world and cities and rural settings.

God is doing a work that involves multiple generations, which means we need to coach others in the ways of the master, in the keys of the kingdom.

This month's core value is coaching community.

It sits in our vision statement, love God, love others, make disciples.

It sits under making disciples.

And it's just so essential to the way God works in history.

People learn about his ways and then teach others.

And in the people that learnt about his ways, the new ones, they teach the next group.

So have you ever coached someone?

Hands raised, ever coached someone?

If you're a parent, you've coached someone.

Maybe you haven't been a coach of some sports team, but if you're a parent, we coach our kids to crawl, eat, wee on the toilet, to be honest, to not lie, to catch a ball sometimes, to write their name.

We teach them how to pray, say thanks, become a woman, become a man, how to study, how to apply a work ethic.

We should also teach our kids about the ways of the master, about the keys to the kingdom that he has called us to live in.

The ways of the kingdom of the heavens is what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount.

And that is our greatest call, to be a Christian and to then pass that on, the ways of the master, to who God gives us to share that truth with.

And if you've ever done that, has that been, again, I always love asking for a show of hands, but how many people in the room would say, one of the greatest thrills and privileges of your life is to pass on the truth of the kingdom to someone else?

Anyone?

Look around, there's so many hands.

It just is such a fulfilling experience to coach someone else in a large way or a small way, to point them towards finding their call, why they're on the planet, to testify to the goodness of God, and to show others his ways.

We're in this second last week in the series, Kings and Characters, and today we're looking at Elijah and Elisha, because Elijah passed on the mantle to Elisha.

They were prophets of Israel, and Elisha learned as an apprentice from Elijah.

Last year, we studied a little bit in the Kings and Characters season one.

We had a message on Elijah, and so you might like to just look up online.

Ben does a great job putting all our sermons and teachings there.

So if you want to catch up, please do so.

I know many of us are reading the Old Testament history books.

And so we're familiar with this very significant character, Elijah, who took on Ahab and the prophets of Baal and Jezebel.

And then it came to the point in these texts we're looking at, where he passed on the baton to Elisha.

And what we're going to spend a little bit of time looking at is just this simple idea that Elijah passing on the baton to Elisha was designed to be a mirror of the authority passed on from Moses to Joshua.

And then we need to just look at this just briefly.

We just sort of wander through some of these texts and then think, wow, that seems to be quite an important modus operandi.

It's a theme of the kingdom, this following a pattern, mirroring the passing on of a baton between generations, between people in the kingdom.

So there is this moment in 1 Kings 19, if you want you can turn to it, but just look at it on the screen.

Elijah went from there and found Elisha, son of Shaphat, he was ploughing with 12 yoke of oxen and he himself was driving the 12th pair.

That means he comes from a wealthy family, this guy, Elisha.

Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him.

Now, if you haven't read the story, please go and have a look.

It's just a really wonderful story of a younger man getting called by God and he burns the ploughs that he's working with and they slaughter the oxen and they have a big celebration and he basically burns the ships.

I mean, he goes, okay, I'm following you.

And this mirrors something that happened with Moses many years before when he was finishing his ministry and they were like, well, who's going to take over?

And Joshua was chosen in Numbers 27.

The Lord said to Moses, take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit of leadership, and lay your hand on him.

Have him stand before Eliezer, the priest, and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence.

Give him some of your authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him.

And as we come to 2 Kings 2, this mirror continues.

We see them located at these three places, Gilgal, Bethel, and then Jericho.

It happens with Joshua, and then it happens with Elijah and Elisha.

I'm just going to read them really quickly as an example of this mirroring.

2 Kings 2, 1, When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.

It's our first little town.

Elijah said to Elisha, Stay here, the Lord has sent me to Bethel.

But Elijah said, As surely as the Lord lives, and as you live, I will not leave you.

So they went down to Bethel.

The company of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and asked, Do you know that the Lord is going to take your master home from you today?

Yes, I know, Elisha replied, so be quiet.

Then Elijah said to him, Stay here, Elisha, the Lord has sent me to Jericho.

And he replied, As surely as the Lord lives, and as you live, I will not leave you.

So they went to Jericho.

So simple.

Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho.

But the writers of this biblical account, they make sure that that happens because it mirrors what Joshua did when he took over from Moses.

Let me read it quickly.

Joshua 4, the 10th day of the 1st month, the people went from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho.

And then 7, Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-Avon, to the east of Bethel, and told them, Go up and spy out the region.

And he works through to Jericho, son of Nun, secretly sent 2 spies from Shittim.

Go look over the land, he said, especially Jericho.

Gilgal, Bethel, Jericho.

And then there's the miraculous crossing of the Jordan River.

And I know we're moving quickly through it, but we're gonna slow down in a sec.

So Joshua had that incredible experience, verse 11 of chapter 3.

The ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you, God said.

Now then choose 12 men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.

As soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord set foot in Jordan, in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap, and that's what happens.

So Joshua stops the river Jordan, and then Elijah does it in 2 Kings.

50 men from the company of the prophets went and stood at a distance facing the place where Elijah and Elisha had stopped at the Jordan.

Elijah took his cloak, rolled it up and struck the water.

The water divided to the right and to the left, and the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

Do you think this is an accident?

It's not.

It's there for a purpose.

God does things often in certain ways, and we see his fingerprints.

Would you agree?

I had this great conversation after doing weights on our Monday night group, which we call House of Pain, which we have about up to 13 men from different generations come and lift weights together, and we had this wonderful conversation with a brand new Christian.

At the end of the night, there was Mike Richardson and I and this other younger guy, and he said, I'm noticing, a brand new Christian, he says, I'm noticing God seems to do this in how he leads people to himself, to Jesus.

Do you think that's right?

And we both just went, yeah.

Without going into the details, that's what he does.

Totally, that's what he does.

And I love those moments.

They're about quarter to 10 at night, everyone's been huffing and puffing and doing some exercise, and you just have these very profound opportunities of a conversation.

And especially when a younger person maybe, who's new in the faith, says, I'm noticing what I think are the fingerprints of God.

Do you think that's?

Yeah.

Next time you see them, I bet you that will be the Lord at work.

And so there's this mirroring that goes on.

Even the ascension of Elijah to heaven happens at the same place that Moses disappears, dies at Mount Nebo.

Let me read Deuteronomy 34.

Moses climbed Mount Nebo, and this is just down from Jericho, across the River Jordan and up the mountain, from the plains of Moab.

And there the servant of the Lord died, as the Lord had said, 2 Kings 2.

When they had crossed Elijah said to Elisha, tell me what can I do for you before I am taken from you?

Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit, Elisha replies.

You've asked a difficult thing, Elijah, the prophet said.

If you see me when I am taken from you, it will be yours, otherwise it will not.

As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up in a whirlwind.

Elisha saw this and cried out, My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel.

And Elisha saw him no more, and he took hold of his garment and tore it in two.

So, thus ends the most scripture you've heard read very fast.

Elijah had disappeared, just like Moses.

And like Joshua took over with the authority that came from the Spirit of God and the Word of God, Elisha takes over from Elijah.

It's the way of the Master.

It's how it works.

God trains people in his ways, and then we're meant to pass that on.

As Moses to Joshua, as Elijah to Elisha, so Jesus to his disciples, so Paul to Timothy, so mother to daughter, so youth group leader to youth group teenager.

The way of the Master is a coaching community.

Are you in the game or are you on the sideline?

That can be a hurtful, painful statement question, I think.

Because some of us used to be in the game.

And now it's like, I don't know if I am.

And it hurts me, to be honest.

I want to be in the game.

I want to have relationships where I can share what I've learnt from the Lord, but I don't feel like I am there.

When we zoom forward 800 years and come to the life of Jesus, we find that this is absolutely this coaching community, as Ben said in his video.

It is his modus operandi.

He has 3 years of full on ministry at about the age of 30 to 33, and he calls 12 disciples.

He doesn't set up a theological training school, which he could have, because there were academies to the Stoic way of life, the Athenian way of life, the Epicurean way of life in Athens.

There were massive, what are they called?

The Colosseum type things where people taught.

He could have set up a theological style institution.

He didn't.

He took 12 men.

Jesus shared his life with 12 men, and there was a growing group around them.

Have you discovered that you don't lessen your candle in any way by lighting someone else's wick?

If you know something that is from the ways of the Master, there's nothing bad about giving it away.

And that's the first point I think I'd like to just make in a reflection.

The kingdom of God grows in a coaching community when people receive the revelation of the good news, an ongoing revelation about the ways of the Master, and they give it away.

They give it away.

Have you realised that those spiritual giftings that you have been given are not for you?

Your spiritual gifts from the Lord, from the Holy Spirit, they're a gift to be given away.

To bless others.

What about revelation, wisdom, insight from the Lord?

It's for us, an audience of one is enough to just live in obedience and glorifying the one true living God.

But it's normally not the way of the Master.

It's normally about giving it away.

When I was between churches as a pastor, I had eight months between.

And one of the great things that drew me back into pastoral ministry was I felt like I had lost the proximity to share with people.

And now upon reflection, I think, well, not that many of us are pastors.

So that can't be the way, just because you're a pastor and you have this sort of positional power.

What about everyone else?

And when I reflect on that, I think, well, no, the main thing about all of us is if you chop and change churches and you don't hang around in Christian community very much, like if you don't attend much, it's much harder for you to have relationships where you would share your wisdom and maturity and godly revelation.

Amen?

And that's a problem for us today, because people join in with the Christian community less frequently.

And so I think that that's undercutting the actual system that has been designed from the beginning that god reveals his truth to people, and in relational settings, that truth is passed on, a coaching community.

There's a reason surely why Jesus invested so much time in building the platform of relationship, so that he could say some challenging things like, oh, you have little faith.

Who are you calling little faith?

You, you know it.

We know each other.

I can, I can hassle you a bit.

One person who does this really well is Mike Richardson.

Can I just invite him up and maybe give him a warm welcome?

When I think of people who do a good job, come on in here, mate.

People who do a good job of sharing encouragement, of doing this sort of coaching community thing.

I think of Mike, I think he's one of the people who does it well.

How do you do it?

I think one of the things that sticks in my mind is everyone's got such a good story to tell if we take time to listen.

It says again, I think it's Proverbs 139, that everyone is fearfully and wonderfully made.

And no matter what their status is in society, whether it's their homeless person or someone who's got everything together, they've got such interesting things to say, whether it's little people, their dreams, their things that they're passionate about in life.

And if we take time to listen, I think it's like gold just hearing what's going on inside in these people's minds, the hurts, the hardships, the dreams, the passions.

But if we take that time to listen, and we learn a few questions that we can ask to open up those things.

But one of the interesting things is that God gives us...

It says there is life and death in the tongue.

There's power in the tongue.

And as God created the universe, He spoke things into being, we're made in His image, and we have that ability with what we speak, to speak life and death into situations.

And as we've learned the principles of Christianity in ourselves, which I think are very practical, very relatable, they're not something that are long distance away and elusive, as we share those into people's lives, that brings life, and we can speak life into them.

Sounds so good.

And I noticed too, as you're talking, you seem to stack your spiritual gifts as well.

So, you're a real helper.

You'll just help people out.

And in the context of that helping, which makes...

Or you're very generous too, like you have a gift of giving.

And it seems to me like God uses those gifts as you allow the Spirit to manifest those gifts in your life.

That sort of puts you again in a position where you can do the listening and you can do the sharing.

I'm just noticing it as you talk.

I find as you give things, it does open up doors.

And people always respond to a generous gift or a generous word or a generous word of encouragement.

And that then opens up for further conversations of what's in there.

And I suppose over conversations, it builds up a relationship of trust where people might open up something to you they wouldn't normally open up.

And then when someone opens up and says, I've never shared with this anyone before, someone who's in their 50s and 60s, that's like, wow.

Thank you, mate.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

If you could give him a warm clap.

And I appreciate, like, seeing this.

My son, Locke, was at the end of our training session on Monday, and he was sitting out on the concrete outside the garage, and who was sitting next to him for 20 minutes, but Mike.

I don't know what they were talking about, but they were just having a chat.

And so, there it is.

If you want to learn a little bit about how to give it away, talk to Mike.

He's one of the people who seems to do it really well in the Jesus style, I think.

Give it away and grow in authority.

Authority is what the Elijah story is all about.

As soon as Elisha takes over, Elijah's gone.

A bit like Pentecost.

Jesus ascends.

He's gone.

It's a bunch of riff-raff that take on the responsibility, but they grow in their authority.

And 2 Kings 2, 23, a little bit further on in our passage, Elisha went up to Bethel, and as he was walking along the road, this is the first thing that happens.

This is for a reason why we're told this.

As odd as it sounds, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him.

Get out of here, Baldi, they said.

Get out of here, Baldi.

He turned around, looked at them, and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord.

Now, he maybe toned down his responses as he got older.

I don't know, but.

Two bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the boys.

And he went on to Mount Carmel, and from there returned to Samaria.

Not a laughing matter.

Ben, who would laugh about that?

I was.

I thought it was humorous.

But that's an example of him growing in his authority.

And the passage that Jimmy read for us, Jesus, Mark 6, he went around teaching and called the 12 to him, and he said, I'm giving you authority.

Go out, and he gave them very clear instruction about how to do it.

And in verse 12, they went out and preached that people should repent.

They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.

Have you experienced that as you've started to share what you learn, that you grow in authority?

Have you seen it?

Like one of the greatest things I love in my life is when I remember brand new Christians that I've had something to do with, and then a conversation about them following the call of God on their life.

And then seeing them later on as a pastor or in some other role, being used by God in authority, with the authority of the name of Jesus.

It's just the way it's meant to be.

When I was first at that church, that was at my first full time church, I remember preaching in a morning service, and I was the youth young adults pastor for the first couple of years, and I got an opportunity to preach to these mainly older people.

I had my tie on, didn't have my jeans, I wore sort of slacks or whatever you call them.

Trying to respect people as much as I can.

But I was making a few excuses because I was so embarrassed and sort of feeling like 25 and these people are 70, and I'm like, what do I know?

So then I catch up with my mentor at that time, who's in his 80s, and his wife comes in, and they're getting us, having a cup of tea together, and suddenly she's at me so serious.

She says, Jonathan, don't ever let me hear you make excuses in the pulpit again.

I was like, okay.

She said, it's the Word of God that has authority, not you, not your age.

If you get up and preach from the Word of God, that's the authority.

And I went, yes, ma'am.

And I don't think I've done it again, made an excuse, like, oh, sorry, I get to preach from God's Word, don't listen to me.

No, it's God's Word, and that's the authority that we we speak from.

Authority.

If you're a Christian, you have authority.

In the Old Testament, it was the name of Yahweh.

But we have authority.

Jesus in Luke 10 sent out 72 disciples, and he said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

I have given you authority.

And this is even before Pentecost, before the Holy Spirit.

You have power over the enemy.

Nothing will harm you.

Where does that authority actually come from?

For your life.

If you're going to be coaching others, pointing others by God's grace in the ways of the Master, where does your authority come from?

The answer is in the name of Jesus.

But what's the next thing you have to say to explain it?

It is out of intimacy.

Isn't it?

That's where authority comes from.

That you have spent time with the Master and learned his heart, his authority, because it's the badge of the sheriff.

It's in Jesus' name that we have authority.

And the more that we know about who he is and what he's like, and what he has done, and what he is doing, the more authority we minister in and out of.

And clearly that comes from the word of God as well.

We need to be able to draw the word of God out of our own scabbard.

There are few things more exhilarating than being able to share the ways of the master.

We give it away.

We grow in authority.

And can I just, excuse me for these coughs.

Let me give a little plug before Stephen gets to, because he will next year.

In the last 10 years, when we look at our kids' ministry, it's such a wonderful opportunity for ministry.

It's done so well.

But you know what's weird?

There are not many parents in the last 10 years that have served in our kids' ministry.

You think about a church that maybe you were part of if you've been a Christian for years.

My experience has always been, it's often the place where parents of kids get involved.

Can I encourage you?

Not burden you, not guilt trip you, not at all.

People just have different capacity and different seasons of life.

But Gee, I reckon it would be great.

He's gonna be looking for more leaders.

If some of us would see that as the most fantastic opportunity to pass on the revelation of the gospel to the next generation.

I mean, really, there are a few better opportunities than people with captive hearts, eyes, ears, listening, ready to get to know us as leaders, to love them in the name of Jesus.

And if you can do that three times a term as a parent, that is such a blessing to you.

And it will be a blessing to the kids as well.

But I promise you, if you're feeling like a little bit disconnected in a growing church, just being part of a serving team, it helps.

So yeah, please keep your ear out for when he comes asking.

We would love people to step up and give away what they have in the Lord.

Give it away, grow in authority, and listen, last thing, listen to the keys.

Jesus says in Matthew 16, I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

Of course, that's the gospel, that's the truth of the gospel, that Jesus died and rose again, gave his perfect blood to satisfy the wrath of God.

We can be saved.

It's the key of the kingdom, it's what opens up eternal life for someone who would respond by faith.

And I think he also teaches in the Sermon on the Mount some of the other flavors of the kingdom, doesn't he?

The keys of the kingdom are blessed humility.

He teaches what the kingdom is like, the kingdom of the heavens, it's servanthood, it's the flavor, it's the musical motif, if you will, of seeking the glory of God above everything else.

It's seeking first the kingdom, it's purity of mind and heart by the grace of God.

Loving others so that we can deal with our own contempt.

That's what the keys of the kingdom sound like, dealing with anger by God's grace and lust and pride and materialism in community.

Working through this, servanthood, walking extra miles is what the sound of kingdom life sounds like.

Turning cheeks, winning people over with grace and love and forgiveness.

The keys to the kingdom.

Praying that the father's kingdom would come, expecting the father to bless and provide and protect and guide.

Moses passed on these motifs to Joshua and Elijah passed them on to Elisha.

And I think they are like musical keys.

Anybody, anyone familiar with musical keys?

Not many, okay.

Let me instruct you a little bit.

Danica over here, if she's playing in the key of C, and the key is just like if you sing a song, it will always take you home to something called the root note.

And that's the key.

It's called the tonic.

And so if she's playing in C major, this sound that has a root home note, and someone over here on the guitar is playing in D major, guess what that sounds like?

That doesn't sound good.

It's dissonant.

And as a musician myself, I often think it's so the way of the master as a metaphor, is the key of the kingdom, is sometimes probably worth thinking of the metaphor as the keys, the musical keys of the kingdom.

And so the great story of God's glory is a five act musical, and it starts with number one creation, and then the fall, and then Israel, Jesus, the church.

And just like Elijah passed it on to Elisha, and Moses passed it on to Joshua, and Jesus passed it on to the disciples, I think it's helpful to think it's listening to the key of the music.

Are you with me at all?

Maybe not.

Faith, hope, love, peace, joy.

That's part of the keys of the kingdom.

Isn't it?

Like when we're doing that weight training and we talk at the end of the night, we're talking about what it sounds like to live a life of obedience, and what it feels like to fail, but know there's grace.

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