Intensity

I had several people wanting the notes from yesterday's sermon so I am placing them here on the blog today. The subject of intensity is easy to preach about because God is intense in everything He does. The following scripture is one of the great examples of intensity from the Old Testament. Sorry the blog is a bit long this morning but Hey, it's the whole sermon.

Discipleship Intensity
Feb. 17, 2008
Pastor Al Hazelton
Harlan First Assembly of God

Following God with intensity
2 Kings 4:8-37

8 One day Elisha went to the town of Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she invited him to eat some food. From then on, whenever he passed that way, he would stop there to eat.
9 She said to her husband, "I am sure this man who stops in from time to time is a holy man of God.
10 Let's make a little room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by."
11 One day Elisha returned to Shunem, and he went up to his room to rest.
12 He said to his servant Gehazi, "Tell the woman I want to speak to her." When she arrived,
13 Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tell her that we appreciate the kind concern she has shown us. Now ask her what we can do for her. Does she want me to put in a good word for her to the king or to the commander of the army?""No," she replied, "my family takes good care of me."
14 Later Elisha asked Gehazi, "What do you think we can do for her?"He suggested, "She doesn't have a son, and her husband is an old man."
15 "Call her back again," Elisha told him. When the woman returned, Elisha said to her as she stood in the doorway,
16 "Next year at about this time you will be holding a son in your arms!""No, my lord!" she protested. "Please don't lie to me like that, O man of God."
17 But sure enough, the woman soon became pregnant. And at that time the following year she had a son, just as Elisha had said.
18 One day when her child was older, he went out to visit his father, who was working with the harvesters.
19 Suddenly he complained, "My head hurts! My head hurts!"His father said to one of the servants, "Carry him home to his mother."
20 So the servant took him home, and his mother held him on her lap. But around noontime he died.
21 She carried him up to the bed of the man of God, then shut the door and left him there.
22 She sent a message to her husband: "Send one of the servants and a donkey so that I can hurry to the man of God and come right back."
23 "Why today?" he asked. "It is neither a new moon festival nor a Sabbath."But she said, "It's all right."
24 So she saddled the donkey and said to the servant, "Hurry! Don't slow down on my account unless I tell you to."
25 As she approached the man of God at Mount Carmel, Elisha saw her in the distance. He said to Gehazi, "Look, the woman from Shunem is coming.
26 Run out to meet her and ask her, 'Is everything all right with you, with your husband, and with your child?' ""Yes," the woman told Gehazi, "everything is fine."
27 But when she came to the man of God at the mountain, she fell to the ground before him and caught hold of his feet. Gehazi began to push her away, but the man of God said, "Leave her alone. Something is troubling her deeply, and the LORD has not told me what it is."
28 Then she said, "It was you, my lord, who said I would have a son. And didn't I tell you not to raise my hopes?"
29 Then Elisha said to Gehazi, "Get ready to travel; take my staff and go! Don't talk to anyone along the way. Go quickly and lay the staff on the child's face."
30 But the boy's mother said, "As surely as the LORD lives and you yourself live, I won't go home unless you go with me." So Elisha returned with her.
31 Gehazi hurried on ahead and laid the staff on the child's face, but nothing happened. There was no sign of life. He returned to meet Elisha and told him, "The child is still dead."
32 When Elisha arrived, the child was indeed dead, lying there on the prophet's bed.
33 He went in alone and shut the door behind him and prayed to the LORD.
34 Then he lay down on the child's body, placing his mouth on the child's mouth, his eyes on the child's eyes, and his hands on the child's hands. And the child's body began to grow warm again!
35 Elisha got up and walked back and forth in the room a few times. Then he stretched himself out again on the child. This time the boy sneezed seven times and opened his eyes!
36 Then Elisha summoned Gehazi. "Call the child's mother!" he said. And when she came in, Elisha said, "Here, take your son!"
37 She fell at his feet, overwhelmed with gratitude. Then she picked up her son and carried him downstairs.

Experiencing God in uncommon ways will find you following God in amazing ways

There are people here who never would have thought that they would be sitting in a church this morning.

Some in leadership this morning would have never thought this possible a few years ago.

There are people here this morning who thought that God hated them and now they have found that God loves them

There are people who didn’t know they could go to heaven when they die. And now they know.

We have in this room this morning: Engineers, teachers, professionals of all sorts, truck drivers, geeks, nurses, medical technologists, dancers, contractors, musicians, students, and everything in between.

We are here needing intensity in our walk with God.

Elisha had:

Godliness
He had been mentored by a great man of faith
Who is mentoring you?

Sensitivity
He knew when God was talking to him
Close regular contact with God pays off
Get along side those who walk with God.
Enoch types

John Eldridge in his book “Waking the Dead”
“When we set out to hear God’s voice, we do not listen as though it will come from somewhere above us or in the room around us. It comes to us from within, in the heart, the dwelling place of God.

Augustine said:
“Who can map out the various forces at play in one soul? Man is a great depth, O Lord….but the hairs of his head are easier by far to count than…the movement of his heart.”

Boldness
Unorthodox procedure
Wigglesworth example
What am I afraid of?
We would do well to trust God’s perspective