What’s Your Next Step? | Ken McIntyre

Sometimes the hardest part of faith is moving forward. Pastor Ken McIntyre shares how God always has a “next” for us—even when it means leaving behind what feels familiar. Looking at Elisha’s story, we see the importance of trust, obedience, and courage when God calls us into something new.

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Transcript

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- Hey, this is Phil Kal, lead pastor at Hope City Church. Thanks for tuning into our podcast. My prayer is that this helps and encourages you, gives you some practical ways to live out your faith and ultimately fills you with hope. Enjoy the message.- You've been around Hope City for some time. You've likely heard this, and it's the big idea for today's sermon. And it's this, no matter who you are, God has a next for you. Now, for all of you, English experts out there who believe that correcting people's grammar is your spiritual service to the world, let me rob you of the satisfaction . I know that's a strange sentence. Next, typically functions as an adjective, but in the way that we're using it, it is the noun. It's like, well, God has a next, like what? It feels unfinished. The Christian life is always, it's all about forward movement, right? The, the next step of obedience, the next faith-filled risk, the next decision to forgive somebody. Now, your next could be something huge, or it could be something just really small. It could be if you're nine years old or if you're 90 years old. But we really do believe no matter who you are, God has a next for you. And that idea is going to land differently on all of us. Maybe for you, you have an adventurous spirit. You love change, and the idea of next is exciting for you. You're thrilled. And maybe like Isaiah, you say, here I am Lord, send me. And you love that idea, uh, of next, or maybe you're the opposite. You hate change. You're so resistant to it, but maybe, maybe you're in a place right now that isn't so great and so you're, you're hesitant but willing to explore God's next for your life because it can't be any worse than your now. And then there's people for whom God's next feels more like a burden than it does an opportunity because you like your life just the way it is, and you don't want it to change. You don't wanna move into next season. If you had it your way, you could just press pause and live here forever. And I get that that's a dangerous place to be because you're tempted to mute the voice, the leading of God in your life, out of fear, fear of loss, fear of lack of control, fear of that next season. A few years ago, my wife and I had this wonderful idea to surprise our three daughters with a trip to Mexico in December, okay? It's pretty much more for me and her for than them. They just have to come anyway.'cause, you know, child, family service type stuff, but . So we decided, but the narrative in my head is we decided to surprise them with a trip to Mexico. They had no clue. And, you know, our flight left bright and early in the morning. So we made all the arrangements

and at 2: 3:05

00 AM we woke them up to tell them the news. So we had all the three daughters, you know, arranged from oldest to youngest on our, in our kitchen island. And we told 'em this news and we showed them the pictures. And my two oldest daughters were confused, but they were pretty excited. And I just watched back the video this week because we filmed it, but one of my daughters didn't want me to show it here. So you gotta respect that. I even bribed them. I, I'll pay you $25 if you let me show it in church. She said no. Anyway, but my youngest daughter, the whole time as I'm, as I'm saying this is, is really concerned. Like she's stressing out. She keeps on trying to interrupt and, and that, that concern turned to tears. And those tears turned to devastation because if we went to Mexico, it meant that she would miss her field trip to the science center that day. CS Lewis who wrote this, he said, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition. When infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in the slum or the science center, because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased. And I just wonder, are you far too easily pleased? Now, the proper posture for a grateful Christian is to enjoy and take pleasure in, in your present, in, in God's gift to you. Now, the Bible tells us that every good and perfect gift comes from God. But I wonder if instead of just enjoying God's gifts, you're trapped in them and you've insulated your life with yesterday's blessings, that you won't allow God to give you anything new. My wife recently enrolled, uh, in a series of pottery classes, and she always wanted to do that. I don't particularly understand it or get it or interested in it. And, uh, I didn't understand because we already had the cheapest dishes you could buy from Ikea. So I don't really understand why you'd want more dishes. But she went, she had a great time, uh, she learned a lot. And now we have all these cute little pieces that we have in our home. Uh, she would come home from class and she would talk about how difficult it was to, to mold the clay and to get it to form, you know, in the way that, that she would hoped. And, and some of the pieces turned out way, way less than she would hoped and imagined them them to be. It was almost as if the clay, you know, had a rebellious streak. It just had like a mind of its own. In Romans nine, apostle Paul uses this idea of, of clay to illustrate God's sovereignty. He says this, who are you a human being to talk back to? God shall what is formed say to the one who formed it. Why'd you make me like this? Does not the potter have the right to make outta the same lump of clay? Some pottery for special purposes and some for common use? And the idea is simply that the loving, sovereign, purposeful God is forming you. And if you don't let him, you will turn out to be way, way less than the potter imagined. And to resist God's next in your life is like being a rebellious piece of clay. There's another tension involved in this idea that no matter who you are, God has a next for you. There's another tension. And, and it's this, you don't doubt that God has a next for someone. You just don't believe that God has a next for you. And, and I've heard the excuse I've I've heard them all right. I'm not smart enough. I read my Bible. I cannot memorize this thing, and I hardly have an idea of what it's saying. Half the time, I'm not smart enough or I'm too damaged. Do you know my past? Do you know the baggage I'm carrying? Do you know my trauma? I'm too old. I'm too old. My best days are behind me. Or, or I'm not spiritual enough. I come here and I do my best. And it seems like other people have this close connection to God, but, but I just don't feel it in the same way that other people describe it. And so you believe, okay, yes, I believe God has a next, for some people God just doesn't have a next for me. But the problem with that is that it's really bad math because the only thing that you are using in your equation is yourself. You're missing the biggest factor, which is God.'cause you, if you involve God, everything changes. This is what Paul says to the Corinthians. He says, brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards. Not many were influential. Not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise. He chose the weak things of this world to shame the strong God chose the lowly things of this world, the despise things, the things that are not to nullify the things that are so that no one may boast. Paul says, listen, when God called you, it's not because you had something to bring to the table that he needed. Sometimes we think God to be like a GM of a hockey team where he is trying to fill his roster with the most talented people, where he's lacking a little depth. That's, that's how we choose teams. Do you remember in, in grade school and at recess or or in gym class, when they choose teams, and what they do is they'd, they'd have two captains and then they'd pick like one by one. And you always start with the most athletic person. And then Inev, inevitably at the end you have the two people. Nobody wants, right? You have like, like the scrat kid in the school and you got a kid on crutches and like, you don't want 'em, but you're just like, whatever, kid on crutches and you take pity on 'em. That's how we choose teams because we wanna win. That's not how God chooses teams.'cause God has already won the, the cross and the empty tomb are proof of that. So when Jesus calls you, when he saves you, he's inviting you to enjoy in his victory elap, he's giving you a seat on the float, on the parade. He hasn't called you because he needs you. He calls you because he loves you. And so this idea that we can disqualify ourselves from God's next with our excuses, we don't have the platform, we don't have the competency, we don't have the capacity. We're too old, I'm too broken. None of that, none of those reasons can exclude you from God's next in your life. None of it. But there is one thing, there is one thing that if you do, you will not walk into God's next for your life. You won't. I wanna share a story from the Old Testament book of one Kings chapter 19. And it centers on two characters with annoyingly similar names. Okay? Elijah and Elisha, if your name is Elijah, uh, I'm going to over pronounce the J, uh, because I'll get 'em confused in my head and I might confuse you as well. Okay? So Elijah was one of the greatest prophets of Israel. He called down fire from heaven, he confronted kings, he even raised the dead. And in this passage, we're gonna see this transferring of authority from this great mighty man of God, Elijah, to this nobody, Elijah, just obscure farmer, just kind of going about his business, no real business being next in line to one of the greatest prophets that Israel ever had. So let me read you the story. It says this. So Elijah went from there and found Elisha, son of Shaphat. He was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. And he himself was driving the 12th pair. Elijah went to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye. He said, and then I'll come with you. Go back. Elijah replied, what have I done to you? 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 all ate. So got a cookout, we got a barbecue happening. Then he went out to follow Elijah and became his servant. So I wanna just kind of walk through this verse by verse just to understand what's happening. And this is the first thing that we read. We read, Elijah went from there and found Elisha, son of Shefa. And he was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. And he himself was driving the 12 pair. This was the Bible's way of saying that Elisha had, means he had money in the ancient near East. If you had one pair of oxen, you were in a good spot to have 12. The Bible's telling us that Elisha had a very large estate, he was well off, okay? And these, these, these oxen and his plowing equipment, they were critical to his success. Now, next we read this, and it's strange. Elisha went up to him and threw his cloak around him, which is strange. Like after the service today, if I'm in the lobby and you decide to put your jacket around me, I'm not gonna like that. I think that's gross. Okay? I don't know where your jacket has been, so don't even try it as a joke, okay? I'm not gonna like it. Just don't do it. It's a weird thing. But Elisha, he understood what this meant. The cloak represented the prophetic authority that was on Elijah's life. And so when that happened, Elisha understood that God was calling him into something new. He's calling him into his next. And I want you to notice how Elisha received this call, where he was, what he was doing. He was not in the temple, he was not praying, he's not fasting. We have no indication that he was even looking for this. But God is just like working behind the scenes and just out of nowhere, just sneaks up on Elisha in the middle of his mundane, boring, ordinary. And that's how often God works like that. Sometimes we get these burning bush moments with God, but so often it's just when we're driving to work, it's when we're changing diapers. It's when we are running errands where God comes and does something in our life. I remember my most memorable, or one of my most memorable nexts that I ever had was when I was in my second year of college at Mount Royal in Calgary. I was studying to be a gym teacher. I wanted to be a gym teacher. And so I was in kinesiology and I remember being in the cafeteria and I just got this deep sense, this impression from the Lord to enroll in Bible college in the next semester. I liked school. I wasn't, I wasn't, uh, I wasn't, you know, unsatisfied or unhappy. I kind of had my dream, you know, to be that gym teacher. The last thing I wanted to be was in church leadership. The last thing I ever wanted to do was stand in front of people and preach and, and be a passive is not on my mind. I was barely saved at that point. I don't even think I was, but I just sense that that's what God wanted me to do. And so for whatever reason I did it. And sort of the rest is history. And that's not to say that being a pastor is a better next than being a gym teacher. But if God's in it, and if he's the one leading, then it is absolutely better. And if you're here today and you're just kind of desperate for that next, desperate for God's leading in your life, but you don't know what that is, let me just encourage you to be faithful, to be faithful with whatever is in your hand right now. So show up to work tomorrow and be faithful. Show up for your kids if you stay at home with them and be faithful. Just be responsible. Own what you have now and just trust in the Lord's timing. Whatever your hand finds itself doing tomorrow, do as if unto the Lord, whatever your hand finds itself doing next week, in a month and year, do as if unto the Lord. And just be aware that at any moment God can sneak up on you, throw a cloak around you and call you to your next. This is what we read next, and this is the, the most bizarre part of it all says this, Eisha left his oxen and ran after Elijah. He took his yoke of oxen and he slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat, and he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant. This just doesn't feel like the right reaction, right? Like, it just feels like, did I miss something in the story? Like, you know, when you're watching a movie and then something happens, you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Did I just zone out for a second? You have to like go back. If you're first time reading this story, you're thinking, I, I must have missed something. There's some cultural clue. There's what, what happened in there?'cause it just doesn't feel like, like the sane thing to do. It's puzzling. So he slaughters the oxen, which again, feels rash. But I think the strangest thing is the plowing equipment itself. Like this was elisha's secured future. This was this, this was his hi, his, his means of, of making money. And so this doesn't just feel rash or, or wasteful. It, it, it seems irresponsible. Like at least give it to somebody else, right? If it was me, it'd be going up on Facebook marketplace. I'd be making some money out of this thing. Or better yet, just store it, store it away, just in case this whole, you know, God thing, this whole prophetic, you know, thing that God is bringing you into, just in case that doesn't work out, head your bets, right? Get a plan B, a backup plan. So what's happening here? Burning these plows really had no practical value to Elisha, but symbolically it was everything. Because when Elisha burns his plows, he's guaranteeing that he has nothing to go back to. He has nothing to run back to. It's God or bust. All the things, all the excuses that we tell ourselves to exclude us from living a radical life after God. Whether that's, we're not smart enough, we're too old, we don't know enough, we're not spiritual enough. Or in Elijah's case, he's too obscure. None of those things exclude you from God's next. But there is one thing, and Elijah understood it. And so he burnt his plows. That thing is surrender.'cause that's what burning the plows, that's what ultimately it represented. Elijah was declaring, even if I'm tempted to go back to my old way of life, I can't. And that sounds dramatic. But here's the reality, is that following Jesus, listen, it's dramatic. It's a dramatic act of surrender. A decisive cut from your old way of life into this new life that God has for you. A sad Christian life is a half-hearted one, A limp, powerless Christian life is one foot in one foot out trying to follow Jesus while also trying to maintain control. When we come after Jesus, he doesn't call us to a life of negotiation or a life of compromise. It's to a life of total surrender. Jesus, in his own words, echoing the story that happened with Elisha, he says this in Luke nine. He says, still, another said, I will follow you Lord, but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family. Sound familiar? Then Jesus says this, no one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. Meaning God's calls forward, God's calls, no plan B, if you keep looking back, you will miss it, you'll miss it. And I feel like as I was preparing this message, I'm like, I have preached this message like a hundred times. And you know what I realized, I'm probably gonna do it 300 more because this is it. This is the struggle, right? This is what we wrestle with. Because when it comes to surrender, there's so much fear. Fear of the unknown, fear that God might not carry you through fear of what you might lose. And I just think it's normal. And I think it's, it's human to recognize that we have that fear. But the tension of faith in Jesus, and the paradox of the Christian life is there's no other condition in which it works other than surrender. And so if your Christian life is not working for you, it's because you are unsurrendered. It's the only way that it works. That's why Jesus says again in Luke nine, whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me will save it. So Elisha, what's happening here? This is a foreshadowing. Elisha is showing us what it looks like to follow after Christ. And so he burns his plows, he sets blaze to whatever was tethering him to his old life in order to walk into that next chapter, the next season, the next assignment that God had for him. So the question for you this morning right now is this, what plow do you have to burn? What part of your life do you need to set fire to? Now, maybe you already know what your next is. Maybe as I've been talking, the lord's been speaking to you, you just know. You're like, thi this is it. And maybe it's something small. Maybe it's like, you know what, I need to, my life's been better since I've been coming back to church this fall, and I, I just need to keep on doing that. And so your next is just keep on coming week after week, get planted. Commit. Maybe it's choosing to give a portion of your income to the work of God. Maybe it's getting baptized next month. Maybe it's telling that friend at work or the gym or your neighbor about your faith in Christ and the difference that Jesus has made in your life. You know, maybe it's joining a small group because you don't really have much Christian community in your life, but whatever that might be, maybe it's a, maybe it's a small thing that you already know. This is what God is, this is, this is my next. But maybe it's not small. Maybe it is a little bit more akin to what Elisha walked through. It's big. He walked away from a lucrative, stable job to follow God's call into something unknown. I just met someone this week who took a massive pay cut, massive pay cut in order to walk into what they believe God is leading to them. It's like, good on you. Maybe, and this is a hard word. Maybe you're stretched so thin financially there's no margin. And maybe you are next. It's almost unthinkable. But it's to downsize that home that's just, you're just house poor or, or maybe it's something else in your life that is such great value, but you can't live generously. You know, you can't live simply, your life is out of order financially according to God's word. And that would just be your next. And I know that's a hard word. I would not wanna do that. Maybe it's reconciling or forgiving someone who, who just has, has so much, has a claws in you for so long. There's just so much offense that you're carrying. It's been so hard. And maybe it's just finally time. God, this is my next help me. Maybe it's going back to school. Maybe it's adopting or fostering a kid that's gonna undoubtedly turn your life upside down. You know, maybe like Jonah, you've been running from this ministry call that God has on your life. And your next is just to stop. Face the Lord, face the music and walk into that next I I clearly don't know and I don't claim to have any insight to what your next is, but God knows, and maybe you do too. And if you don't, I'm gonna encourage you. Earnestly, seek the Lord in this earnestly. Seek the Lord. Here's the thing though, even if you know what your next is, you can't move into it until you burn your plows. You have to burn your plows. Now, some of the things that we need to let go of and set fire in our life are so obvious because they're just ruining our life. You know, for some of you, uh, it's this rut that you kind of, your life just kind of keeps on tracking into. We call this cyclical sin. There's things that you just keep on coming back, coming back. Proverbs says like, like a, like a dog returning to its vomit. Like it's gross. Yeah. But so is cyclical sin. And so maybe for you, it's your anger and you lash out and you regret it. I'll do better in the next day. You do it again. You do it again. You keep on doing it. Maybe it's pornography. You hate what it's doing to you. You hate what it's doing to your life. You maybe hate what it's doing to your marriage, but you, you keep returning to it. You're not doing anything about it. You're too, you're too embarrassed to even come to the Lord with it. Listen, you're enslaved to that. That's cyclical sin that you have to set fire to, to walk into God's next for your life. For others, it's just the same destruct, destructive habit. Overeating, overspending over drinking, scrolling yourself numb every night. There's these things that you just keep on coming back to. It's like, now we gotta get rid of those things to move into God's next. We can't be tethered to these things any longer. Then there's, there's things in our life that they're not bad. Maybe they're actually, they're good, but they're, they're tempting you to waste your life. See, Elijah's plows, they weren't bad. They were good, they're productive, they were valuable, but again, they were chaining him to his old way of life. And so sometimes you have to let go of good things in order to walk into God's best for your life. Life. An example of that might be a friendship that you have. The Bible cautions us to not be unequally yoked with somebody else. In the ancient world, a yolk was a wooden, uh, beam that would harness two animals of the same size and of the same strength. That's an important detail together. In order to, uh, farm. Now you have to work in tandem. So what you don't wanna do is you don't want to, you don't wanna yoke an ox with the donkey, right? You're, they're gonna go in different ways, right? The ox is just gonna pull around this dead weight. It's gonna be miserable, it's gonna be frustrating. I'm not calling your friend donkey, okay? I'm not doing that doing that. But what I'm saying is you might be yoked with somebody and it's making your life miserable. You might be yoked with someone and you love them, but you guys are going in two different directions now. Maybe they don't share your love for Jesus. Or maybe you're just mismatched in intensity. You're trying to move forward and they're still kind of baby steps over here. And you're yoked together with this person and you're anchored to your past and can't move into God's next view because you're unequally yoked in your friendships. Maybe it's a routine, maybe for you, you're good plow that you need to burn is your routine. Listen, you've created a life that's so predictable, it's so smooth, and you got time for the things that matter to you. You got time for the gym, you got time for self-improvement. You got time for your loved ones, you got time for work, but your life is on autopilot. Everything is so rigid. Everything is so scheduled that God couldn't even interrupt that if you put a cloak on you, you wouldn't even notice. For some of you, it is work and you've been ignoring God's leading in certain areas because you know you like the reputation you have. You like the step, uh, the, the, the stability. You like the identity that comes with it. And you're not willing to risk what you built to move into what God might want to do in your life. And like Elijah, maybe he's asking you to do something that seems rash. It seems rash, but understand this, that sometimes surrender looks irresponsible to the world but is obedient to God. And I wanna be really careful with this.'cause the Bible tells us that if you don't work, you do not eat. The Bible tells us that anyone who does not provide for an unbeliever has denied the faith and is worse off. Or sorry, anyone who does not provide for their own family has denied the faith and is worse off than an unbeliever. So I am not advocating for flippancy. I am advocating for spirit-led obedience that may look irresponsible to those on the outside. So the two questions that I wanna leave you with and I want you to wrestle through are these, what is the next step that God is taking you into? And number two, what plow do you need to burn in order to walk into your next? So what ended up happening with Elisha says this verse 21, he set out to fire to follow Elijah and became his servant. Not really all that impressive, not maybe the upward mobility that you'd want for your life. You know, scholars estimate that it was up to 10 years after this moment that we even hear about Elisha in scripture again, 10 years this happens and we don't hear about 'em. Just goes back totally into obscurity. And I wonder if Elisha hadn't burned his plows, if there had been a temptation to go back. I don't know, but I wonder about that. But he didn't give himself that option. I'm sure he is glad that he didn't. Elisha became one of the greatest prophets in Israel's history. He did twice as many miracles at his predecessor Elijah. He confronted kings. His life had an impact beyond what he ever could have thought. He changed families, he changed generations, he changed nations. And it all started with burning his plows. And he had no idea. No idea what hung in the balance of that surrender. And here's the thing, you have no idea what hangs in the balance of your surrender. You have no idea the people who could come to know Christ because of your obedience. You have no impact. Uh, no idea the impact on your children who can grow up in a different type of home because you committed to following Jesus fully. You have no idea the restoration that could happen in the marriage, that you have lost hope in. You have no idea the legacy that could ripple through your family for generations because you burnt your plow and you said yes to God's next in your life. You have no idea how many missionaries could be sent, how many ministries could be started, how many churches could be planted, how many communities could be transformed because you said yes to God and burned your plows. You have no idea. One day you'll stand before God. And every plow that you burned and every yes that you said to God's next will be worth it. It'll be worth it. And so again, the two questions to take home are this, what step is God asking you to take? And number two, what plow do you need to burn in order to take it? Let me pray for you. God, we bless your name. Who are we? Oh human to talk back to you. But Lord, you have through Christ made a way that we can know you, that we can ask of you. And so, Lord, I ask right now through your Holy Spirit to bring clarity and peace and wisdom and courage to my friends, that we would not be people who would just retreat into comfort, who would retreat into apathy. But Lord, we really, truly believe this idea that you have a next for us, no matter who we are or how old, how broken, how dumb, how foolish Lord, that we would believe that you have a next for us. And so I ask that you would inspire us by your Holy Spirit and give us courage to walk into that next, even before we have the whole plan. Lord, just that one next step in faith. That's what you love. That's what pleases you. So let us be people of faith who walk into the next trusting you. Let us not be a people with one foot in and one foot out, one hand on the plow, one looking back. But Lord, let us be God or bust whatever you want that we would say yes to. We. So I pray for a church that is radically obedient to Jesus Christ who would know his voice and take faithful steps forward. Lord, we need your courage. We ask for your Holy Spirit to help us. And we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. If uh, you are here today and you know you just one of the things that maybe I've talked about or you just know to be true in your life, that you don't have many Christian friends surrounding you, it is very hard to follow Jesus. It is very hard to live a surrendered life to Christ without having people in your corner. And if you don't have Christians in your corner to root you on, maybe you're unequally yoked. I wanna encourage you, uh, today to stick around for a little bit 'cause it's connecting point, learn of all the different ways that you can connect with other people to build into their life and they build into you. Thank you for being in church today. We'll see you next week.