This morning, we're

continuing our new message series entitled, "Family of

Prophets."  We're rediscovering our

identity as a church family this year and this group of individuals are an

awesome example to learn from.  

Family is a group of

people who genuinely love, trust, care for, and look out for each other.

Success.  Everybody wants to succeed.  A healthy family will help one another to

succeed.

Nobody makes plans,

invests and sacrifices to follow those plans, only to have it all wasted and to

end in failure.  No, rather, we plan and

invest and sacrifice to achieve success! 

How do we make unstoppable plans that are sure to succeed?

Proverbs 21:29-30

29 The wicked put up

a bold front,

    but the upright give thought to their ways.

30 There is no

wisdom, no insight, no plan

    that can succeed against the Lord.

(repeat)

Is there any wisdom,

insight, or plan that can succeed against the Lord?  Then how do we make unstoppable plans that

are sure to succeed?  We make the plans

of the Lord our own.  We team up and

cooperate with Him.  Only in that place

are we unstoppable!

Last week, we

learned of how God is our restorer from when Elisha lost Elijah.  We now turn to the very next chapter and

learn from an encounter had with Elisha, the new leader of the family of

prophets.

2 Kings 3

1 Joram son of Ahab

became king of Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of

Judah, and he reigned twelve years. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but

not as his father and mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal

that his father had made. 3 Nevertheless he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son

of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them.

Imagine this.  There are two horses each bridled and ready

to go.  From each bridle a rope is tied

to each of your arms.  In 5 seconds, each

horse is about to take off full tilt. 

Would you rather those horses be heading opposite directions or the same

direction?  You are about to either get a

limb torn off or to go faster and further ahead than you ever could on your

own.

Sure, Joram wasn't

as sinful as his parents, he learned form their mistakes.  However, he still clung both to some of the

sins of his dad and to the Lord.  Joram

was clinging to his own ways and God's at the same time, but they are heading

two different directions.  He is torn and

continuing to try and cling to the both isn't going to end well for him.  Eventually, he is going to have to let go of

one or the other.

Long story short,

the nation of Israel divided during Solomon's reign as king.  Solomon wanted to serve God along with the

gods of several of his wives.  Solomon

was torn, so God tore his kingdom from him. 

Solomon continued to reign over Judah and the other ten tribes were

known as the nation of Israel ruled by Jeroboam, Joram's father.

Jeroboam was

motivated by fear.  We learned about loss

last week and the purpose that God has through it.  The fear of loss can certainly be a

hinderance and stopping point to our plans. 

Fear is a snare that binds us and keeps us from moving forward in

life.  God has not given us a spirit of

fear, but a spirit that grants us a sound mind, power, and confidence in who we

are.