Dirty Birds Series

ELIJAH—A MAN OF LIKE PASSIONS

02 Dirty Birds

TEXT: 1 Kings 17:2-7

1 Kings 17:2-7 KJV And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, [3] Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. [4] And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. [5] So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. [6] And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook. [7] And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

I. INTRODUCTION—THE MAN FROM NOWHERE

-Elijah was literally the man from nowhere. God grows great souls in places of isolation and obscurity. This was the case with this great prophet. Isolation and obscurity were his school teachers and Gilead was the school house.

-Elijah went with a supernatural boldness to Ahab and spoke to him as God had sent him to do. But when men are used of God in this manner, it is often the next steps that become very difficult for them to fathom.

-He leaves that moment filled with prophetic power to a place that is absent of everything that Elijah probably thought that it should be.

-No man however spiritual that he may be can understand all of the ways of the Lord and more often than not we have to know that God leads us through mysterious and obscure paths of life to fulfill His purpose.

-Unrecognized and confusing paths to us are literally the ways that God works.

• His way is one of mercy.

• His way is one of blessing.

• His way is one of salvation.

• His way is one that completes His will.

-Confusion and disorientation may be where we are at presently but God has a bird’s eye view of it all and He is directing your path.

II. THE BROOK CHERITH

-Elijah had spoken to Ahab that there would be no rain or dew and now that prophetic prayer and utterance is put into action.

• The hot winds have melted the greenery.

• The bleating sheep and lowing oxen are dying from hunger and thirst.

• The fields are parched and dead.

• The people are in a high state of alarm and anxiety.

-What we so often forget is that Elijah was a participant in all of this. He is living under the pressure of the famine just like the nation is. Even the prophet does not escape the judgment of the Lord in this matter. Does the Lord make provision for him? Absolutely but we have to accept the fact that there were some places in Elijah’s life that got just as uncomfortable for him as it did the people.

-We are living that now and will be in the future. Our society took a turn just a few days ago and we are going to be under the burden and consequences of that sin even though we are children of God.

-Elijah may have thought that he was facing his end just as Samson had faced his in the temple of Dagon among the Philistines. But we are reading the story with a knowledge of the turn out that Elijah did not have. We know that God is just starting His purpose in the prophet’s life but Elijah does not know that.

-We can preach with a sense of faith to all who are here and believe that only God can draw us through and there are grand and glorious parts of the story of our lives that remains yet to be worked out!

• Despite the political upheaval

• Despite the moral downturn

• Despite the seeming upper hand that trouble has on us

• Despite the grimness of the circumstances that we currently face. . . God is still putting the story together. . .

-Just as the old song goes. . . one that I can remember Brother James Kilgore singing in Life Tabernacle when I was at TBC.

I cannot fail the Lord

I cannot fail the Lord

He has never failed me yet

Every problem He has met

And I cannot fail the Lord

Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. [6] In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Psalms 62:8 KJV Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah.