Hidden Hurting Healed 2
(Note to pastors, powerpoints slides are embedded in the sermon notes I post on church website. Plymouthcf.org)
Show Video
Talk about leverage. PPT 1
the mechanical advantage gained by the use of a lever
mechanical advantage (MA) is the factor by which a mechanism multiplies the force or torque applied to it
The video we showed talked about tactics of the enemy, one of his main tactics is discouragement. The enemy will often use circumstances against us as a point of leverage to move us out of the will and purposes of God through discouragement.
Last week we began our message, from 1st Kings 17: Hidden, Hurting, and Healed, I will recap that briefly in a moment but for now let me say that the circumstances Elijah and the widow of Zarapheth went through were the perfect breeding grounds for discouragement, and a seeming window of opportunity for them to be leveraged in the wrong direction. Thankfully, they are examples of what to do in a trial, and not what not to do.
Last week I talked mostly about Elijah being hidden and discussed how that produced 3 special trials in his life:
PPT 2
1. Lost Productivity
He went from a very exciting spiritual journey, hearing from God, and being used by God, to a life where God seemed to be absent
2. Limited Provision
He went to a place where he had meager provisions. He was fed by whatever the ravens brought him. He was also confined to limited movement. His actions were restricted.
3. Learning Patience
He was not told what to do about his water situation until after the brook dried up. When we as a people see the brook of our resources begin to dwindle we tend to get nervous and antsy. We want answers before the brook runs dry, God doesn't move by our time clock but His. Let patience have its perfect work.
Because of these trials it produced an atmosphere that was very conducive to give the enemy points of leverage in his life to produce complaining, bitterness, rebellion, backsliding and yet none of these happened. I am going to be speaking on John the Baptist in weeks to come and will show that like Elijah he had a prolonged time, out of the limelight and in the wilderness, and yet the scripture says of him:
PPT 3
Lu 1:80 And the child continued to grow, and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel.
Both John and Elijah came out of their wilderness times strong in Spirit. How are you doing in yours?
Elijah was told to hide himself by the brook Cherith, the name Cherith means "to cut off, to cut down"
PPT 4
It is one thing to serve God when you are going forward it is quite another when you are being cut down. It is one thing to serve God when you are experiencing increase and whole different level of grace when you are experiencing decrease.
PPT 5
Cutting down provides mechanical leverage for the devil, because there is less to move, but the finger of God is on your side of the seesaw, so stay there.
PPT 6
The bible tells us that every branch in me that beareth fruit He prunes. Every branch, there are no exceptions. The purpose of cutting down is always for future increase.
Let's look at our text:
PPT 7, 8, 9
1 Kings 17:7 And it happened after a while, that the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
8 ¶ Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying,
9 "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there; behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you."
10 So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks; and he called to her and said, "Please get me a little water in a jar, that I may drink."
11 And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, "Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand."
12 But she said, "As the LORD your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die."
13 Then Elijah said to her, "Do not fear; go, do as you have said, but make me a little bread cake from it first, and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son.
14 "For thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain on the face of the earth.’"
15 So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days.
16 The bowl of flour was not exhausted nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through Elijah.
17 ¶ Now it came about after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe, that there was no breath left in him.
18 So she said to Elijah, "What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance, and to put my son to death!"
19 And he said to her, "Give me your son." Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living, and laid him on his own bed.
20 And he called to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, hast Thou also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?"
21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to the LORD, and said, "O LORD my God, I pray Thee, let this child’s life return to him."
22 And the LORD heard the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child returned to him and he revived.
23 And Elijah took the child, and brought him down from the upper room into the house and gave him to his mother; and Elijah said, "See, your son is alive."
24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."
Last week we spoke at length how Elijah was hidden and the trial it produced, now I will speak for a few moments about the widow.
Things that were hidden from the widow, and that also brought hurt into her life:
First of all note: Her name is not even mentioned. Talk about hidden. It is God's way of saying that even though man may not know what you have done in His name He does. It may also have been done for her protection. Obadiah went all over the Middle East in search of Elijah and 1Ki 18:10 "As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent to search for you; and when they said, ‘He is not [here],’ he made the kingdom or nation swear that they could not find you.
Being hidden is not the same as being unknown. Paul spoke of how he was not very well received by the world, and described his condition this way: 2Co 6:9 as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live...
So here are 3 things that were hidden from her that brought hurt in her life.
PPT 10
1. Her importance to God
17:24 Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth."
Her child gets healed and it proves to her Elijah is loved of God, no concept that God did it for her also.
God has blessed me, because you are a man of God. Her insecurity went deep. She really didn't have a clue on how much God loved her. She thought the only reason God answered her prayers was because of Elijah. The truth is God was blessing Elijah through her because she was a special woman of God!
If you do not understand who you are in Christ you will have a very difficult time in life praying and expecting any good thing to happen. And yet, this malady is rampant in Christianity.
In W. A. Criswell's biography, author Billy Keith tells an interesting story about the man who led Criswell to the Lord. It was when W. A. was ten years old, and Rev. John Hicks came to his small Texas town to conduct a revival meeting. Hicks stayed in the Criswell home during his two week campaign. Young W. A. was greatly taken with John Hicks, and one day he asked permission to leave school to attend the ten o'clock services at the church. Entering the chapel, he sat directly behind his mother and drank in every word that Hicks spoke. When Hicks gave the invitation, the lad went forward and, with tears, took Jesus Christ as his Savior.
Years later, when Criswell was a world-renowned pastor, he recounted his conversion to a friend of his, Wallace Basset.
"Would you repeat that, W. A.?" Basset asked.
He repeated the story.
"I just can't imagine that," Basset said. "Johnny Hicks was a dear friend of mine, and he was here in Baylor Hospital in his last illness of which he died. I went often to see Johnny, and one day as I sat beside him, he said, 'Wallace, my life is over, my preaching days are done, and I've never done anything for Jesus. I've failed, Wallace, I've failed.' "
Those were the last words the old preacher ever spoke. He didn't realize how successful he had been in that one conversion.
W.A. Criswall pastored First Baptist Church in Dallas and during his tenure it grew to 25,000 members. For a long time it was the largest evangelical church in the world. He was President of the SBC for two years and was very instrumental in its shift towards conservatism. Billy Graham joined his church in 1953 and was a member for 55 years. John Hicks died completely clue less to how important and instrumental he was to the plan and purposes of God.
Sidon, where this widow was from, was a slave trading capital. She was a widow, she was poor, she had no hope for herself or her little boy, or so she thought. All these things seemed to speak to her and tell her she was not important in God's eyes. She had no expectation God would answer a prayer of hers, and Yet God sent His servant to her home bypassing all the other hurting widows in Israel, because there was something in this woman that was attractive to God. We have the mark not of the beast but a mark that angels are very aware of. We have been sealed with the earnest of our inheritance. You are important to God! Don't ever listen to voices/circumstances that say otherwise.
The bible says that where the carcass is the vultures will gather. Vultures are attracted to decaying flesh, spiritually demons are attracted to people living a fleshy lifestyle. In the same way there are things that attract the presence, favor, and blessing of God.
PPT 11
Industry in spite of adversity (Some people use hard times as an excuse for laziness, for doing nothing. She was busy working right up to her perceived end. She got Elijah a drink when he asked.)
Generosity in poverty (She gave not of her abundance but of her necessity)
Hospitality in diversity (She welcomed and was gracious to a foreigner)
PPT 12
2. Her usefulness and value to the kingdom
17:12 But she said, "As the LORD your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar; and behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die
She thought she nothing to offer
There's more to the Criswell story:
Rick Warren, pastor of the 22,000 member Saddleback Community Church, author of numerous books including the "Purpose Driven Life". According to Rick Warren, his call to full-time ministry came as a 19-year-old student at California Baptist University when, in November 1973, Warren and a friend skipped out on classes and drove 350 miles to hear pastor Dr. Criswell preach at the Jack Tar Hotel in San Francisco. Rick Warren stood in line to shake hands with Dr. Criswell afterwards.
“ When my turn finally arrived, something unexpected happened. Criswell looked at me with kind, loving eyes and said, quite emphatically, “Young man, I feel led to lay hands on you and pray for you!” He placed his hands on my head and prayed: “Father, I ask that you give this young preacher a double portion of your Spirit. May the church he pastors grow to twice the size of the Dallas church. Bless him greatly, O Lord.” (1)
The widow woman thought she had little to offer and yet she had much. A generous spirit, a
servants heart, a nature given to hospitality. Many of God's best people are often blind to the good that God has nurtured in them, and only aware of their shortcomings.
PPT 13
Take Gideon for example:
Jud 6:14 The LORD turned to him and said, "Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?"
Jud 6:15 "But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." (The word translated weakest in this passage means literally the least in a thousand and more often than not is translated poor)
Jud 6:25 ¶ And it came to pass the same night, that the LORD said unto him, Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that [is] by it:
Jud 6:26 And build an altar unto the LORD thy God upon the top of this rock, in the ordered place, and take the second bullock, and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the grove which thou shalt cut down.
Jud 6:27 Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the LORD had said unto him: and [so] it was, because he feared his father’s household, and the men of the city, that he could not do [it] by day, that he did [it] by night.
How could he come from a poor family, while owning at least 2 oxen and having a minimum of ten servants in his employ?
PPT 14
3. Her right standing before God
17:18 So she said to Elijah, "What do I have to do with you, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance, and to put my son to death!"
Her consciousness of her flaws filtered everything in life that happened to her. I think she attributed the death of her husband and her current physical and financial crises to personal sins.
I think she felt she must be very bad to have had all those things happen to her. Her sins made it so God couldn't hear her prayers, but only someone else's.
PPT 15
The only way to get over this is by the use of overwhelming force:
There is Power in the Blood.
PPT
Quickly lets look at what hurt Elijah in this situation:
1. He never complained about bird food.
2. He never complained about pancakes.
3. He probably understood his suffering was tied to God's answer to his prayer for national revival.
4. He could endure any hardship, except seeing others endure hardship.
17:20 And he called to the LORD and said, "O LORD my God, hast Thou also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?"
He couldn't deal with the hardness of situations God was causing people to go through.
Lord, does it always have to be trust Me?
Do we always have to endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ?
Can't we have it easy for once?
That was the point of leverage that was being used against Elijah
Some people have backslidden over what they have seen others go through.
Elijah's view of God was getting warped, he needed to see God's compassion.
a. God in mercy healed the boy, his mother, and Elijah. The boy was
healed physically, the mother emotionally, and Elijah spiritually.
The story doesn't end with the woman understanding her worth before God, but God
laid a great foundation in that regard.
I don't know how many years that woman endured suffering financially and emotionally with the loss of her husband, with the threat of her son being sold into slavery, but I do know she also:
17:15 So she went and did according to the word of Elijah, and she and he and her household ate for many days.
Through the process of being fed miraculously though meagerly for an extended season and the answer of prayer for her dead child I believe she was well on her way to personal healing, and a healthy faith in God.
I am come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. God will heal you of more than your sins if you will let Him. Abundant life is more than sins saved, deliverance from insecurities among other things.
Can anyone here today relate to feeling like sin is eating away at every thing in your life?
Can you relate to feeling like God is calling your sins to remembrance?
Close: Can anyone here today relate to feeling like your life is hidden from God?
Can anyone here relate to the desperate praying of Elijah, "O please God, can this one thing be easier for me?" I feel like God wants to answer some prayers today.
PPT 16
Time to get out of the maze, and get some blessings;
There is power, power, wonder working power in the blood of the Lamb.
(1) http://web.archive.org/web/20071214010511/http://www.wmu.com/rickwarren/
