Text: 1 Kings 17:1-7
Prayer of Illumination
Our Father in heaven . . . holy, holy, holy is your name.
As we turn to Your Word may you give us eyes to see your truth, may your give us ears to hear your voice, and may you grant us hearts that are open & receptive & responsive to you.
Introduction
(IL) As you were growing up, did you have someone you wanted to be like or maybe even pretended you were them when you played? Someone memorable and imp to you?
>Fictional –“The Hulk” or a princess?
>Real person – Parent . . . Teacher . . . TV personality . . . sports figure?
>Growing up around Pgh, PA I had someone like that
>Here’s a video about him
*Roberto Clemente – quite a memorable baseball player & important to city of Pittsburgh
>Got his 3000 hit on Sept 30, 1972 and died a few months later on New Year’s Eve in a plane crash as he was taking relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua
*Old Testament has a lot of memorable & important characters in it
*Noah – we think of the flood
*Abraham – we think of the Covenant, father of nation of Israel
*David – greatest king in Israel but an adulterer
*Every day this week speak about a very important figure
>Swindoll – a man of heroism & humility
>Elijah – a great man & possibly the greatest OT prophet
I. Talk about the background before reading the text
A. Very imp 2 understand some background & culture 2 understand the ministry of Elijah
B. Kingdom divided
1. Southern kingdom of Judah – King Asa
2. Northern kingdom of Israel – King Ahab – Elijah appears here
a. I Kings 16:30 – he did more evil than all other kings B4 him
C. Married Jezebel – “Satan’s Woman of the Hour”
1. Possibly an arranged marriage
2. Her father – Ethbaal – king of Sidonians
a. Sidon – along the Med, in the heart of Baalism
3. See later – Jezebel was very antagonistic toward Israel’s God.
a. Wanted to replace worship of God with Baal
b. Later ordered a slaughter of Hebrew prophets
D. Ahab ruled in the city of Samaria (the capital city)
1. Built a house for Baal
2. Built an altar for Baal
3. More idolatry - erected an Asherah pole
a. Sending a pretty strong msg
b. Don’t overlook the gravity of this
4. Pretty much makes Baal worship the state religion of Israel
a. The goal is to replace the worship of God with the worship of Baal
E. Elijah shows up on the scene in this godless, antagonistic, idolatrous culture
1. That’s what Elijah’s world was like when he came on the scene – let’s read about it
READ TEXT – 1 Kings 17:1-7
II. God works in our lives to cut us down to size
A. Elijah tell Ahab there will be no rain until Elijah says so, then God immediately sends Elijah to hide along the Brook Cherith east of the Jordan
1. God doesn’t tell Elijah how long he’ll be there only that He’ll have some ravens bring him food a couple times a day & he can get his water from the brook
B. God is sending Elijah to Cherith to do some work in his life
1. Cherith means “cut down”
a. He was going to cut Elijah down to size
b. Placing Elijah in a situation where he had to trust God and depend on Him daily, even for something as basic as his food and water
C. God had a purpose for Elijah’s time at Cherith
1. Cut him down to size so God would be bigger in Elijah’s life as he really learned to trust and depend on God daily
D. Elijah was experiencing a DIVINELY DESIGNED DIFFICULTY personally fashioned just for him to accomplish God’s purpose in and thru his life
E. You and I serve a Sovereign God who designs circumstances in our lives to accomplish His purposes in and thru us
1. God designed the brook Cherith exp 4 Eljah
2. He designed the wilderness for Moses
3. He fashioned the prison for Joseph
4. He designed another jail cell, this one for Paul & Silas in Philippi to accomplish His purposes, not only for them, for also His purposes for a jailer and his family
5. All to accomplish His purpose in their lives
F. God also, on occasion, has Divinely Designed Difficulties for you as well
1. Those times of trial and testing
a. Cut you down to size
b. He might be bigger
c. He might manifest Himself to you & to others through you
d. To show you that He is who He says He is in His Word
2. Designed them all specifically for you
a. Not a cookie-cutter approach where one size fits all, but a personal approach because He’s a personal God
b. Our task is to go along with what He’s doing . . . so the Divinely Designed Difficulty isn’t wasted
(IL) John Piper, Baptist pastor in Minneapolis, on the eve of his surgery for prostate cancer, wrote an article entitled “Don’t Waste Your Cancer”
c. Piper is talking about cancer but
the same principle applies, regardless
of our Divinely Designed Difficulty
d. “You will waste your cancer if you do not believe it is designed for you by God.”
Designed by God meaning that God could have stopped the cancer . . . . . but He didn’t, He allowed it instead. And since He allowed it, He allowed it for a purpose in your life. He, therefore, designed it for you for a purpose.
To fail to see God’s hand in it or to seek to accomplish His purpose through it, is to waste the cancer.
e. These are challenging words
(IL) Whether the difficulty is illness . . . .
injury . . . . .Pink slip . . . . . rebellious child . . . . .a lousy roommate . . . .
God doesn’t want us to waste the
opportunity for growth by not allowing
Him to accomplish His purpose in our lives
3. What exactly is it that God is trying to
accomplish? . . . . . . What are His purposes?
a. I don’t know. . . . we can guess at a few
of them but He’ll have to show you Himself
(1). Bring you to Himself
(2). To show your sin and bring you to repentance
(3). Develop C-like characteristics in
you
(4). Prepare you for greater service
(5). Re-direct your life
(6). Any of these, all of these, a
combination of these, or something
else
(7) I can’t answer what He’s doing.
He’ll have to tell you that
D. He may have to take you out of the spotlight to accomplish His purpose in your life
1. Elijah – out of the mainstream & left him along the brook for probably a year
a. He easily could have felt God benched him
2. He may have you put on hold what you want to do or feel you need to be doing with your life
a. Have to delay fulfilling your hopes, dreams, and plans for a while
(APP) – It may seem like God has set us aside or benched us for the season
-College student with hopes and dreams to do something and make a difference has years of schooling ahead it may seem like wasted time
-May feel like we’re standing on the sidelines as we spend weeks, months, or years caring for an aging parent
-Our own sickness takes us out of the game
-Don’t waste this time
-Pay attention . . . learn . . . listen . . . trust Him . . . seek Him . . . behave as His child . . . delight him by your attitude & behavior during the difficulty
3. First thing to see – God works in our lives to cut us down to size so He can be bigger
III. We need to remember that our difficulties are not necessarily a sign of God’s displeasure, but may even be a sign of Him being pleased with us
A. Elijah easily could have thought that God was mad at him for some reason
1. If it was me, I’d probably be sitting along the river, day after day, getting tired of eating whatever the ravens brought me, feeling I no longer had a purpose in life, watching the brook dry up, and just wonder, “What in the world have I done to get God so mad and upset with me?”
B. When God sent Elijah to Cherith, it wasn’t because he was mad at him or displeased with him
1. Elijah hadn’t lost favor with God or God hadn’t withdrawn His grace
C. God putting His arm around Elijah’s shoulder
“Man Elijah have I got some plans for you. I am gonna’ work in you and through you in ways you can’t begin to imagine. Come on, let’s go to the Brook Cherith and start some training to get ready.”
D. Don’t automatically assume the difficulties are all your fault or He’s withdrawn His Hand from you
1. It may the opposite – a sign of just how very pleased He is with you
a. A sign of even greater things He wants to do in & through your life
IV. God can take away what He has given
A. Something really interesting happens here
1. God answered Elijah’s prayer that it wouldn’t rain BUT
2. The answer to that prayer seemingly made things worse for Elijah
B. 1 Kings 17:7. “And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.”
1. God told him the brook would be his water
2. God answered Elijah’s prayer and the water disappeared
a. The Lord gave and the Lord took away
C. We sometimes feel that once God gives us something He shouldn’t take it away
1. A job . . . . . a mate . . . . . a child . . . . . a pastor . . . . . a sense of His presence . . . . . a strong body . . . . . . a healthy 401 (k)
2. But God is God
a. He has every right to do what He knows is best
b. He doesn’t need our permission
3. God taking away what he has given happens from time to time
a. Abraham – took away familiarity when He told him to pack up & go to another place
b. Jacob – took away his favorite son & sent him to Egypt
c. The son got to Egypt, God took away his freedom
d. Gideon – took away his soldiers
e. King Saul – God took away his kingdom
f. Job – allowed his health, wealth, possessions, and even children 2b taken away
g. Apostle Paul – God took away his eyesight
3. God has a plan . . . a purpose . . . a reason for taking away what He’s given us
a. He re-directed Elijah’s life by taking away the water because he wanted Elijah to go to Zarephath
b. He took Jacob’s son and then Joseph’s freedom because He has bigger plans
c. He took King Saul’s kingdom because of sin
d. He took Gideon’s soldiers because He wanted to make sure the people knew & understood He had defeated the enemy and they didn’t do it themselves.
e. Job – 42 chapters – we still aren’t sure why
f. We may or may not know or learn why He takes things away
4. What we do know is that when He takes things away, He’ll give us the grace, strength, & provision to deal with the loss.
5. Isaiah – His plans & thoughts are so much higher than ours & He knows what He’s doing
Conclusion
* Final Reminders when you find yourself along the brook and the brook dries up
1. God knows what He’s doing
>You can rest in the loving, gracious, everlasting arms of a Sovereign God
>He isn’t making things up as He goes along
>He gets it right the first time, every time, as He works in Your life and you can trust Him
>You can trust Him
2. God hasn’t forgotten, misplaced, or abandoned you
>Isa 49:15-16 Amplified Bible “[And the Lord answered] Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, they may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have indelibly imprinted (a picture of) of you the palm of each of my hands.”
>Halelujah and Amen
