Broken For Use
Elijah, Part 1
If you have your bible
open up to the book of I Kings, chapter 17, page ____
Today we are starting a four-week study
on one of the greatest people of God
in all of scripture.
Let me give you the context of the time period
that we are studying.
After the reign of king Solomon,
Israel divided in two. [picture]
The northern half kept the name Israel,
the southern half called itself Judah.
Judah had some good, godly kings along the way,
but Israel never had one good king,
they were all evil,
some worse than others.
Elijah was a prophet in the northern kingdom, Israel,
and by the time Elijah came along,
the Northern Kingdom had experienced
19 consecutive evil kings,
spanning about a 200 year time period.
Now, lets think about that for a minute.
Imagine that here in the US,
we had not just 19 ineffective presidents,
but imagine 19 consecutive evil dictators,
lasting 200 years.
So imagine that
starting with President James Madison in 1813,
he became an evil dictator,
and ever since then the U.S. had evil dictators,
19 in a row, since 1813.
That’s what it was like when Elijah lived.
The evil king during Elijah’s time is named Ahab,
And who was Ahab married to? [Jezebel]
Some say Jezebel was most wicked woman who ever lived.
The name Jezebel has almost become synonymous
for an evil woman…
And under their reign,
the Bible says that
Ahab did more evil in the eyes of God than any of those before him.
He was setting new records for evil,
he somehow managed to beat the previous 18 at evil.
And Ahab was not just personally evil,
he led the whole nation into evil,
into worship of false gods,
like Baal, and Asherah, and Molech,
People would worship Asherah
by going to temples and having sex with temple prostitutes.
People would worship Molech
by sacrificing their children to him,
and burning them to death.
This was a horrible time.
There was corruption in all the courts,
there was no justice unless you were rich,
and could pay somebody off.
It was an evil time, and getting worse,
so finally God said, “Enough is enough!”
But when he says enough is enough,
its interesting what God does.
He didn’t raise up an army
to take a stand against the evil king,
and overthrow him and put a good king in his place.
Instead, God does what God often does,
and that is,
He raised up one person to take a stand,
one man.
God does the same thing today.
In fact, God may want to do something very similar
right where you live.
God may raise up one teenage girl
to take a stand in her class against all others
for sexual purity.
God may raise up a business leader
to take a stand for integrity
in a business that’s lacking integrity.
God may raise up one person
at your school,
or at your workplace,
or in your neighborhood,
to take a stand for that which is true,
so set a godly example
and in God’s power,
to change the whole place.
God often raises up one person
to make a big difference.
So God raised up Elijah.
The first time we see Elijah in all of scripture,
is in I Kings17:1.
The only thing we know about him at this point,
is where he’s from,
because verse 1 tells us that…
Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead,
Gilead is a territory northeast of the dead sea,
in what is now the country of Jordan,
but back then was part of Israel.
(the red lines on the map are current day Israel)
[Elijah] said to Ahab, "As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word."
Now at this point,
Elijah hasn’t done any miracles,
he’s done nothing significant that we know of,
he hasn’t made a name for himself,
he’s a nobody.
but God gives him this word,
and says, go tell King Ahab this,
that it’s not gonna rain in Israel for years,
because God is punishing you.
Now, if this was a movie,
the music would just go, “bommmb,”
because what Elijah said
was about the most devastating news possible
for that whole nation.
Israel was an agricultural society,
everyone was farmers,
and when there’s no rain,
people go broke,
and people starve to death.
The equivalent today would be for someone to announce,
there is gonna be a great depression so bad,
that it makes the last great depression look tiny.
There’s gonna be 80% unemployment,
no gas at the gas station even if you could afford it,
no food in the stores,
the banks are all going under,
You won’t have electricity in your home,
or gas to run a furnace in the winter.
Life as you know it just ended,
and people are going to be
starving to death everywhere.
That’s what Elijah is telling King Ahab.
when he says, “No more rain.”
Now if you were God,
and you’re telling Elijah what to do,
what would be next on your agenda,
after this great prophetic word.
Would you have him follow that up
by doing some great miracles,
to back up his story
and show that this word is really from God?
Or maybe you’d have him
go challenge all the priests of Baal,
to prove who the real God is.
Well, God doesn’t do either of those things at this point.
He does something that is a little bit different.
You see, God realizes that Elijah isn’t ready yet.
God wants to use him to do some big things,
but Elijah’s not there yet,
he needs to grow,
he needs some more faith,
he needs to trust God more,
he needs to depend on God more,
he’s not ready,
so God’s next step is to take Elijah
into a season of hiding,
and a season of preparation.
We’re going to watch as
God shapes Elijah,
and teaches him some things.
Its like God is saying,
Elijah, I need to do much more in you,
because there’s much more I want to do through you.
God takes Elijah through
3 stages, or seasons of preparation.
And God is doing the same thing
in some of you right now.
Some of you are in one of these 3 seasons right now.
1st,
God takes Elijah through a season of isolated pain,
where he is very alone.
he has no one else to turn to,
he’s hurting,
he doesn’t understand what God is doing,
and he’s all alone.
In Verse 1, he says, “No more rain.”
In Verse 2,
Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: "Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan.
Why hide?
Because Ahab wants to kill him, for this devastating prophecy.
So he goes to hide in the Kerith Ravine.
The word Kerith in Hebrew, means,
“cut off,” or “cut down.”
It means to be cut off from the source,
cut off from your own strength,
or your own source of supply,
Just as if you cut down a tree,
and its cut off from its roots,
so it can’t supply anything for itself to live on.
It’s as if God is saying to Elijah,
“I’m going to take you through a season of breaking.
I’m going to cut you down,
and cut you off from any other source but me,
I’m going to teach you to be totally dependent on Me,
and I’m going to humble you privately
so that later I can use you publicly.
God is saying,
I’m going to do something in you
that’s very, very deep,
so that later on,
you can do more than you ever thought possible.
Let me ask you…
have you ever been to the Kerith Ravine?
I’m not talking about going to Israel.
I’m talking about going through a time with God,
that is painful,
and you’re going,
Where is God?
What is he doing?
We don’t realize it when we’re in the ravine,
when we’re going through this season of isolated pain,
but the reality is,
God is right there
doing a deep work in you.
It’s like the little bird that was flying south for the winter.
I’ve told this story before,
but I like it so I’m gonna tell it again.
A little bird is flying south for the winter
and he got off to a late start,
and got caught in a snowstorm.
And the snow and sleet was so fierce
his wings started to freeze,
and he came in for a crash landing.
He’s lying in the snow and ice,
freezing to death, can’t fly anymore,
and he realizes,
this is it, it’s over, I’m done for.
Then all of a sudden, a cow came along,
stood on top of the little bird,
and took a dump on him.
And bird says,
“I thought it was bad before,
I thought it couldn’t get any worse,
but now I’m gonna die covered it cow manure.
This is like the worst ever.
But all of a sudden he started to realize that
the warmth of the manure
was causing his little frozen body to thaw out,
and he got so excited,
he said, I may live after all, this is so great,
and he was so happy
he just started chirping away,
chirping with joy,
making all kinds of noise.
A passing cat heard the little bird singing,
and came to investigate.
Following the sound,
the cat discovered the bird under the pile of manure,
promptly dug him out--and then ate him.
The morals of the story are:
#1: Not everyone who drops manure on you is your enemy.
#2: Not everyone who digs you out of the manure is your friend.
#3: When you're in the manure, keep your mouth shut!
Some of you right now, you, you would say,
Man, I’m in the manure,
I’m living in the Kirith Ravine.
I’m being broken.
It’s like I’m being cut down.
The things that I used to depend on,
I can’t depend on any more.
God used to bless me,
but now he’s not blessing me.
and you’re depressed about the whole thing.
But God would say,
“No, you’ve got to understand.
I’m doing something in you.
There’s a preparation work going on.
I’m teaching you something
that you couldn’t learn any other way,
I’m growing you and preparing you,
I’m doing this work in you,
so I can do more through you.”
When I look at my own life,
I see several different periods
when I feel like I was in the Kirith Ravine,
when it felt like extended periods of pain,
when God didn’t seem to be blessing me,
and things just seemed really hard.
And each time, while I was going through it,
I had no clue what was going on,
or why God was letting this happen,
I had no clue when he was going to finally bring me out of it,
or what possible good this situation
could ever do in my life,
I couldn’t see any of that,
until much later on,
after I was out of it.
But looking back, I could see in each case
how God was breaking me,
in order to strengthen me,
in order to shape me
into something that he could use more fully.
He did something in me
in that isolated pain,
that he couldn’t have done any other way.
Some of you understand this,
because you’ve been there,
and seen what God did in you.
Some of you are there right now,
and you probably can’t understand it yet,
you don’t see yet what God is doing.
You’re in the Kirith Ravine,
in that place that feels like isolated pain,
the same kind of place Elijah was in
for months, all alone, nobody to talk to.
But you see, God was breaking Elijah,
in order to build him.
A.W. Tozer, the great writer, said
“It’s doubtful that God can bless a man greatly until He’s hurt him deeply.”
It’s doubtful that God can bless a man greatly
until He’s hurt him deeply.”
So, those of you who are in the Karith Ravine,
I want to encourage you…
The more God breaks you,
the more that God is preparing you,
the more he’s planning to do in you
and through you.
The second thing we see God take Elijah through
in this story,
is He takes him through
a season of total dependence,
A season where Elijah cannot depend
on anything at all
but God, and God alone.
In Verse 4 God says to Elijah,
You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there."
So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
So, Elijah’s all by himself,
and God does this incredible miracle.
In the middle of a drought, with no rain,
God keeps this brook flowing so Elijah has water.
Then, we’ve got God’s Heavenly catering service.
These birds go out and find bread and meat,
and every morning and every evening,
they deliver them straight to Elijah.
Think about that…
There’s a drought, crops are failing,
nobodies got bread or meat,
but somehow these ravens get bread and meat,
twice a day, every day, to bring to Elijah.
What was God doing?
God was showing Elijah very very clearly,
No matter what happens,
no matter what comes along,
I will be faithful,
you can count on Me to provide for you.
If you follow me, I’ll be there for you.
Some of you right now, are in a season where
there was something
you used to trust in for your security,
and it’s been taken away.
And now you don’t have anything else to trust in,
except for the giver of life
and giver of all good things.
And you are having to learn that
when everything else that you used to believe in
fades away,
God will forever and always be faithful to you.
I heard a story about a single mom who learned this,
so she would pray every day in her apartment.
and worship God for His provision,
and she lived next door to an atheist,
who hated hearing her prayers
through the very thin walls.
When the atheist saw her, he’d say
“Lady, you’re a fool. There is no God.”
Why do you bother praying all the time.
One time, she had more month left than money,
so she was crying out to God,
“God, You’ve always provided for me.
You’ve always been faithful.
I know You’ll come through again.
God, please provide food for my children.”
The atheist heard her,
he thought he’d prove to her once and for all,
that there was no God,
So he went to the grocery store,
bought several bags of food,
brought it back over to the woman’s apartment,
put it right on the front of her door,
knocked on the door, ran and hid.
She came out, saw the food,
“Oh, God, you’re so good.
Thank You so much.
You are so amazing!”
The atheist jumped out and said,
“You fool, There is no God!
God didn’t do that, I did it
just to prove to you that there is no God,”
Well, she started worshipping God even more.
“Thank You so much, God,
You’re so amazing,
You provided for my needs,
and You made the devil pay for it!”
God says,
If you’re following me,
I will be your provider.
When you can’t depend on
what you used to be able to depend on,
God says,
I will deliver what you need.”
Now notice something here,
How much food did God provide for Elijah?
Did he give him enough for 3 months ahead?
Did he give him a week at a time?
No.
What did God give him?
Enough for the day, enough for the day.
Some of you, you’re learning that right now.
You are in a season
where you’re hurting and you’re alone,
but guess what?
God delivers enough for the day.
You’re hurting,
but God says, “I will be your comfort for today.”
You have more bills than money,
but God says, “I will be your provision for today.
You feel weak,
but God says, “I will be your strength for today.”
Your friends leave you,
but God says, “I will be your friend for the day.
God says,
I may not bring more than you need,
but I will bring exactly what you need.
I will be your daily bread.”
Elijah learned to depend on God for that day.
God is teaching him.
He’s breaking him.
He’s cutting him down.
He’s humbling him.
He’s teaching him total dependence.
When Elijah cannot provide for himself,
God teaches him,
“I will always be your provider.”
So God takes him through a season of Isolated pain, and Total dependence,
Then the third thing God does is,
God takes him through a season of unconditional obedience.
Verse 7, the Bible says,
“Some time later, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then the word of the LORD came to him: "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there.”
Now, it’s been months that he’s been by this ravine,
and it’s a painful lonely place,
but at least all his needs are met.
He’s got water, in the middle of the drought.
And he’s got food to eat every day.
But then the brook dries up.
You ever had that happen?
I thought it was bad before,
but now my situation just got worse,
the brook dried up.
God, did I do something wrong,
are you mad at me?
I had a good thing going here with the Ravens,
that was a blessing God,
why’d you take it away?
God, where are You?
What are you doing?
When God takes away his provision,
that’s one way God uses to tell you,
okay, time to move.
So Elijah learns another lesson here.
The same God who gives water
can take water away,
because often, God may cause the brook to dry up
to give us the courage to leave where we are
and to go where we are supposed to be.
Some of you right now, may be going,
“Oh no. My brook is drying up.
what’s going on…
I used to be able to trust in my job,
but I’m not so sure I can trust in my job, anymore.
I used to have this nest egg.
I had a 401K. Now, it’s a 201K.
My brook’s drying up.
I used to have these friends I could count on,
and then, boom, they turned on me
and my friendship brook is drying up.
I used to believe that I had a good marriage
that would last forever,
but now it seems like the marriage brook is drying up.
I used to be really like close to God,
and it, it’s like the brook is drying up.”
God, why did you stop blessing me,
why aren’t you providing like you used to.
A lot of times, people will say
God guides by what He provides,”
and He does.
They say,
“Where there is vision, God gives the provision,”
and that’s true.
But God can also guide
by what He does not provide.
The same God who gives water,
may cause the brook to dry up
to give us the courage
to take a step of total obedience.
You see,
Some of us would never have the guts to take the next step,
unless the brook dried up,
and we had no choice.
God doesn’t tell Elijah,
hey Elijah, next week the brook is gonna dry up,
so maybe you better move now.
No, he waits till
its dry, its gone, no water, crisis time,
and then when Elijah goes to God to figure out why,
that’s when God tells him,
Time to go,
go at once, to Zarephath,
time to move.
And, because the brook is already dry,
it gave Elijah the courage to be obedient,
even when it didn’t make sense.
Anybody ever watch the movie “Karate Kid”?
There’s Mr. Miyagi, and Daniel.”
Daniel wants to learn Karate.
so he goes to Mr. Miyagi and says,
“Teach me to fight.”
And Mr. Miyagi says, okay,
but you have to do everything I tell you,
without questioning why.
Daniels says okay.
Mr. Miyagi says, “Okay, first, wax my car.”
Here’s how you do it. Wax on, wax off.
Next he says, sand the floor,
then paint the fence,
then paint the house.
Each time he tells him exactly how to do it.
Finally, after several days of this,
Daniel has a temper tantrum.
I thought you were going to teach me to fight,
and I come over here,
and you’re just making me your slave,
making me do all this work,
I quit.
But Mr Miyagi calls him back…
lets watch what happens.
VIDEO
Karate kid is going,
I don’t like this, its painful, its hard,
I don’t see the reason for this,
Why are you making me do it?
but then one day it all comes together,
ohhhhh, now I understand.
Elijah same thing.
I don’t like this God, its painful, its hard,
I don’t see the reason for this,
Why are you making me do it,
but then one day it all comes together,
ohhhhh, now I understand.
You and I, same thing
God, I don’t like this, its painful, its hard,
I don’t see the reason for this,
why are you making me do it,
but then one day it all comes together,
ohhhhh, now I understand.
And when the story is over,
God has taken you to a new place,
where you’ve never been before.
Elijah obeys God,
and goes to Zarephath, where he’s never been before,
its outside the borders of Israel.
And when he gets there,
he sees this widow,
who God says is going to provide for him.
And so he humbles himself,
and he says, “Maam, I’m really thirsty.
Could you give me some water
and maybe a snack,
‘cause I’m kind of hungry?”
And the widow looks at him and goes,
“Are you like the only guy who doesn’t know,
There’s a drought here.
it hasn’t rained!
We’re all starving to death.
And I’m a widow, I’ve got a son back at the hut.
I came out here to get some sticks for a fire.
because I’ve got just enough flour and oil for one last meal,
for me and my son,
We are going to eat it,
and then we are going to die.”
Now, a year before this,
Elijah might have said,
You know, that’s really too bad,
and gone somewhere else.
But God has take him to a different place.
He’s been to the ravine,
the place of complete dependence on God,
He’s seen the ravens bring food every day,
he knows God’s power,
he has more faith and trust in God,
And so Elijah “No, you’re not gonna die.”
And he looks at this impossible situation
and speaks faith into it.
And he says,
“The flour that you have will not run out.
And the jar of oil will not run dry.
So go bake me some biscuits.”
And she does, and they ate the biscuits,
and the flour did not run out
and the oil did not run dry.
and they ate for weeks and then months
on that same flour and oil.
But Elijahs story just keeps getting better.
I’m not going to read the whole story,
but not long after that,
the widow’s son dies,
and Elijah raises him from the dead.
In fact,
from this point on, Elijah’s story is about
one miracle after another,
amazing stuff.
And why did this happen?
Because God took him to the Kirith Ravine,
Elijah was cut down and humbled,
and went through a season of isolated pain,
total dependence on God,
and unconditional obedience.
God used the bad things,
to shape him into a true man of God.
He used the hard things,
to give him faith that would change a nation.
Some of you right now, you’re in a season of pain,
and God may just say,
“I’m doing something in you,
because one day, I’m going to do more through you.”
We saw that in Verse 1,
Elijah was described as Elijah the Tishbite.
He’s known by where’s he’s from.
23 verses later, after the ravine,
he’s no longer known for where he’s from,
but instead, for Whom he’s from.
At the end of the story, the woman says,
"Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth."
Some of you here today,
that’s gonna happen to you.
Maybe the reason God is allowing you to go
through that pain,
through the difficulty,
through the loneliness,
the reason God is allowing you to go
through the Kirith Ravine,
is so that one day,
somebodies gonna look at you, say,
“Now I know.
I see it. I finally see it.
You are a woman of God.
Now, I see it. You are a man of God.”
and on that day,
you’ll realize that it’s all been worth it.
I’ll tell you the truth,
I can praise God today
for all the pain
and all the shaping I’ve experienced,
For all the hurt,
and all the brokenness,
and all the supernatural provision,
and all the unconditional obedience,
I can praise God for that,
because my goal is that
when people look at me
they wouldn’t say,
“Oh, yeah, there’s Ken, that guy from the Vineyard.”
But instead, they say,
“Oh, yeah Ken.
He’s not perfect, he’s got a long way to go,
but we know he is a man of God.”
That’s my goal,
That’s what I want.
and I think that’s what you want,
as well.
But in order to make a man or a woman of God,
God at some point takes you through the Kirith Ravine,
so God can do in you what He wants to do
before He does through you what he wants to do.
Lets Stand For Prayer
God, would You do a supernatural work in all of us today, especially those of us that really are in a season of hurt and pain.
“God, I pray for those in the ravine. I pray in those times, God, where You seem to be cutting off the things we used to trust, and You’re humbling us and breaking us, and its painful, God, we thank You that the trials and difficulties will actually perfect us and make us more like Your Son, Jesus.
So God, give us perseverance to keep going and keep following you. God, for those who need comfort, I pray that You would be enough comfort for today. For those who are worried and stressed, I pray that You would be enough peace for today. For those who feel weak, I pray that You would be enough strength for today. I thank You, God, that You provide our daily bread. You provide what we need today.
And God, when the brook dries up in our life, I pray that we’d listen to you and be able to hear Your voice, and know the direction to go. When you take away from what’s made us comfortable in the past, and encourage us to go to a new place, help us to be obedient to follow you.
Some of you here may feel isolated from God, but you’re isolated from Him by your sin, because that’s what our sin does, it separates us from a very holy God. What does God want? He wants us to be humble, and come to Him in our brokenness and our repentance, and make Jesus our Lord, give him control of our life. God says if you do that, You can be forgiven, You can be changed, you can experience the resurrection power of Christ, and become a new person.
So just pray with me right now…
Yes God, I recognize my need for Jesus. I surrender my life. Jesus, would You forgive me? Would You be my Savior and the Lord of my life? Would you transform me. I put my whole trust in You. Become my daily bread, my daily source of strength and life. Because You died for me, I want to live for You. Jesus, You’re now my Lord, and the Savior of my life. In Jesus’ name I pray.”
