ELIJAH CHURCH: THE PREPARED CHURCH
INTRO: This is part of a series using the life of Elijah as a picture of the last day Church. It is also a stand alone sermon.
1 Kings 17:2-6 Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah: "Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4You 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.
I don't know how many have been operated on in some way, but if you have there is always a fear of going under the knife. What makes it bearable is the belief you will be better afterwards. So you endure with the hope of better health.
The truth is that anyone who wants to become a man or woman of God has to endure the cutting of God. It is His operation in our lives. It's called circumcision. The cutting away of the flesh in the Old Testament it was a literal operation, a requirement of Law, in the New it is a spiritual operation.
Romans 2:29 No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person's praise is not from other people, but from God.
Colossians 2:11 Therefore remember that formerly you who are Gentiles in the flesh and called uncircumcised by the so-called circumcision (that done in the body by human hands)
Flesh must be dealt with if we are to function in the spiritual realm.
In our text in Kings Elijah was being prepared as a vessel of God . He sent him to Kerith, meaning "Cutting".
At Kerith - 3 things happen.
1. Our flesh is cut away
2. Our faith is strengthened
3. Our obedience is tested
Let us go with Elijah and visit him in this stage of his development:
Elijah had challenged the false gods of Israel, Baal and Asherah. Elijah the ORDINARY man, from an OBSCURE place. The praying spokesperson of God to Ahab had been OBEDIANT to the Lord., What next? The natural man might say stay and enjoy the victory, but God says go east of the Jordan (away from the promised land). HIDE in the desert at Kerith. which leads us to remember God's ways are not our way's. Isaiah 55:8.
The flesh is deceptive. To be a servant of God takes a people that walk in the Spirit. Remember the Spirit bears witness to our spirits which cause us to submit and serve. The soul reasons what seems logical or illogical.
One lesson learnt, one victory gained, a servant of God does not make. There is a process. Here lies the possibility of deception "we have arrived". Consider Moses. A man born of faith, raised in the courts of royalty, a somebody, who got ahead of God, tried to work out God's promise in delivering the Israelites by killing an Egyptian, and was sent to the desert to be taught God's ways!
What happened with Moses? This was a lesson we need to learn and Elijah needed to know:
It was his idea.
It was initiated and energized by his flesh.
It led to failure and greater opposition. (Pharaoh increased the workload)
The flesh at work though it appears good, and according to God's promise instead increased bondage. Moses went to the desert for 40 years to become a nobody that God could use. Greatness as the Bible defines it never comes suddenly. It is forged in the furnace of time, of afflictions, the cutting and burning of the flesh.
Proverbs 17:3 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests the heart.
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
1 Peter 1:6-7 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Sometimes we think we can cheat or take shortcuts to end in our destiny - we can read about Elijah - we know his end - and in doing that though we miss the process, the preparation needed to fulfil our promise it can only be found in God's School. AND WHERE IS GOD'S SCHOOL?
Deut 32:10 In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye,
Deut 8:2-3 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
The Hebrew word for Desert means "to speak", it is literally the classroom of The Spirit of God's School. Why do we need this place of learning? Because in the desert character is formed, God is more interested in the character of His children than their gifting!
So Elijah was hidden at Kerith but not forgotten. the Hebrew word "hide" in our opening text is more accurately translated "absent yourself", or separate yourself.
To preach and proclaim as Elijah had done was not enough. Somebody said "It is dishonest to talk about the power of prayer and lead a prayer less life. It is dishonest to talk about forgiveness and fail to forgive" Integrity is serving God when no one is watching. Hearing the word and doing it also. God hides us in the wilderness to see our response, He also hides Himself from us to test our faithfulness.
RELATIONSHIP IS PROVED IN ROCKY TIMES NOT IN THE EASYGOING EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT TIMES.
God was saying "Elijah you spoke My Word, now can you live my life. Do you trust me? Can you rely on me? Are you mine? If you are know me in Kerith, the place of spiritual circumcision. The "cutting place". Kerith was an ugly place where a small seep of water had worn away rock, the water was probably murky, dark with green algae. The weather was hot, in that geographical area, 45-50c in the afternoon, but cold at night. Elijah was in the desert drinking muddy water, and ravens brought him food to eat. But wait ravens! They were unclean birds, scavengers that fed on rotting carrion and garbage, they are often found where dead carcasses lay, and garbage dumps. This wasn't McDonalds. This was a forsaken place living in loneliness, eating rotten meat, drinking muddy water. Yet God was there through it all. Kerith was enough to bring every fleshly emotion in Elijah's life to the surface. But aren't I a servant of God he must have asked himself, didn't God call me to proclaim His word? But Carmel was ahead of Elijah, a place of supernatural wonder and if you want to be used on Carmel then you better overcome Kerith. Before you wear a crown you must be crucified on the cross! Can we serve Him in the time of lack as well as the time of sufficiency?
WHAT LESSONS CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS PART OF ELIJAH'S LIFE?
1. We are called to serve God where He chooses.
2. Preparation always proceeds power.
3. It's about relationship not religion (E.g. The Ravens, God used unclean things to reveal the flesh)
4. Those who would proclaim must first learn to be still ( the silence of the desert compared to the business of life)
5. Faith is formed in the arena of having nothing.
CONCLUSION: There were two things that happened at Kerith:
Elijah saw himself, his own weakness, his own inability, his own flesh and his own pride.
Elijah develops a relationship, and dependency, on God, that would make him one of the most powerful vessels of God that we read about in all of scripture!
The last day Church needs to learn the lesson of God sufficiency instead of self sufficiency if it is to impact the last days.
It was God that sent Elijah to Kerith, it was God who sustained him in Kerith, it was God who would take out of Kerith in power.
"NOT MY WILL BUT THINE BE DONE"
