Intro: Today Lord willing I want to talk to you about being “DRIED UP.” Now I know that there are some here today that feel as if your “BROOK” is dried up. It could be your finances, your marriage, your prayer life, your witness, your health, or your spiritual life has dried up; it could be something else in your life nevertheless you feel “DRY.” But God has a way to fill you up again.
I. There once was a time of plenty.
A. Just like Elijah you have been in a place where all seems to be well. Every thing is taken care of there is no need. It is as if God was sending you, your on personally Raven delivery service.
1. In an essence it was like Elijah was receiving his on personal supply of manna from Heaven just like the children of Israel when they too were in the wilderness.
2. You yourself know you can relate. Your health has been great, financial security, you been able to do a few things you always wanted to do; many of your desires were fulfilled. I could go on and on but you know what I mean, all was great you were in your Promise Land.
B. Elijah was sent by God to the brook Cherith to be taken care of.
1. Just as God has told us in His word that we too will be taken care of in Matthew 6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (32) (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
2. God also has put us beside our on Cherith to be taken care of.
C. But that brook God puts us beside normally has a hidden meaning behind it.
1. The brook Cherith means in the Hebrew to be cut off or cut down. To be cut off from people or to have a covenant cut or broke.
2. Elijah was now in school; God takes Him to a place where all is provided for him, but He begins to remove things from him.
3. Just like us in our times of plenty it seems that the Windows of Heaven are open in our favor, but slowly things began to be removed from us.
4. Like Job we have it all going for us, which causes Satan to ask the question,” Remove your favor from them and see if they will still serve you.”
5. And slowly our brook dries up.
II. DRIED UP!
A. Now upon study I learned that there were two types of variations in the Hebrew for the word dried as applied in verse 7 of the text.
1. Now the word dried alone means that a source is responsible for the dryness.
2. The first variation or root for the word dried was to be (ashamed, confused, or disappointed).
3. Now this variation applies to us being the cause of our dryness.
B. I would like to focus for a moment on how we cause ourselves to be dried up.
1. Lack of Prayer in our lives can quickly make us feel like we are the Sahara. Prayer is our communication to God it is away in which we have fellowship with our God it is also how we communicate our needs to God for others and ourselves. In Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive [them], and ye shall have [them]. Once we cut off our means to communicate with God we find ourselves alone fighting our own battles and loosing the battle for others!
2. Lack of desire in reading the Word of God. The Word is a way in which God speaks back to us, and is our guidance and instruction on how to live! Luke 11:28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed [are] they that hear the word of God, and keep it. Matthew 4:4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. We are told in Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God [is] quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and [is] a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. When we cease from reading the Word of God we cut of another means of communication from our Lord and thus we lack guidance and instruction.
3. When we began to cut off communication to other believers and our Church we find our self-beginning to wither and dry. In Hebrews 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some [is]; but exhorting [one another]: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. When we cut brothers and sisters in Lord out of our lives we again loose out in a vital part of the fellowship of God. Is it not written in Galatians 6:2 Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. When we began to be lax in our attendances in Church we began to become cold or even worse lukewarm for did not Christ say that He would spue or vomit you out of His mouth as said in Revelation 3:16. We become open prey to the wolves when we are away from the Shepherd and the rest of the flock.
4. We can become like Death Valley when we no longer find joy in praising and worshipping our Lord. Our praise and worship to God is His delight for it shows that He alone is worthy and nothing else matters in you life, but when you cease to exalt him you say that He isn’t worthy and therefore His blessings are not worthy to be excepted by us. If we praise not God we are better off dead for that was the reason we were created in Isaiah 43:21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise. In Psalms 115:17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence. If we silence our praise to God we are truly deserving of death. For is that not what we are created for.
5. The fountain of God dries up in our life when we thirst after the things of this world rather than the spiritual things of God. In 1 John 2:15 Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (16) For all that [is] in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. Again in James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Are we not told in Colossians 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
6. Again another way we can cause our selves to dry up is to lack relationship with God and become more RELIGIOUS. And by that I mean our prayers are mechanical; we are more monotonous when it comes to God there is no real Love or devotion toward Him its more like a routine than a relationship. Now in a marriage if you began to do the same thing day after day the conversation never changed and there was no change than that relationship would find its self in Divorce Court. In scripture Christ admonished the Pharisees for their long prayers and repetition. We most be like David in Psalms 27:8 [When thou saidst], Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.
7. All six of these examples are all a direct result of a lack of Faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. In Hebrews 11:6 we are told that without faith it is impossible to please God. Faith when I looked it up in the Greek had a root meaning to the word “CREDENCE” which is a mental acceptance as true or real. Did you not know that in some way or another we us faith, when we turn on the TV do we not believe it will come on, and the same thing when we get into our cars or turn a light I could go on but if we believe these things to work than why cant we believe that God to is real and “WORKS”. It is by faith that we must walk and not by sight if we believe all our creature comforts to work for us why cant we believe our Creator wants to guide us and lead and take care of us. If we just believe and turn from our wicked ways and accept Jesus and the free gift of reconciliation to the Father will not all that is the Bible be opened and giving freely to us.
C. We looked at ways in which we can dry ourselves up now lets look at another source that can cause our dryness and that is our Lord God. Now before you cry heresies hear me out.
1. Like Elijah we are led to a brook and then taking care of, but slowly the brook begins to dry not all at once but over time and each time; until it is gone.
2. Now lets look at Elijah the brook dries up, now some they may panic and try to go to the extremes since there water is gone and try to suck mud or dry ground. Not Elijah he waits on God.
3. When God begins to dry us out that means He is up to something.
4. I believe God dries us out to teach us to trust Him. When we are weaned from our surrenders or that which we see it causes us to rely on the unseen. When all hope it is gone and our ways can no longer aid us. Then God can step in and make the impossible possible. For are not His ways mightier and His thoughts greater than ours. In Proverbs 3:5 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.
5. God teaches us to put all faith in Him and Him alone. He is not looking to be a passenger in our journey of life, but the Driver. During these times of dryness some times our flaws come out and reveal we are not as strong and great as we think, but God is and greater. When we realize to trust Him we see that He will never leave us nor forsake us. In Isaiah 49:15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. (16) Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of [my] hands; thy walls [are] continually before me. When we are in His hands there is nothing else to see on our right or left, but when we look up there is His face shining down on us.
6. You see when He dries you, He doesn’t mean to leave you that way.
III. He will provide for you to be filled again, but He has to take you a little way out to get your filling.
A. Now when the brook dried up God told Elijah to go to Zarephath where God commanded a window woman to sustain Him in verse 9.
1. But for Elijah to get to Zarephath He would have to go 100 miles from Cherith to get there.
2. Now when our brook dries up its time to move on to other provision. You see when we get to the top of the mountain, we are climbing we not meant to stay there because once you get to the top there lies before you a bigger mountain. In order to get to that mountain, you got to go to the valley, you see each mountain that is before us gets bigger because it’s drawing us closer to God. When we decide to stop climbing the mountains before us that is us saying that is how close to God you want to be.
3. Now when we dry up God is sending us to a better and deeper place in a relationship with Him. It may take a while to get there but when we do he has provided the provision for us.
4. Doing these times God of dryness God was leading you through a journey to get to Zarephath. And once your there He begins to pour back into you and strengthen you for the next journey. You’ve over come those mountains behind now waits greater to conquer, drawing you closer to God each time. Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Conclusion: When we are down we are really going up. God doesn’t dry us to leave us, but that we may grow and go deeper in a relationship with our Lord. One that causes us to worship and praise when all seems wrong, one that draws us to His Word for comfort and incite to our Father, and one that makes us more than conquerors in Christ Jesus.
