Cherith The Brook of Downsizing
PPT 1 series title River Scenes
Inro and review, river scenes, first we discussed the river of life, and blessings, Ezekiel 47. The sea mentioned in this passage is the Dead Sea, it is the lowest place on the surface of the earth. This river of God has the power to bring dead things to life. The dead sea is called the dead sea because nothing lives in it. There are no plants, fish, or any other visible life in the sea. Its salt concentration is almost 9 times saltier than ocean water. It is toxic to all but a few forms of bacteria. But God’s river can even bring that dead place life! God wants us to be channels of his living water to bring life to the deadest people and places on earth. You can be in God’s river at different depths. Ankle deep, knee deep etc.
Next we gave a message on the river of trouble and wanting to hang up our harp and give up our song. Song is a powerful weapon to turn things around. The devil wants to steal your song because he knows how powerful songs song in a place of hardship are. Today we will be speaking on a third river scene, actually a brook
PPT 2 Message Title Cherith; The Brook of Downsizing (Picture of a gold fish being moved from a big bowl to a little one. )
God brings everyone to the brook of downsizing. Cherith is the place where we go from more to less, we go from freedom to restriction, where we experience a season of isolation, and yet it the midst of all that something wonderful is taking place.
Here is our text:
PPT 3-5
1 Kings 17:1 Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the LORD, the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word."
1 Kings 17:2 And the word of the LORD came to him, saying,
1 Kings 17:3 "Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.
1 Kings 17:4 "And it shall be that you shall drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there."
1 Kings 17:5 So he went and did according to the word of the LORD, for he went and lived by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.
Background Elijah has just given Evil king Ahab a prophecy of drought. Elijah will become the most famous of all the prophets in Israel’s history because of the miracles he performed and because of the impact he had on his nation. He was prophesied to come before Jesus, he will be with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration, and probably active during the great tribulation. This is the first time we meet him in the scriptures, this is the first instance of his stepping forth into prophetic ministry, and immediately he is shut down by God.
Today we are going to talk about the Cherith experience
1. Cherith is where we learn about conditional blessings.
2. Cherith is the place where the depth of our commitment to obedience is proved.
3. Cherith is a place where we are tested in and by isolation.
4. Cherith is the place of upsizing.
You can grow anywhere.
Cherith is the place where we live out the principle if we want to go up, you have to first go down.
Cherith Cherith means cutting/separation. Cutting as in what the water did to the rocks around it, and it also can be understood as the cutting off of Elijah from Israel, and perhaps cutting some things out of Elijah. Cherith is a place where difficulty carves some things into you. In Elijah’s case it was good things. Obedience, faithfulness,
1. Cherith is where we learn about conditional blessings.
PPT 6 text
1 Kings 17:4 "And it shall be that you shall drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there."
Psalm 97:11 Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart"
The Lord told Elijah to go to the Brook Cherith. He had already commanded the ravens to bring Elijah bread and meat “THERE” every morning and evening. God had commanded in a specific place for food to be provided. Ps 97:11 light is sown, but it is to be harvested at a specific time and place. Be encouraged provision has been commanded, light has been sown, but be alert to this fact, certain things need to come into alignment to get what has been promised. If you have to go to Cherith to get it, you won’t get it anywhere else. It won’t be there.
The bible is full of promises, many come with conditions. A drought is coming I have commanded your food to be available in a specific location, at a specific time. It is important to be where God wants you to be. A specific church, a specific job, specific conditions met. WE can talk about grace all day long, and we will, but some things require obedience. Grace covers our disobedience, and thank God for that. Grace is wonderful, but grace is never a substitute for obedience.
2. Cherith is the place where the depth of our commitment to obedience is proved.
There is a vast difference between convenient obedience and costly obedience.
When obedience is costly the true level of our obedience is proved and revealed.
Hide yourself by the brook Cherith. A remote location, a difficult place to live. He didn’t have to worry about food, but he had to have shelter, think about what he faced, and he was very alone. You will have no one to walk with you on this journey. It was a difficult obedience.
I want you to live under harsh conditions for a season. Would you be ok with that?, many would not. Convenient obedience, no problem, costly obedience – some will say, “I’m outta here.”
I want you to notice exactly what God told him
PPT 7 text
1 Kings 17:3 "Go away from here and turn eastward, and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.
Hide yourself, not I will hide you.
It is far easier for God to take something away, than for us to lay it down.
God is asking him to do what the bible calls deny yourself, not I will deny you.
Sometimes people say to God, “If you love me take this away from me,” and often God will respond, “If you love Me quit it.”
Deny yourself, means to keep yourself from something you want.
Cherith is where we learn to come under the authority of another. It is where we prove out who is in charge.
PPT 8 Is Christ the boss of you, or are you the boss of you?
Cherith is the place where we prove out who is in charge.
Cherith is the place where God asks you to walk out an obedience you don’t understand.
Will you obey God when you don’t understand why He is asking you to do a thing?
I don’t think Elijah understood why God shut his ministry down. It had to be difficult when God asked him to do that. “God, I just started.” Elijah was the brightest light in the darkest time. Now is the time take this message on tour, they will be able to see the proof right before their eyes. They will see the effects of drought, it will prove your disdain of the way they are living. “No Elijah, it is time to shut it down.”
God often hides His best servants.
Shuts them down. Sidelines them.
Puts them on the bench. I hate being on the bench. Put me in coach I’m ready to play today.
Even Jesus experienced it.
Isaiah 49:2 And He has made My mouth like a sharp sword; In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me, And He has also made Me a select arrow; He has hidden Me in His quiver.
Jesus was hidden like an arrow in God’s quiver until the proper time.
Elijah gives the most incredible prophetic word of His life, and then he is told to get off the world stage, I want you to become invisible.
Elijah may not have understood then, but he was learning God is just as concerned about his foundation of obedience as He was about him bearing fruit.
PPT 9-10 text
Matthew 7:24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock.
Matthew 7:25 "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock.
Matthew 7:26 "And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.
Matthew 7:27 "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall."
3. Cherith is a place where we are tested in and by isolation.
PPT 11 text
Hide thyself. Be apart from all others. Tested by loneliness. Loneliness has been a point of leverage used against many to cause them to sinfully seek solace in the arms of another person, and caused them to compromise their walk with God.
Isolation will also test you to see if you can live your Christian faith without the support of others.
PPT 12 text
2 Kings 12:2 And Jehoash did right in the sight of the LORD all his days in which Jehoiada the priest instructed him.
Notice that as long as Jehoash is living under the shadow of Jehoiada he is doing right in the sight of the Lord, but watch what happens next:
PPT 13 text
2 Chronicles 24:17 Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king. Then the king hearkened unto them.
2 Chronicles 24:18 And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.
They made obeisance, they tripped Jehoash up with popularity. In wanting to fit in with them, he decided to not fit in with God. He was tested with living out his spiritual walk without the influence of another, and he failed.
Perhaps his life is a warning to all, you need the godly influence of others to walk out this walk. He was tested by isolation and failed. Avoid that test if you can, pass it if you can’t. Make up your mind I have decided to follow Jesus, though no go with me still I will follow.
4. Cherith is the place of upsizing.
You can grow anywhere. It all depends on who is feeding you. God or others.
The main point of this message is about obedience. Obedience when you are alone, obedience when it is difficult, obedience that challenges you to deny yourself. If you will walk out in these things you will grow spiritually in very significant ways.
The cutting of Cherith prepared Elijah for miracles ahead. Very next was the provision of miraculous food, and raising a child from the dead, right after that the miracle on Carmel.
Elijah grew in a time of cutting at Cherith.
What God does through you is what happens in the public place, What God does in you is what happens in the private place. And if you study all the people that God really used you will find they spent a lot of time hidden by the brook so to speak.
PPT 14
Luke 1:80 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel
He waxed strong in spirit in the wilderness. How are you doing in your wilderness? Are you growing? Elijah did, John the Bpatist did. Now watch this, Jesus grew strong in spirit by submitting to the authority of another:
PPT 15-16
Luke 2:48 And when they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, "Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You."
Luke 2:49 And He said to them, "Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?"
Luke 2:50 And they did not understand the statement which He had made to them.
Luke 2:51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.
Being subject to others is an important truth to spiritual growth and development.
Who is the boss of you?, learn to let Jesus and others be that, and you will excel in spiritual growth.
I want to give a challenge to you and then we will close in prayer. I want to show you an interesting verse the Lord challenged me with. I have been serving Him for almost 50 years and He still talks to me and challenges me about obedience. I want His blessing on my life and I one million percent understand it comes through grace, but I also understand this principle:
PPT 17
Joshua 1:8 "This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.
Do you want to be prosperous and successful with God. Read the book to observe what you should do, not just promises you can claim.
Here is the verse the Lord challenged me with:
PPT 18
Revelation 1:3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.
I have always heard other preachers talk about the blessing on the hearing of the book of Revelation, to my knowledge I never heard anyone mention the blessing on those who would heed or obey the things written in it. God has challenged me to read through the book of Revelation for the things I need to heed.
Close: Have you been challenged today to walk more in o
