The Story of the Prophet Elijah

Earnest Prayer

November 17, 2024 • Lyndol Loyd • 1 Kings 18:42–46

Elijah: Earnest Prayer We are going to dive into the life of Elijah today. Specifically we want to take a deep dive into his understanding of prayer. He came before God with boldness and with confidence. Today we are going to look at one of his prayers. Elijah’s story takes place in the Old Testament part of the Bible, but I think it is interesting what it says about Elijah in the New Testament. James 5:17 says, “Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestlythat no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years!” Elijah didn’t have a cool super hero Bible cape that he wore. He’s just a regular person, just like you and just like me. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. As I read about Elijah’s prayer life it challenges me. It challenges me because I thinkthat a lot of us, when we pray, we pray with a little “p” and a little “r” and a little “a” and alittle “y”. We just kind of pray, kind of like, “God, will You help me? Would You be with me?Could You bring some healing? Could You give …” We just pray. However, when you look at Elijah he prays with a capital “P”, and a capital “R” and a capital “A” and a capital “Y”. Elijah prays with such confidence. He prays with boldnessand expectation that God is going to move. Here’s a brief recap of what we have covered the past couple of weeks. You’llremember that Israel had an evil King named Ahab. He was just as rotten as rotten canbe. He had a wife named Jezebel and she was a wicked women. Together they were causing all kinds of trouble. They were literally destroying the nation. So, God said to Elijah, “I need you to go to King Ahab and Jezebel, and I need youto tell them that they need to turn this thing around. They need to fall before Me. They need to get their lives right with Me.” Elijah goes to them and they are unmoved. Elijah says, “Okay, here’s the deal. It isn’t going to rain anymore until I pray for it to rain. There isn’t going to be any moisture of any kind, no sprinkles, no dew, nothing, zero, zilch, nada.” Elijah goes through a time of hiding as God develops him into the person he needs for him to be. God provides for Elijah in some amazing ways by giving him the food that heneeds, all the while teaching Elijah to trust in him and to be obedient to him. So after a period of three and half years with no rain God has Elijah return to confrontAhab one more time about how he had turned the hearts of the people away from God and toward the worship of false gods. They have a showdown of sorts with the false prophets of Baal placing a bull on an altar and Elijah placing a bull on an altar. Elijah says, “Let’s see which altar burns and then we will know who is the real God.” The people shouted and danced and did all kinds of crazy things trying to get Baal to set their altar on fire. Nothing happened despite all of their theatrics. Elijah taunted themasking if maybe their god is asleep or off somewhere relieving himself. Then Elijah prays. 1 Kings 18:36-37, “At the usual time for offering the eveningsacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am yourservant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.” Scripture says that immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned the bull, the wood, the stones and the dust. When the people saw it they fell down on the ground and cried out “The Lord is God.” We’re picking up with the story this morning in 1 Kings 18:41-44a, “Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go get something to eat and drink, for I hear a mighty rainstormcoming! So Ahab went to eat and drink. But Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel and bowed low to the ground and prayed with his face between his knees. Then he said to his servant, “Go and look out toward the sea.” The servant went and looked, then returned to Elijah and said, “I didn’t see anything.” Seven times Elijah told him to go and look. Finally the seventh time, his servant told him, “I saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea.” It is at this point in the story that I would like for us to dig in for a little bit because Ifeel like it can speak to us about how we can grow in the area of prayer. Many people struggle when it comes to prayer. Some struggle with consistency. Some struggle with authenticity. You might struggle with feeling like God doesn’t answer when you pray. What I want for us to do today is to extract some nuggets of truth from Elijah’s prayer that can help us grow in how we pray. 1. He Humbles Himself So, Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel. He made his way up to the top of the mountain to be alone with God. He needed to get God’s attention. They needed some rain, and so he set time aside, and he climbed to the very top, and if you guys will look, it will tell you what happens there in I Kings. It says that at that point in time, when Elijah got there, that Elijah bent down to theground and put his face between his knees. Can you picture it? He makes it to the top, falls down to his knees, and he puts his face between his knees and he just sits there before a holy God. He physically humbled himself. It’s just a picture of what was going on spiritually inside of him. He was spiritually humbled at that moment. He realized that he couldn’t bring the rain. He realized that he was small, that he was a nobody, that he alone was incapable. He knew he needed rain, but he knew that he couldn’t do it. This humbling of himself was Elijah spiritually saying, “God, I’m small and I’m tiny and I’m inadequate, and I can’t do this. But God, You are big, and God, You are holy, and Youare the sustainer, and You are the creator, and You are the healer, and You are the provider.” He humbled himself before God, because he knew that he could not bring the rain. But, he knew who could bring the rain. Scripture tells us in James 4:6,10 that “God opposes the proud, but givesgrace to the humble… Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up.” This is what Elijah does. He humbles himself before the Lord. Will you look at that promise? Our God, who is the creator, He is the One who will lift us up. But what we have to understand is that humbling and humility precedes the miraculous in our lives. If you want to get God’s attention? If you want Him to move? If youwant Him to listen to the prayer that You’re bringing to Him a great starting place is humble yourself before Him. 2. He Prays Specifically Effective prayers are specific prayers. How many times are we guilty of praying wishy-washy prayers? “God be with us.” “God, give me strength.” “God, help me.” “God, be with us.” Elijah on the other hand was specific. “God, we need some rain. God, it’s been three and a half years. Give us water. Give us some h2o, liquid fromHeaven.” He was specific. He knew exactly what it was that he wanted. Then he said to the servant, “Go and look towards the sea.” He told the servant he had been praying. He’s like, “Okay, so now I prayed. Go look at the sea,” and the servant went up and he looked, and there was nothing there. But Elijah was specific in what he wanted to ask God for. James 4:2 says, “…You don’t have what you want because you don’t ask Godfor it.” How simplistic is that? And we drive right past that verse, don’t we? We forget about it, because we get busy. You do not have because you do not ask God. We have to become a group of people that will humble ourselves before God, and then come to Him without shame and boldness and courage, praying a specific prayer that God would move and work on our behalf. 3. He Was Persistent So, Elijah has humbled himself. He’s prayed a specific prayer. Now, he says to his servant, “Okay, go and look toward the sea”. And the servant went up and he looked, then he came back and said, “Hey, there’s nothing there.” And then, seven times Elijah said, “Hey, I want you to go back.” So here’s the deal. He’s up there. He’s humbled himself.He’s praying a specific prayer. He’s like, “Okay, servant, I’ve prayed. Now I want you to go look.” The servant looks and he comes back. He’s like, “Hey, man, there’s no rain.” Elijah says, “Okay, hang on asecond,” and he prays again. “God, we need the rain. Will You bring it back?” And so he sends the servant out, and the servant comes back, and Elijah does it again, and he doesit again, and he does it again, and he does it again. You don’t hear Elijah say, “Ah, this prayer thing doesn’t really work.” He doesn’t say, “God’s sleeping, or He doesn’t care.” No, he is laser focused in on his specific prayer, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays, this specific prayer, but here is what you’ve got to understand. Elijah doesn’t allow the outward circumstances of what’s going on to affect his inward assurance. He doesn’t allow it, when it seems like God’s maybe not moving and maybe it’sa timing issue. When it seems like God’s not answering, when it seems like God’s not moving, he doesn’t get frustrated. He doesn’t throw in the towel. He doesn’t say, “I’m done.” He doesn’t say, “This doesn’t work.” What does he do? He prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays. It doesn’tseem like God’s working. He prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays, and he prays. He’s persistent. James 5:16 says, “…The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (NKJV) So many times, when we are down in the dumps and we feel like God isnot moving and He’s not working, we need to write that verse in our heart. Because, when we are persistent in our prayer, that’s when we see God move and we see Him work. So, here’s my question for you. What have you quit praying for that you need to startpraying for again? Maybe it’s your marriage. You haven’t seen much movement, so you’ve kind of quit praying. Maybe it’s for a job. You’ve grown tired and weary. Maybe it’s your finances, maybe a broken relationship. Maybe it’s for someone in your family that doesn’t have a relationship with Christ, and it’s been years, and you’ve just kind of given up on it.The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man prevails. 4. He Prays Expectantly So, Elijah climbs Mount Carmel, humbles himself, prays specifically, and persistently.He’s not quitting. It says, “The seventh time the servant reported.” Listen to this. So, the servant comes back after no answer every single time, seven times he comes back, and then he says, “Elijah, there is a cloud as small as a man’s hand that is starting to rise from the sea.” Look at Elijah’s response to that answer. “So Elijah said, ‘Go and tell Ahab right now.Hitch up your chariot. Go down before the rain stops you.’” Here’s what the servant didn’t say. “Elijah, there is a massive, monsoonthunderstorm that is brewing, that is going to take us out.” No, he said, “Elijah, there’s a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand, maybe.” What does Elijah do? He says, “Oh, man, it’s coming! We have to release the emergency management plan! Get the monsoon team activated.” He tells Ahab, “You better get down the mountain, because there’s a littlecloud as small as a man’s hand.” That just cracks me up. It’s crazy. So, if that would have been me, I would have been like, “Okay, cool. There’s a little cloud. Let’s turn on John Robinson on KCBD, and let’s just see if there’s like a 30% chance or what the deal is.” Then once my http://weather.com app confirmed that, I would have been like, “Okay, let me just sit here for a second, and as soon as I feel it touch my bald head.Then I’m going to know.” Not Elijah. Elijah was expectant. He put everything into action on the belief that God was going to move and do the miraculous. Mark 11:24 says this, “I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believethat you’ve received it, it will be yours.” Put action in place. Believe, believe, believethat God is going to move and that God is going to work. So, what happened to Elijah after he called out all the troops, and he evacuated the town, and everybody’s gone? “Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds.” Justpicture it. “The wind rose.” And here it is. “A heavy rain came on and Ahab rode off to Jezreel. The power of the Lord came upon Elijah.” Let me tell you Church, God answers prayers. God moves supernaturally on behalf of His people. I’m praying that even right now in this moment that God would moveamongst us and stir us and change us. It might be that there are some folks here for who it has been a long time sinceyou’ve connected with God through prayer in an intimate kind of a way. Maybe you’ve stopped praying for someone you should be praying for. Maybe you haven’t humbled yourself, but you’re here and you say, “I need God to re-energize and transform my prayer life.” If that’s you, and that’s your prayer, may God reenergize your prayer life right here and right now. May he meet you at the point of your every need. There may be some of you who are here this morning, and maybe prayer isn’t what needs to be most pressing for you. Maybe the reality is, you are here, and you don’t knowJesus. Maybe you think you do. Maybe you think you’ve been following Him, but the truth is, you haven’t asked Him to be the Lord of your life. I just want you to know that Jesus loves you. He cares about you. He cares about your hurt. He cares about your pain, and when He came to this earth, He came here for you. He came to take your sin. He came to heal your addictions, your failing marriage, your struggle, your pain, your broken relationships. He came to take that upon Himself, and He went to the cross and He died for your sins and mine in our replacement. Three days later, He rose again. And here is what I want you to know, He stands before you today, and His arms are open wide, and He’s saying, “Come to Me.” He wants to love you. He’s pursuing you. He wants a relationship with you. He wants to forgive you. He wants to set you free. He wants to give you meaning, and Hewants to give you purpose, and God’s speaking your name right now. He’s drawing. He’s saying, “Come to Me. Come to Me.” Don’t run any longer. Stop. Ask Him to be your Savior and the Lord of your life. Youcan say, “Yes, that’s me. I need Jesus today. I can’t live this way any longer.” If that’s you, the Spirit of God is drawing you. Boldly, right now, lift up your hand. Say, “Yes, I need You, Jesus. I need You to be my Savior. I need You to be my Lord.” Don’t be ashamed. You can’t live this way any longer. You need Jesus. You need Him to save you.You need Him to come into your life.

Which God Do You Serve?

November 10, 2024 • Lyndol Loyd • 1 Kings 18:39

Elijah: Which God Do You Serve? Good morning Church! If you have your Bibles, open them up to I Kings 18 as we engage with the Old Testament story of the prophet Elijah. Aboveanything else in our lives, God wants to have all of our hearts, our worship, our focus, our adoration. God wants to be number one. In fact, in the very first of the Ten Commandments, God says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” When Jesus was questioned, “What is the most importantcommandment”, Jesus said, “Above all else, we are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength.” God wants all of our hearts, not just part of our hearts which explains why Satan, our spiritual enemy is always trying to get people to worship and serve false gods. It is called the sin of idolatry. Here’s the thing about false gods, they promise what only the one true God provides.For example, money is a pretty popular false god. What does money do? Money promises what only God can provide. Money says if you have enough money, you’ll be happy and secure. That’s what many people believe about the false god of money. However reality is, once you get enough money and someone says, “You have cancer and you are going to die in thirty days,” you realize it doesn’t matter how much money you have. It doesn’t make you secure. It’s a false promise. Money says if you have enough, you’ll be happy, but it doesn’t matter how money you have. If one day you find you’ve lost one of your own children, there’s no amount of money that can buy your happiness in that moment. It’s a false promise. It’s a false god. It promises something that it does not provide. In the time of Elijah, many people were living idolatrous lives. They were worshipping and serving false gods. In fact, if you missed last week, let me review to give you context,which will help us in understanding as we move forward. Elijah was called by God to confront a very evil king named King Ahab, who was married to the wicked woman, Jezebel. Ahab was the nineteenth consecutive evil king. Scripture says that he did more evil in the eyes of God than anyone before him, so he was the worst of the worst, and of all his long list of sins and wickedness, the worst thing that he did was, he continued turning the hearts of the people away from the one true God toward the false gods of Baal and Asherah. The people were no longer worshipping the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.Instead, they were worshipping the false gods. False gods promised, “If you worship me,we’ll make your crops grow. If you worship me, then you’ll have a better life.” False gods promise what only the true God provides. God raises up Elijah, who confronts the king, and basically says, “Because of your idolatry, God sent me to tell you it’s not going to rain until God tells me to pray and ask it to rain.” So, there is this major drought. Tons of people are dying from a famine. It’s the worst thing you could imagine, and so God sends Elijah into a period of hiding andpreparation. Why? Because King Ahab wanted him dead. He said to everybody, “You find him, kill him on the spot.” So, God takes Elijah to the place called the Kerith Ravine. If you were here lastweek, Kerith means the place of cutting down. It’s a place of humbling, where Godhumbled him and developed him into even a stronger man of God. God fed him morning and evening by ravens who flew in and would drop bread and meat, and he had enough to drink through the brook. But one day, the brook dried up.God called him to move on to a place known as Zarephath, where there was a widow, whoGod used to provide for him with just a little bit of oil and a little bit of flour that miraculously never ran dry. One day, the widow’s son died. This growing man of faith took the son up to theupper room, called out to God, and God raise this boy from the dead. And we see the prophet developing into the man of God that God wants him to become. Now, our last verse told us that he went into hiding. We find out now, God wants him to go and confront the evil king, and here’s where we pick up the story. We are about three years into the drought, and in I Kings 18:17-18, we see them together again. “When Ahab saw him, he exclaimed, “So, is it really you, you troublemaker of Israel?”” Now, the Hebrew word that’s translated as troublemaker can also be translated as snake, or viper. Okay? It’s, “Hey, you no good, low down snake. It’s your fault all this is happening. All these people are dying with this huge drought, because of you, Elijah.” Elijah says, “I’m not taking any of that from you.” He pops back toward the king in I Kings 18:18, ““I have made no trouble for Israel,” Elijah replied. “You and your family are the troublemakers, for you have refused to obey the commands of theLord and have worshiped the images of Baal instead.” Elijah was confronting the very popular idea that there are many gods. Now, I’ll give you a couple of words that we studied in seminary. You may or may not know these words, but they’re the words monotheism and polytheism. What is monotheism? It’s the beliefthat there is one God. As Christians, we are monotheistic in our beliefs. Polytheism is the belief that there are multiple gods, and Elijah was confronting a very polytheistic culture, where they would worship multiple gods. Now, those of us who are Christians, we would say, “Well, we are monotheistic. Webelieve in one true God.” But even though we believe in one true God, many of us live what I would call polytheistic lives. We believe in God, but in reality, we worship and serve many false gods at the exact same time. Most people I know aren’t worshipping the false gods of Baal or Asherah. In reality,the false gods today that people worship and serve are much more socially acceptable.Right? I mean, let’s be honest. A lot of people worship the false gods of money. Or, people worship the false gods of material possessions. You know, your house, your car.It could be your image, you know, your look. It could be your favorite sport. It could be your career. It could be your hobby. I mean, oddly enough, it could be your children. You say, “Well, how in the world could our children be a false god?” When you elevateanything into the rightful place of the one true God and put anything on the throne of your life besides God that is idolatry, even something as good and important as your children. So, that’s why I would ask the question to all of us today to identify what are the falsegods that you serve? What are the false gods that you put ahead of the one true God? I’ll tell you a few in my life. I’m not proud of these. There have been times in my life when I’ve made my ministry the most important thing in my life. Yes, I’m called to be a pastor, but I’m not supposed to make that more important that God himself. There have been times when I have placed my family above God. I love my family. Ilove Joni. I love my kids, but there have been times when I have prioritized them in front of God. Joni and I just bought a new house this past year that we have been remodeling. We are truly excited about our new home, but if I’m being completely transparent with you I’d have to say that it is all too easy to get so wrapped up in that process that it takes precedence in front of God. I’m sharing all of this with you because I think it is important for me to not exempt myself from this conversation. What are some of the false gods you’ve elevated and erected in the place of the onetrue God? The sin of idolatry. Sure, we’re monotheistic in our beliefs, but our practices are often very polytheistic. So, Elijah, the prophet, steps into this polytheistic culture and he makes a very prophetic and very strong statement. He looks at them as they are going back and forth, and he says with all the authority of God, “People, it is time to quit wavering between gods.”He basically says, “We are going to have a good old-fashioned showdown.” Watch what he says to the king in I Kings 18:19-21, “Now summon all Israel to join me at Mount Carmel, along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophetsof Asherah who are supported by Jezebel.” So Ahab summoned all the people ofIsrael and the prophets to Mount Carmel. Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” But the people were completely silent.” If Elijah were here today, he’d say the same thing to us. “Quit wavering. I mean, you want …” “Yeah, well God, keep me out of Hell and get me into Heaven, but I still want to do whatever I want. Oh, God, hear my prayer and bless me, but I don’t want to obey yourcommand. Oh, God, I want all of Your good things, but don’t want to stop my bad things.Oh, God, I …” Quit wavering. Quit being a Christian on Sunday and a heathen the rest of the week. Quit claiming Christ and living like you don’t know him. Quit wanting the benefits and being unwilling to sacrifice. Just quit wavering. Take a side. In fact, I’m trying to conceptualize Elijah’s message today. Here’s what I think he would say. “If your false god, little ‘g’, whatever it is, really is God, then sell out to it. Okay?” In other words, if material possessions are really the most important thing, then quit just sort of accumulating them, go for it. I mean, get into massive debt. Steal, if you have to. I’m not joking about this, because if the greatest thing is accumulation, then everything should be justified, and stealing would be justified. Don’t ever give again. Don’t ever do anything generous, because that would, then,diminish your ultimate goal of accumulating. If material possessions, if that is truly God, then go for it. If your image, if that’s truly God, then, then don’t just kind of do it. I mean, get in the gym three hours a day. Some of you are going, “Oh, yeah. I’m there, baby. I’m there.”You know, tan it, tweak it, tat it, puff it, tuck it, lift it, twist it, curl it, color it. I mean, whatever it is, do it… and just ignore the fact that you’re going to die. Don’t even think about that.That would totally disqualify the god of your appearance. Buy whatever clothes you need and go for it. Okay? But, if Christ, the Son of God, is the one true God, then quit your wavering. Serve Himwith all of your hearts. Don’t just claim Him and then live as if He doesn’t exist. Serve Him! So, what did he do? He has a showdown. I Kings 18:22-24, “Then Elijah said tothem, “I am the only prophet of the Lord who is left, but Baal has 450 prophets. Now bring two bulls. The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cutit into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without setting fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood on the altar, but not set fire to it. Then call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. Thegod who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God!” And all the people agreed.” Here’s what they were thinking, “You idiot. Do you know who you are dealing with?We’re saying, we are going to call on Baal. Baal is the sun god, as in sun, as in hot, as in fire. You’re going to get smoked, silly prophet.” I Kings 18:26, “So they prepared one of the bulls and placed it on the altar.Then they called on the name of Baal from morning until noontime, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no reply of any kind. Then they danced, hobbling around the altar they had made.” So, I love this, Elijah starts messing with them. I mean, this is funny. This is a man of God, and he’s going to mess with them. Here’s what he does. I Kings 18:27, “About noontime Elijah began mocking them. “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “for surely he is a god! Perhaps he is daydreaming, or is relieving himself. Or maybe he is away on a trip, oris asleep and needs to be wakened!” He is right out taunting them. So, if you read on, I Kings 18:28-35, what’d they do? They shouted louder. They danced around. They went crazy. Scripture says they shouted all day long. Sadly though, many of us, we don’t dance for the false gods all day long, but many of us do it all lifetime long. Dancing, praising, pursuing, serving, and worshipping the false gods that promise, but never deliver all lifetime long. So finally, at the end of the day, they danced and shouted but, nothing happened.Elijah does this. I Kings 18:36, “At the usual time for offering the evening sacrifice,Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant.Prove that I have done all this at your command.” He didn’t dance or shout. He prayed. Can you see the power and the beauty in Elijah’ statements? “Answer me, Oh, Lord. Reveal yourself. Show us who You are. Let us see You. Reveal Yourself by fire. May we feel the heat of Your love. Show us who You are.” “Why? So that You may turn the hearts of the people back again, because they usedto know You. They used to walk with You and serve You. They used to worship You, but these false gods have taken Your place, Oh God. Turn their hearts back again.” As your pastor I feel compelled to say something right now to those of you who once walked with Jesus and then you walked away or you put some false god or some combination of false gods on the throne of your life. I believe that today God is trying to reveal himself to you so that you can turn your hearts back to Him. Maybe that is exactly why God has you here today. So Elijah prays for God to reveal himself by fire. Now I want you to watch what happens in I Kings 18:38-39, “Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The Lord—he is God! Yes, the Lord is God!” That is my prayer for our church. That we would see Him for who He is and that all the false gods would fall far away in comparison to the one true God, and our hearts would be turned back to Him and we would say, “The Lord, He is God. Yes, the Lord is God!” Because I know how some of your minds work, I also want to say this. Some of you might wonder why God doesn’t just shoot down fire from heaven today as a way of revealing himself. He could do that right here and now. Why doesn’t God show himself like that? I would respond by reminding us of an infinitely more beautiful way that God showed Himself to us two thousand years ago, when He left Heaven, became one of us in the person of His Son, Jesus, and lived a perfect and sinless life so that He could die for us ona cross and be raised again, so we could know Him. When you do know Him through Christ, then all the false gods just seem to fall away.So, if Elijah was living today, I think he’d say, “Lyndol, quit wavering. LakeRidge, quit wavering. If you know God for who He is, you will never be tempted to serve these falsegods, because the one true God is so much greater.”

Man of God

November 3, 2024 • Lyndol Loyd • 1 Kings 17

Elijah: A Man of God Good morning church! This morning we are kicking off a new message series basedon the life of the Old Testament prophet, Elijah, who I believe is arguably one of the most interesting persons in all of scripture. We find his story beginning in I Kings 17. Let me give you the context of the time period that we are studying. When Elijah was alive, the Northern Kingdom had experienced 19 consecutive evil kings,spanning about a two hundred year time period. Now, let this sink in for a minute. Imagine, if you will, not just 19 ineffective leaders, but imagine 19 consecutive evil leaders. This was a time in which Elijah lived. In fact, there was a very evil king named Ahab, who was married to a wicked woman named Jezebel. Under their reign, the Bible says that Ahab did more evil in the eyes of God than any of those before him. These evil leaders would turn the hearts of their people to false gods, the god of Baal and the god of Asherah. People would often sacrifice their children to these false gods. They would go into the temples and engage with prostitutes and call it worship. They did awful things. So, this is a very dark time of corruption. We’re talking about major scandals, tremendous idol worship, and God said, “Enough is enough!” Interestingly, though, God didn’t raise up an army to take a stand against the evil king. Instead, God does what God often does, and that is, He raised up one person to take a stand and that person was Elijah. I can’t help but wonder if God might want to do something similar today. • God might want to raise up a teenager to take a stand for Jesus in school. • God might want to raise up a young business leader to take a stand for integrity in the workplace. • God might want to raise up a parent to take a stand against the craziness of over scheduling our children. • God might want to raise up someone to take a stand for truth and virtue. • God often raises up one person in order to make a big difference. A great place to start our series is with an understanding of what the name Elijah means? El stands for Elohim, or God. I is the personal pronoun for my or mine. Jah comes from Jehovah So put together the name alone means “the Lord is Jehovah.” “My God is Jehovah.”“The Lord is my God.” So immediately, when God raises up this prophet to stand up to the king, by his very name alone, he’s making the testimony, “The Lord God is the one true God.” The first time we see Elijah in all of scripture is in I Kings 17:1, “Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, “As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives—the God I serve—there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!” Did you like the sound effect? You weren’t expecting that were you? We threw that in because what Elijah just said was one of the most strategic, propheticjudgments against the land that you could imagine. No rain. No dew. Nada. This would have been a complete economic shutdown. In this agriculturally driven economy, no rain shut everything down. Living in Lubbock, Texas, I think we get the idea ofhow no moisture of any kind impacts life. Elijah has basically told the king that life as you know it just ended. There will bepeople starving death. Unemployment rates will skyrocket. People are going to be dying all over the place. This man of God stands up to this evil king and says, “No more rain.” So in my mind, I’m thinking, “Okay, the battle is on. The man of God stands strong. Let’s see him fight.”But instead, God does something that is a little bit different. He takes Elijah into a season of hiding over a long period of time. God takes Elijah away, so He can do so much more inhim. Why? Because there’s so much more God wants to do through him. As we read through the story together we are going to watch as God shapes him in a season of deep preparation. There are three notable things that God does in Elijah’s life at this point. First, God takes him through what I call a season of isolated pain, where he is very alone. He’s gotno one else to call out to and he’s hurting as he hides. I Kings 17:2-3, “Then the Lord said to Elijah, “Go to the east and hide by Kerith Brook, near where it enters the Jordan River.” So he is supposed to hide out by the Kerith Brook. Some translations call it the KerithRavine. In Hebrew, Kerith means “cut off,” or “cut down.” It means to be cut off from the source, to be cut off from the blessings, or very literally, it means to cut down like you would chop down a tree. You could almost sense what God is, is saying here. It’s as if God is saying, “I’m going to humble you. I’m going to teach you to be totally dependent on Me, and I’m going to humble you privately before I use you publicly. I’m going to do something in you that’svery deep, so later on, you can do more than you ever thought possible.” Some of you right now, you would say, “Man, I’m living in Kerith. I’m there. I’m being humbled. Those things that I used to depend on, I no longer can depend on. I’m in Kerith”. God may say, “You’ve got to understand. I’m doing something in you. There’s a preparatory work going on. I’m teaching you something you couldn’t learn anyother way. I’m doing this work in you, so I can do more through you.” I’ll never forget when Joni and I were church planting in Arkansas. It was one of the toughest experiences of my life. Absolutely nothing about it was easy. We experienced adversity both left and right. The worst of it all came from the other two Methodist churches in town. I don’t have time to list all of the ways in which we were either betrayed or hurt bypeople in the early years of that church plant. Things were so bleak that when we sat down to write our Christmas letter to send out to friends and family I actually wrote, “This hasbeen one of the most difficult seasons of our lives. Church planting has driven us to our knees in prayer and if I’m being completely honest we’ve had more than one day where we’ve wondered if it might not be a better option to go work at McDonalds and ask people, “Would you like fries with that?” It very much felt like we were living in the Kerith Ravine. It was a season of cutting and humbling and breaking. However, I can testify that God did things in us during thatseason that would not have happened any other way. Some of you are there. You’re living in Kerith. Elijah was there for months, all alone,nobody to talk to. No one understood the Kerith Ravine, where God was breaking him. My encouragement to you would be this - the more that God humbles you, the more that God is preparing you. The second thing we see God do with Elijah is to bring him to a point of total dependence. Elijah cannot depend on anything, but God, and God alone. I Kings 17:4-6 says,“Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to bring you food.” So Elijah did as the Lord told him and camped beside Kerith Brook, east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook.” So, here we see Elijah’s all by himself, and God does this miracle. In the middle of adrought a brook comes up that he gets to drink from. Then, we’ve got God’s Heavenly Catering Service. These birds go out and find bread and meat. Every morning and evening, they deliver them straight to Elijah. What was God doing? God was very clearly and distinctly saying that no matter what, “I will be faithful. You can count on Me to provide for you.” Many of you right now, you are in a season where there was something you used totrust in for your security, and it’s been taken away. You don’t have anything else to trust in, but the giver of life and all good things. You are having to learn that when everything elsethat you used to believe in fades away, God will forever and always be faithful to you. God says, “I will be your provider. When you can’t depend on what you used to beable to depend on, I will deliver what you need.” Here’s the cool thing about this, God didn’t give him two days’ worth of food or a week’s worth of food or a three-month supply. What did God give him? Enough for the day. Some of you, you are going to learn that right now. You are in a season where you’re hurting and you’re alone and you’re afraid, but guess what? God delivers enough for theday. You feel very weak, but God says, “I will be your strength for today. I may not bring more than you need, but I will bring exactly what you need. I will be your daily bread.” Elijah learns to depend on God for that day. God is humbling him. He’s teaching him total dependence. When he has no ability to provide for himself, God is teaching him, “I will always be your provider.” Third thing we see happen in Elijah is unconditional obedience. There’s isolated pain. There’s total dependence, and then there’s unconditional obedience. I Kings 17:7-9, “But after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land. Then the Lord said to Elijah, “Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you.” Now, let’s put ourselves in Elijah’s shoes. For months he’s been by this brook, and it’s been giving him daily water. God told him to go there, and then the brook dries up, and God says to move on. In my mind, I’m starting to think, “Okay, God, where are You? What’s the purpose of being here? You gave me water from the brook. Now, the water dries up. Did I do something wrong? I don’t quite understand.” He’s going to learn that the same God who gives water can take water away. Godmay 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, you may be going, “Oh, my goodness, my brook is drying up.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 be able to trust, and I had all these good friends and then, boom, they turned on me and my friendship brook is drying up. I used to be really like close to God, and it, it’s like the brook’s drying up.” A lot of times, people will say this. They’ll say, “God guides by what He provides,” andHe does. But, I believe with all my heart, God also often guides 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. When I was church planting in Florida we were getting ready to launch and the planwas to do so by meeting in an area high school. One day an assistant superintendent with Orange County Public Schools contacted me. He wanted to let me know that the schoolboard was going to change their policy so that whenever the schools were on any kind of a break such as the Winter Break or Spring Break that no one would be allowed to use theschool facilities. This meant that we wouldn’t have any place to worship at times like Christmas and Easter - two of the most attended times of the year. I couldn’t understand and cried out to God. When that door closed God guided us to a strip mall called Alafaya Village that wasjust opening. It was so expensive, but we ended up leasing space there and launched a preschool ministry the same time we opened the church. Eventually Alafaya Village went into foreclosure and the church was able to purchase the entire property, not just the building in which we were meeting. This gave us the room we needed to grow and allowed us to be there cheaper than it had been when we were renting space. The very thing I thought I wanted, God withheld so I could see the thing I couldn’thave seen if He provided what I wanted. He will guide often by what He doesn’t provide.The brook dried up, and it gave Elijah the courage to be obedient, even when it didn’tmake sense. God said, “Go to Zarephath.” “Well, but I’m not sure the brook…God, I don’t understand what You’re saying.” God causes him to go into this new place, and the story is very rich. I can’t read it all.I’ll just hit the high points. You need to read it all sometime, all the way through the end of I Kings 17. He moves, and then he travels to this place, maybe a hundred miles or so, across abarren land. Elijah sees this widow, who God says is going to provide for him. So he humbles himself and says, “Madam, I’m really thirsty. Could, could you give me some water to drink and maybe a little snack, ‘cause I’m kind of hungry?” The widow looks at him and goes, “Are you, are you the only guy that doesn’t know, it hasn’t rained! We’re dying here. There’s a drought. I’m a widow. I’ve got one son. He’s back at the hut. I came out here to get some sticks. I’m going to go make our last meal. I’ve got a little bit of flour left, and I’ve got a little oil in the jug. That’s all I’ve got left, enough for one last meal. We are going to eat, and then we are going to die.” Elijah says, “No, you’re not.” And he looks at an impossible situation and speaks faith into it. He says, “The flour that you have will not run out. And the jar of oil will not run dry. Go back and bake me some biscuits.” She does, and they ate the biscuits, and the flour did not run out and the oil did not run dry. They ate, and they ate for weeks and months. God again, supernaturally provided for Elijah in his unconditional obedience to God. Then one day, tragedy struck, and the son died mysteriously. Momma freaked out, as you would expect, and said, “Is this God’s judgment on me because I turned against theone true god, to these false gods?” Elijah, because of all that had happened, because God was shaping him, did something that to our knowledge had never happened before in history. He takes a dead boy, puts his body on top of him, looks up to Heaven and says, “God, I think You could heal him. I’m asking You to do it,” and God raises a dead boy to life. Why did this happen? Because God took him to the Kerith Ravine, where he was cut down. God took him to a season of total dependence, where he couldn’t depend on anything at all but God, and God alone. Then, God dried up the brook, so that he would leave where he was, to go to where God ultimately wanted him, so once again, He could perform a miracle and raise the dead back to life. Why could Elijah have such faith? Because he had been through the Kerith Ravine. Some of you right now, you are in a season of deep pain, and God may just say,“I’m doing something in you, because one day, I’m going to do more through you.” Look at how the story changes. I Kings 17:24, “Then the woman told Elijah, “NowI know for sure that you are a man of God, and that the Lord truly speaks through you.” God may allow you to go through the Kerith Ravine, so one day, someone could lookat you and say, “Now, I know. I see it. Wow! You are a woman of God. Now, I see it. Youare child of God. Now, I see it. You are a man of God.”