Latest / The Living Waters Podcast / Ep. 263 - Lessons From the Life of Elijah

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Ep. 263 - Lessons From the Life of Elijah · The Living Waters Podcast

• 1:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, look at this guy.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: He's just Mr Personality.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: There's a man who's confident in his God, isn't it yeah?
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: Well, I'd like to know did he have a word from God first, or was he just trusting God to do what he?
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: asked that's a good one.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: I'd like a little word from the Lord.
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: first, this reminds me of James, though, where he's like.
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: You know, elijah is like us, cause he's like.
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: You know, elijah is like us, cause he's like.
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: He's like, dude, you're like let's take our gods to the octagon.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: He's like let's do this.
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: Let's face them against each other and see what happens.
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: Like the confidence.
• 1:37
  Speaker 4: Mma of the gods, it really is.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: It's like the confidence he has in the Lord is just outstanding.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: We have now for years, friends, been attempting to find out what exactly Ray Comfort's condition is.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: After much research and much money expended, with many scientific brains colliding, we finally figured it out Ray Comfort has chicken pox.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: I'm loving it, chicken pox.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: Ray, how in the world can you keep animals that are associated with a disease?
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: What do you mean, chicken pox?
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: Well, what about Lou Gehrig?
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Ooh, his name has been given as a disease.
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: What legacy is that?
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: I never thought about that.
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: I'd like to be remembered.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: It's a horrible disease named Lou Gehrig's disease.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: Who thought?
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: of that.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: That's horrible.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: There's all kinds of disease named diseases named after people.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we're actually naming our fourth child, covid.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: By the way, why?
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: What I mean?
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: It used to be great that there was a city near us that a disease was named after Corona virus and then suddenly they went to COVID.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Remember, at first it was all Corona, corona, corona and it went to COVID.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: It was anything but plague, because that reminds people of God.
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: Plague, it wasn't a plague.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: It was a pandemic.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: It's crazy, isn't it, to think?
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Has it been four years now since that era has passed?
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to forget it.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I hate that time.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I hate masks, yeah, masks.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: So chickenpox Ray why?
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: Why I love chickens.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: They lay eggs.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: They're funny creatures.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Do you guys know why chickenpox are called chickenpox?
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Here we go.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: You don't know, do you?
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: No, that's what I thought.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: No answer, let's move on you dim.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Center for Disease Control.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Chickenpox has nothing Ray's happy to know to do with chickens.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Chickenpox got its nickname because the blisters look like chickpeas.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: What a stupid connection.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: Chickpeas.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: What a stupid connection, chickpeas.
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: Like black-eyed pea.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: Is that what they're talking about?
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: Chickpeas, the band Chickpeas?
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: Well, why call them?
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: chicken.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: This is a lawsuit.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying, ray.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: You got a lawsuit on your hand here.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, ray, did you have the chicken?
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: pox, when you were a child, I can't remember what I had and what I haven't had, did you guys?
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, of course.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: It's like my brother had chicken pox and my parents said all right, guys, I want you guys all to go wrestling inside the living room so we can all have it at the same time.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're all wrestling.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: So did you all get it?
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like a week and a half later we're going to get emails about vaccines now.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: But all of us At least, when we were kids, got all vaccinated up.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I thought you weren't supposed to get it.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: I got it twice.
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: Really?
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I did.
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: Is that possible?
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: No, shingles is different.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: You get shingles from.
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: No, I got chicken pox questions as a kid.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: Shingles is different, that is different, yeah, yeah.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: So, ray, you get shingles from rolling around on little stones.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, shingles.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: You know shingles are.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: They're really bad.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, totally.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: You get them when you're older.
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: I had a shot about 10 years ago For shingles.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I said, this is a lifetime shot.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: You need another one.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: You signed up to get another one.
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: Another one, yeah, give me more.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I want more Chickens, chicken pox shots whatever, but it's very painful.
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: Speaking of being older, my wife turned 40.
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: Wow, ooh, yeah.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: We went away for a couple of days.
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: I took her to an orchard to look up at trees for like an hour and apparently that's not the Apple Watch she wanted Terrible.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: Oh, good work, Oscar.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Unbelievable.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Oscar, you're not even 40 yet You're married to an older woman.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Huh, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: She's my old lady.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: Mark is Laura older than?
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: you?
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: No, she's a year, one year younger.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Ray's you 50 years older than Sue.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Oh man.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: So Ray, what happened with your chicken coop water rain proofing?
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: It worked Climbing ladders.
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: Wait, what did you do?
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: Easy was pleading with me do not climb up a ladder at your age.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: No, I was seriously concerned.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: Now never worry about ladders.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: It's that gravity thing.
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: That's all I was worried about.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: But I didn't fall.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: I held on.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: I actually secured myself with a rope around my neck, Just in case.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: Just in case I fell, I'm not stupid.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Anyway, I put a whole waterproofing over a chicken coop and I can't wait for it to rain again because not a drip is going to get in.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: I don't know, ray and comfort eyes.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Are chickens allergic to water?
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: No, but Sue gets in the mud and digs it over because she doesn't like them walking around in mud.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: So I thought happy wife, happy life.
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: So I fixed it.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: If those chickens only knew the sacrifices you make for them, Ray.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: But it's a joyful, it's done in love.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: Oh, you have an extra bedroom.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Why don't you just let the chickens go in the bedroom, because it's illegal?
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: I have actually thought about it.
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Of course he thought about it, because it's illegal.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: They tell you not to do that because of diseases and stuff like that.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: They've got to be out in the air.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: How many chickens are you up to now?
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: I lost this over.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: You have to listen to what he just said.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: He actually considered bringing his chickens into his house, of course.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: I won't turn our garage.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: I could have another 50 chickens in the garage.
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: It's all these.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Please don't pray for Ray.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: He's behind that.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: When I was in high, school I had a friend named Johnny and whenever we went to his house he would not allow us to leave the living room.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: There was a door, if you needed to use the restroom.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Sorry, couldn't do it.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: I remember you mentioned him before.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Have I mentioned him?
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so when you open up that second door to go into the rest of the house, it was an Avery.
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: He had hundreds and hundreds of birds inside of his house.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: Look how excited right.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: And all the other rooms.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: But Look how excited Ray In all the other rooms.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: But listen, birds are not clean.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the only problem.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: I would have them inside if they didn't poop you would what.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: I would have them inside if they didn't poop, but they just lose little deposits everywhere and it is unclean, so you've got to have them outside.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: You haven't heard of chicken diapers, Ray.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: They're called chippers.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: Chippers look it up.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: Chippers.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: Come on, Ray All right friends, Time for another one of your cool, classy comments.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: There actually is chicken diapers, I'm not kidding.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: We did get them once, did you really?
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: No, it's not because of the usual thing, it's because chickens have a pecking order.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: And if one starts losing its feathers around the back, they'll just peck at it until it dies.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: So they're like human beings, so you can get these things that you put on so they don't get pecked.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the rear Very nice.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: All right, friends, time for another.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: That wasn't sincere.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: That's very nice.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Anyways, easy back to you.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Here's another cool, classy comment.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: This is from Grace from Alaska.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: This is from podcast at livingwaterscom.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: By the way, friends, where you need to email us Long time listener, first time emailer I'd like to start off by thanking you guys for what you do on this podcast.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: I know I'm not alone in considering you guys my friends based solely on these one-sided conversations we call podcasts.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: That's cool.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: I appreciate the edification and encouragement I can count on regularly and I'm looking for some advice.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to witness to my brother and he's just recently opened more to talking about the gospel and my faith and has shown interest in learning more about Christianity.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: I'm hoping to get him some books and videos.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: I know you guys have tons of resources, but it's kind of like a kid in a candy store and I'm not sure where to start.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: If you had to pick two to three books, two to three videos to start someone off with, what would you suggest?
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: His biggest struggle seems to be with comprehending that a murderer is able to have the same forgiveness and someone he considers less evil because, like most people, he considers himself a good person.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: Thanks in advance for any advice and pointers and thanks for staying faithful in evangelism and being a resource, isn't it?
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: funny that we point our finger out to other people and we always say that they're worse than me.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: We forget right, it's that whole adage that there's three fingers pointing back to us and a thumb Right and a and a thumb no.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Ouch, yeah right, you aim a gun at me, like that.
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: You know there's that saying that Greg Kokel came up with that.
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: If God were to come tonight at 12 o'clock to get rid of all the evil in the world, where would you be at 12.01?
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: That we are all holding the smoking gun, that's good.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: We compare ourselves always to somebody worse than ourselves.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: You know, it's always the murderer, it's always the rapist, but the problem is the man in the world.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: We live in a crippled world.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: We crippled, yet God made provision through his son, jesus Christ.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: What is God doing about all the evil in the world?
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Well, he was so concerned about the evil in the world that he sent his son, jesus Christ, to be born of a virgin and he allowed his son to be crucified crucified amongst common thieves for not just murders but liars and thieves and covetous individuals.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: And this person's brother, yeah.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Amen, yeah.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Well, as far as videos go, I would say to check out the Mario video.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: In fact, someone came out to me last night Ray, I was somewhere in public and they mentioned the Mario video and they said they just watch it over and over again.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was good, so that's a good one.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: Maybe something like I don't know what his background is, but why Christianity?
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: One of our videos, evolution versus God, if he's, you know, if that's his persuasion.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: As far as books, how to Be Free from the Fear of Death would be a good one, and that's commanded by or no forward by John MacArthur.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Really really good book um scientific facts in the bible.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: Another good one that kind of glad you're choosing.
• 11:33
  Speaker 4: I don't remember my books oscar, are you gonna say something?
• 11:37
  Speaker 4: Well, it's ironic that uh ray brought up pecking order, um, and and you're alluding to the same thing, the human pecking order, which is it is in our human nature to compare, uh, to think that we are better than or less than.
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: We're always comparing ourselves to people who we perceive as better than us, but we're also comparing ourselves to people who we perceive are less than us.
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: And the reason why we do that?
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: It is in our nature to want to feel safe.
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: And so when we compare people, what we do is we create outsiders, and then we go, ah, okay, they're the outsider, I'm on the safe.
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: And so when we compare people, what we do is we create outsiders, and then we go, ah, okay, they're the outsider, I'm on the inside.
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: And that's what we do with murders.
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: Well, how could God allow we see them as the outsider?
• 12:18
  Speaker 4: And, to your point, mark, we are all outsiders when it comes to the righteousness of God.
• 12:24
  Speaker 4: If you break one law, you've broken them all.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think, as I mentioned before, the reminder to him that you know we're in the predicament we're in today, all of humanity, because a man and a woman ate a piece of forbidden fruit thousands of years ago in the garden.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: The principle is disobedience to God and rebellion, and yeah, so you just make that clear that yeah, and on that note, that guy who was saying well, what about the murderer?
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: He's doing the exact same thing Adam did.
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: It was that woman, right?
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: He's pointing the finger to someone else, going it's her fault, look what she did.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: He's repeating the same things we see in the grave, yeah, and the reminder that God equates unjust anger and hatred in the heart to murder.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: All right, well, thanks again, grace.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: We're so blessed, you're blessed by the podcast.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: What an applicable name.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, amen.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: All right, friends, this podcast is brought to you by the Tract Sample Pack, where you could find out what tracts we carry, figure out which one is applicable for you, get them and give them out, because you are an ambassador for Christ.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: Don't forget the Living Waters mug, the Evidence Study Bible, all at livingwaterscom.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: What's that Track sample pack?
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: Give out the tracks individually, not the pack.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, individually, not the package, Not the package.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: Can you imagine?
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: Keep the tracks, hand out the packs.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: I gave 10,000 track sample packs away this week.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: That would be funny.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: All right, friends.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: On to the topic of the day.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: Today we're dealing with lessons from the life of Elijah.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Elijah, I thought we were doing Elisha, Elisha, how funny, huh.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: And one took over from the other and they just had a slight change of name.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: I always confuse their names.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: That's annoying, isn't it?
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: I was named after my dad and it was confusing when I was a kid.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: Ray Raymond, raymond Raymond and so I decided never to do that with our children, except Rachel.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Ray.
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: Ray and I'd come running Very good thinking Well, I mean just speaking of confusing two people's names.
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: We had that right before the podcast took place today, didn't we Oscar?
• 14:30
  Speaker 4: Okay.
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: So here's what happened.
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: This lovely lady came into the podcast and said hello.
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: She introduced herself, she goes hi.
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: My name is Charlene.
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: No, no, sharla, Sharla.
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: Sharla and EZ goes on a 10-minute rant.
• 14:49
  Speaker 4: He goes oh, I've been to North Carolina, it's beautiful out there, and this poor woman's like what?
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: She was from Wyoming.
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: Wyoming yeah, she goes well, I'm from Wyoming.
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: After like 10 minutes of Easy talking about, North Carolina.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: She said Charlotte and that just sent my mind I don't know what Seriously Crazy, and we laughed for like hours.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: It seemed she was so gracious, she was so kind.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: Start talking about the Bible.
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: Bee.
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: Me and Mark are standing behind EZ like should we stop him?
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: Are the cameras rolling right now?
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: What is he?
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: talking about.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: So, elijah Mark, you like Elijah so much, it's one of your kids' middle names it is my favorite son, Ethan Elijah Spence yeah.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah Well, I'm excited to jump into Elijah's life.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: So just as a little summary Elijah, obviously Old Testament prophet who was from Tishbah in Gilead.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: Can you guys pronounce it like that, Say Tishbah?
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Is that the right way to say it?
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: Wrong?
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: Huh, it doesn't matter what we say, easy will always correct it.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: How about wrong?
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: Tishbah, tishbah, tishbah, it's the.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: You gotta Tishbah Tishbah.
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Can you guys say?
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: Can you guys say, can you guys say Muhammad.
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: No.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Muhammad, muhammad Say Mark say hummus Hummus.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: No say hummus Hummus Imus, no say hummus Hummus.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: I love mocking you.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: It sounds exactly the same Mockers in the last days, right Hold on.
• 16:19
  Speaker 4: Say Charlotte, now say Sharla.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: So yeah, he was from Tishbah and Gilead, he was a prophet during actually a real tumultuous time in Israel's history and, of course, it was under the reign of King Ahab, the wicked, wicked king and his even more wicked wife, jezebel.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: That name sounds wicked, doesn't it?
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: Well, you, wouldn't name your child Jezebel yeah.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Hi, how are you doing?
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: My name is Jezebel, oh, thank you.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Adolf, yeah.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: So.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: And Elijah basically just kind of pops up on the scene almost suddenly in 1 Kings 17.
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: What I love is his name.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: The Lord is my God.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: Ooh, I love that.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: All right, so the New Testament introduces us to Elijah and James in a special way.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: James 5, 17 to 18 says Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: And it did not rain on the land for three years and six months and he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced its fruit.
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: I love that text.
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, tell us why, mark?
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Well, because it has nothing to do with you and has everything to do with God.
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: Right, it's not about our works, it's about trusting that God is in control and that he wants to do what he wants to do.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: There's a saying pray until you've prayed, and what that means is that we will offer up a prayer and it starts off as kind of a token prayer.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: It's a compulsory prayer, it's a I told you I would pray type of prayer, but true intercessory prayer is I'm praying, I'm praying, I'm praying.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: I've connected, I'm praying.
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: I've connected, I'm focused, I'm talking to the God of the universe, the one who knows how to make seasons and butterflies.
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: I'm engulfed with him and he's listening to my every word.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: And now I'm connecting and I'm praying until I've prayed and God interprets my prayers.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: And I've often said to people and it sounds a little odd, but you'll get the idea in the picture that it's almost as if God does not speak English Sounds odd and we understand that God speaks English and he understands English, but he's more attentive to the cries of our hearts.
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: Right, we can go on and on and on and pontificate for sentences and paragraphs and forever, amen, oh.
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: You shouldn't have prompted him.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: He was almost finished, I didn't cam on my cell phone during the podcast.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: He's looking at thumbnails.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this is very important.
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: Thumbnail for his YouTube channel.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Ray has one thing on his mind.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: He's working during the podcast with other things.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: There's unassigned people and we can reach a lot with this While we're having a podcast, ray is working on his YouTube channel.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: I didn't with this.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: While we're having a podcast, ray is working on his youtube channel, whatever.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: So it's, it's as if the lord has his ear right up, next to our heart, right, listening to hardish more than english, because that is like the true language, right, he cuts through all the jive that you and I are getting through and talking through and he understands the true us.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: And this is what I like here about elijah right that he was a man just like you and I.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Everybody puts their pants on one leg at a time, except for firemen Right, getting ready for battle.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: But Battle he was, yeah, battle.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: What do you call?
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: it when you're going into a fight, a fire.
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: You're going into a fire.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: Oh boy, I'd love to see Ray's a firefighter.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: I want to get his brainwaves.
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: He would somehow enlarge the fire he's trying to put.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: I brought the gasoline, that's it he was like I thought fire hose meant something very different.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: Just a bunch of matchsticks, oh boy.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: Sorry, go on, Mark.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: Get back inside the car.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: So, Elijah, the point is Elijah's, just like you and I right.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: Same temptations, same desires.
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: I like the King James.
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: Version with this.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: What does it say?
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: Elijah was a man subject to like passions, not just desires.
• 20:00
  Speaker 4: He had a problem with lust.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: Like every other guy or every man is drawn away by his own lust.
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: That's very consoling for me that a guy who has an audience with God can shut up the heavens for three and a half years.
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: That's the time of tribulation.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: It's obviously something tied in there with tribulation.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: But yeah so, a man of like passions as us.
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: He had the same weaknesses, the same temptations, and that's very consoling.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: I wonder what the Amplified Version says.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: I've got it here.
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, with the same physical, so he was obviously short, mental, that's easy, and spiritual limitations and shortcomings, that's good to know.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: And he prayed intensely for it not to rain.
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: I don't know why he did that.
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: That's really annoying.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: People have got vegetable gardens and chickens and he prays.
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: It doesn't rain for three and a half years and it doesn't Of all the things to pray for.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for three years.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: The interesting thing is that the verse that we just read in James 5, 17 to 18, is preceded by, obviously, verse 16.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: And then before that is 15.
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: And then before that, and if you go all the way back, it goes to Listen.
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: I want to fact check him on that.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: What was before Genesis?
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: God, god.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: It was just God.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: So.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: But verse 16 says confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much, accomplishes much.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: And then Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and I love that it's telling us hey, the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: But Elijah, who was like us, like you're saying, Ray, he was a man of like passions, a fallen creature, but yet God heard his prayer and his cries.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: And that word effectual, fervent.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: That word fervent means hot.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: I call it lion's den praying.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: So when you're in a den and you look up and you see lots of lions licking their lips and looking at you for lunch, you don't say, oh God, I need your help.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: You've got fervency.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: Is it like Peter, when he's walking on the water and he begins to sink?
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: What does he say?
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: He doesn't pontificate right?
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: No, he doesn't.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: There's not a three paragraph Lord save me.
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right Help, and we've got a photo.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so but but I love that.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: You know that heart that just says you know I trust the Lord, god is able and he can do it.
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: So all right.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: So that's that's kind of a New Testament intro to Elijah.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: But let's jump into the passage where we find him First Kings 7, 1 to 5, 17, 1 to 5.
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: And Elijah, the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab as the Lord, god of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Then the word of the Lord came to him saying get away from here and turn eastward and hide by the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan, and it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan.
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: So, oscar, this is our intro here to Elijah.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: And first we see him standing up and speaking truth and declaring hey, there will be no dew or rain these years, except at my word.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's some power there, confidence, right, yeah, and again, according to the word of the Lord and God's calling.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: But then God calls him to go and to hang out by the Jordan and hang out by the brook and he's going to be fed by ravens.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: That sounds good to me.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: He's getting like this is like pre-Uber, pre-Uber Eats or whatever Raven eggs, Raven eggs.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: But I think this shows us that sometimes in the pathway of obedience there can be challenge for us as God's people.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, this wasn't like, hey, go hang out at the Taj Mahal or go hang out at the Ritz Carlton, go chill by a brook and you're going to be fed by birds.
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: Well, it's also, I think.
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: When I hear that, I think I'm reminded that God is the God who never changes.
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: He was the God who provided to Moses and his people through manna in the desert as they walked.
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: He's the God who shows up and feeds Elijah through these birds.
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: He is the God who multiplied the loaves of bread and the fish through Christ.
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: And he is the God today who is there for us and he is there with us and, ultimately, he is always providing exactly what we need to become more like his son.
• 24:38
  Speaker 4: Notice, I did not say he is providing exactly what we need to become more prosperous, to become more wealthy, to become more comfortable.
• 24:46
  Speaker 4: God is always providing exactly what we need to become more like his son, because that is the chief work that God is doing in our lives.
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: He is sanctifying us, he is reshaping us to become who we were meant to be, which is children of God.
• 25:06
  Speaker 4: Wow, that's so good.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: And it also shows us that God's ways aren't our ways, because God says go and hide, and then you're going to be fed by birds.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: Why not just put a wall of fire between him and whoever's annoying him?
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 25:18
  Speaker 3: But he chooses, like Paul the apostle.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: The apostle Paul saved on the road to Damascus.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: God's going to use him and he has to get lowered down in a basket.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: I mean, he was the first basket case and he felt let down.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, by his friends.
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, it's so true.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: And you think about that?
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Mark God's provision and my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: And he does.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: But I love what Oscar's saying to conform us into the image of Christ.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: And what more do we need than that?
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: And when we're spiritually minded, there's nothing we truly desire beyond that.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: I want to be like Jesus.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Eternity's coming.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: Life is challenging.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: It's difficult, of course.
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: I'm not pleading for that, but I understand that these trials are also my servants, as it's been said, they're working something out for me a greater perseverance.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: They're creating character in me, like Romans talks about right.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Boy, I mean everything I was going to say you just said.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: One of the most beautiful texts inside of scripture is delight yourself in the Lord.
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: He'll give you the desires of your heart.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: Notice the caveat, right Delighting yourself in the Lord.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: Because when you're delighting yourself in the Lord, your desires are the Lord's desires and he's placing his desires inside of your heart, right?
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: So just ask somebody what would you do if you had a hundred million dollars, right?
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: And the moment it begins to include, well, I would buy all my friends' houses and cars.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: And it's like listen, you're not the savior of your friends, right?
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: If your immediate knee-jerk reaction is to build bigger barns, it just demonstrates that the heart is not right, right?
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: No good thing will you withhold from those who walk uprightly.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: If you need it inside your life it's proof against evolution, by the way that's right.
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: If you need it, he's going to provide it.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: So the idea is not about bigger barns, unless you're going to load that with gospel tracks and books and DVDs and Sunday school curriculums to give out to other people.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: And chickens, and chickens, perhaps.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, ray, if you had $100 million, would you have like a million chickens on a chicken farm Of?
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: course I wouldn't confine it to a million.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Oh you have little faith.
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: Mark, confine it to a million.
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: Oh, you have little faith, mark?
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, so I have no idea where I was heading, what direction I was going.
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: It was great.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Whatever is my?
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we weren't listening, you know uh.
• 27:42
  Speaker 4: I remember where you started, though, and to sort of finish off, which is I, it's.
• 27:45
  Speaker 4: It's ironic that I just or Providence, that I just read this story recently about this guy who won I think it was like $360 million through the lottery.
• 27:55
  Speaker 4: And before he had won the lottery he was like he was married, he had his kids, they lived in an apartment, they lived paycheck to paycheck to paycheck, always scrambling to make ends meet, barely being able to have any fun and have any excess.
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: And then he wants $360 million and have any excess.
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: And then he wants $360 million and within three years, he is divorced, he's not talking to his kids, he is poor and he ends up taking his own life.
• 28:19
  Speaker 4: And right before he did that, he is quoted as saying "'Winning the lottery was the worst thing "'that ever happened to me'".
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: Wow.
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: And it kind of goes to like Jim Carrey.
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: I remember him saying one time "' the worst thing that could possibly happen to you is that you get everything you ever wanted, because you need to realize you're still unhappy.
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: In other words, like all of the things that make us comfortable are actually the things that could be getting in the way of true, everlasting joy.
• 28:49
  Speaker 4: And that is such a hard reality to say, because I'm imagining, like the single mom who maybe just lost her husband to I don't know cancer and she's raising kids and she's like how can?
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: But?
• 29:02
  Speaker 4: But do you know my struggles?
• 29:04
  Speaker 4: And it's just, it's a beauty.
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: It reminds me of this beautiful song I know I've shared with you and you loved it.
• 29:09
  Speaker 4: I'm just going to read the first stanza of it Sing it first.
• 29:11
  Speaker 4: I can't do that.
• 29:12
  Speaker 4: Sing it, sing it yo.
• 29:13
  Speaker 4: But it's called If, by a band named Beautiful Eulogy and it goes like this If, in one unfortunate moment, you took everything that I own, everything you've given from heaven, above and everything that I've ever known, if you stripped away my ministry, my influence, my reputation, my health, my happiness, my friends, my pride and my expectation, if you caused for me to suffer or to suffer for the cause of the cross, if the cost of my allegiance is prison and all my freedoms are lost, if you take the breath from my lungs and make an end of my life, if you take the most precious part of me and take my kids and my wife, it would crush me, it would break me, it would suffocate and cause heartache.
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: I would taste the bitter, dark providence, but you would still preserve my faith.
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: What's concealed in the heart of having is revealed in the losing of things.
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: Let me say it again what's concealed in the heart of having is revealed in the losing of things.
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: I can't even begin to imagine the sting that kind of pain brings.
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: I would never blame you for evil, even if you caused me pain.
• 30:18
  Speaker 4: I came into this world with nothing and when I die it will be the same.
• 30:22
  Speaker 4: I will praise your name in the giving and taking away.
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: If I have you, I can lose everything and still consider it gain, Wow, and still consider it gain.
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: Wow, what's the band name?
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Beautiful Eulogy.
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: Wow, I love that man.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: That is, yeah, that's, and that's the heart of a person who's come to know him, whom to know his life eternal, To be able to say I count all things as loss, All things as rubbish.
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: I mean, Paul said you know, I don't even count my life dear to me for the sake of serving Christ and glorifying him.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: So what happened to that guy after he wrote that song?
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Ray, sing that song along with your finder's fire.
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: No, don't even talk about it.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Moving on All right.
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: So then let's see one of the highlights here in Elijah's life, and this is 1 Kings 18, beginning of verse 17.
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: It says then it happened when Ahab saw Elijah.
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: That Ahab said to him is that you a troubler of Israel?
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: And he answered I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and have followed the Baals.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Now, therefore, send and gather all of Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who eat at Jezebel's table.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: So that's another thing we have to note, like one of the things Elijah was dealing with was rampant Baal worship, and Elijah and Jezebel were huge Baal worshipers.
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: Jezebel Ah, my name Jezebel, Sorry, that just came to me.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: Okay, so he's confronting Ahab here, and I just love.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: I love Elijah's, just his spunk you know, the way he just answered him.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: You know, I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father's house.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: I'm sure he said it that way too.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: So Ahab said for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel, and Elijah came to all the people and said how long will you falter between two opinions?
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: If the Lord is God, follow him, but if Baal follow him, ray, how cool is that though?
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Just that, hey.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: How long are you going to falter?
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: How long are you just get to it?
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: I love the boldness and we've got the same boldness because we can say to sinners why are you holding between two opinions?
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: You call upon the name of God.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: Put your trust in Jesus and he'll send a fire into your heart and burn up all your sin and make a new creature in Christ, Pass from death to life, out of darkness into light, and that's the challenge.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: No so good.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: Wow, ray, that's good.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Ray, good good.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: You sure read a book.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: I just wanna say something about which we see here I got tozered this morning.
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: Do you know what that is?
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: Tozered, tozered, a-w-t-o-z-e-r-e-d.
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I got absolutely distracted by Tozer's quotes.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: From what?
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: I was researching.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: I just got to just read a couple.
• 33:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah please.
• 33:07
  Speaker 3: Tozer said God never uses anyone great until he tests them deeply.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: Oh man, that's so true.
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: Whatever keeps me from my Bible is my enemy, however harmless it may appear to be.
• 33:18
  Speaker 3: And he said what's closest to your heart is what you'll talk about, and if God is close to your heart, you'll talk about him.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: Wow, that reminds me of Susanna Wesley.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: Charles and John Wesley's mom said it doesn't matter how godly in and of itself it may seem, if it does not drive you closer to Christ, then discard it away.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: Amen.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: That's good.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's those little deceptions, you know, that distract us.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: And, mark, I love this.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Here, though, where he's telling them how long will you falter?
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: And I think, by way of application, I mean today, you know, it's not so much people are like oh, should I, you know, worship Buddha or should I be a Christianian?
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: But it's more of faltering in terms of like being sold out for christ.
• 34:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, instead they have sold out right.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: I mean, choose this day, it was the name of one of my books you just ripped off sold out.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, sold out, sold out and sold out, sold out yeah, yeah, I did a play on.
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: What's it about?
• 34:13
  Speaker 2: I can't remember, but you know the name of the title.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was just really good, that's a step up for you.
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, really.
• 34:16
  Speaker 3: Who wrote?
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: it.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: I can't remember.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: But, you know the name of the title which is good, yeah it was just really good.
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: That's a step up for you.
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, really, who wrote it?
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: I did another one.
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: I might have had the title changed.
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: It was called Cults and Sex, and some people kept asking for the book about sex Cults and Sex.
• 34:33
  Speaker 3: I think that's why we changed the title.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, good idea, Ray.
• 34:39
  Speaker 3: Sold out.
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: Anyway, it's sand not skin.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: Sorry to distract you, Mark.
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: No, I have no idea what we were talking about.
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: Neither do we, okay, but you wrote a book on sex Secrets.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Oh, s-e-c.
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: Yes, Okay, so it says, but the people answered him not a word.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Then Elijah said to the people I am lone and left, prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: Therefore, let them give us two bulls and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it.
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire under it.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: Then you call on the name of your gods and I will call on the name of your gods and I will call on the name of the Lord and the God who answers by fire, he is God.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: So all the people answered and said it is well spoken.
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first for you, for your many, and call on the name of your God, but put no fire under it.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: So they took the bull which was given them and they prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying Baal, oh, baal, hear us.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: But there was no voice.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: No one answered.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Then they leaped about the altar which they had made, and so it was at noon that Elijah mocked them and said cry aloud, for he's a god.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: Either he is meditating or he's busy, or he's on a journey, or perhaps he's sleeping and must be awakened.
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, look at this guy, he's just Mr.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: Personality.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: There's a man who's confident in his God, isn't it yeah?
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: Well, I'd like to know didn't he have a word from God first, or was he just trusting God to do what he?
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: asked.
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: That's a good question.
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: I'd like a little word from the Lord first.
• 36:15
  Speaker 4: This reminds me of James, though, where he's like.
• 36:16
  Speaker 4: You know, elijah is like us, cause he's like.
• 36:19
  Speaker 4: He's like dude, you're like.
• 36:21
  Speaker 4: Let's take our gods to the octagon.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: He's like let's do this.
• 36:25
  Speaker 4: Let's face them against each other and see what happens.
• 36:28
  Speaker 4: Like the confidence.
• 36:29
  Speaker 4: Mma of the gods, it really is.
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: It's like the confidence he has in the Lord is just outstanding.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: You know I love that.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: You know the word confidence.
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: We've seen.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: You know it comes from the Latin confide, which means with faith.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: So at the root of it, when you have confidence, you're having faith.
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: But it's the object of the faith, and the object of the faith is God, amen, yeah.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: So they cried aloud and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them.
• 37:01
  Speaker 1: And when midday was passed, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: But there was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention.
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: So why were they cutting themselves?
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: Was that their sacrifice?
• 37:09
  Speaker 3: The demons or gods were supposed to feel sorry?
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: They were cutting themselves, or this it's what religion does.
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: It's like people flailing themselves and cutting their backs and crawling up staircases or hard concrete until they bleed to try and get God's attention.
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: Oscar, what were you going to say?
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: You're absolutely right, and it also it's like they wanted to offer their lowercase g gods a blood sacrifice.
• 37:36
  Speaker 4: And the one true God does require blood sacrifice, but it's not our blood, it's the blood of Christ that he requires.
• 37:43
  Speaker 4: So they had the wrong God and the wrong blood.
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: Well, Ray, you always reference this.
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: I can't remember what you were saying, but you say you don't need to lay on nails of bed.
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: No, not nails of bed, nails of bed.
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like Beds of nails, it's like.
• 37:57
  Speaker 3: Carolina.
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: Sure, yeah, you don't need to line beds and nails or sit on hard pews.
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: All the suffering's been done on the cross.
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: Amen, so you can rest from your lambs, amen.
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean you think of the things that those who don't know Christ will do, especially those that are like in idolatry proper right, we've talked about this in terms of India and what they do.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, there was that missionary that came along and shared the gospel with a woman on the shores of the Ganges, and she just broke down and said why didn't you come just a little bit sooner?
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: I just threw my baby into the Ganges as a sacrifice.
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: I mean, you think about that, you sacrificing their children?
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: uh, also, I saw a guy up a um pole in india.
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: He um been sitting up there for 18 years.
• 38:46
  Speaker 3: Stop, that's true that was a pole.
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a sacrifice.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: 18 years, or the guy that raised his arm for like yeah, he raised his arm to look with it.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: I mean 20 something years.
• 38:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that was his sacrifice, but it's all been done, it is finished.
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: I'm down from the pole, put your hand down.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: He actually just had a question for me.
• 39:05
  Speaker 3: He was asking the guy on the pole.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: You know he couldn't anymore.
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: His arm atrophied and just froze in place.
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they had to turn him upside down.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right.
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: So All right.
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: So then Elijah said to all the people they called him antenna.
• 39:25
  Speaker 3: Then Elijah said to all the people People keep saying what do you want?
• 39:27
  Speaker 3: Yes, All right.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: Then Elijah said to all the people come near to me.
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: So all the people came near to him and you repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down and Elijah took 12 stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob to whom the word of the Lord had come saying Israel shall be your name.
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two sieves of seed, and he put the wood in order, cut the bowl in pieces and laid it on the wood and said fill four water pots with water and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Then he said do it a second time.
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: And they did it a second time.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: And he said do it a third time.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: They did a third time.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: So the water ran all around the altar and he also filled the trench with water.
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: I mean this is like I kind of feel like Elijah's kind of gloating here.
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: I think he had a word from the Lord.
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: He must have, right.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: I mean it's not just like, okay, go ahead, just put it on there, but no, I'm going to douse this thing with water, right, going to make it hard for God, yeah, and you know.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: But I love that demonstration of again confidence in the Lord, yes, of just saying my God is able, and you know, of course, let's take it in context.
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: Of course Elijah was a prophet.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: I believe the Lord directed him in everything that he was doing.
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: But, oscar, I mean in our lives we face different obstacles or times when we can demonstrate great faith and trust in the Lord and we're often hesitant to do it.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: And I think that, as believers again, not insane things or things that are for our own grandstanding, but for the glory of God to show our trust in Him.
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it comes back to the constant reminder that our life is hinged upon the faith that we have in the Lord, anytime.
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: I mean, I think, like going back to the blood sacrifice thing, the problem here is that everyone else that was worshiping Baal uh, you've been saying Baal.
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: I think it's Baal.
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: Um, yeah, you pronounce it Baal.
• 41:35
  Speaker 4: Their, their, their, their worship, their trust, their faith was in everything else but God.
• 41:41
  Speaker 4: And here Elijah is showing the power, the power that comes from having faith in God, but actually he also.
• 41:48
  Speaker 4: We're getting really close to showing Elijah's weakness too, because in verse 14, later on, it says you know, the end of this story, or the end of this sort of chapter, is that God shows up.
• 42:02
  Speaker 4: He wins the match.
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: Obviously, it's no contest, because there is no other God.
• 42:07
  Speaker 4: And what happens?
• 42:08
  Speaker 4: Nobody repents.
• 42:09
  Speaker 4: The community doesn't repent, the king doesn't repent, ahab doesn't go.
• 42:14
  Speaker 4: Oh, man, you're right, elijah right.
• 42:16
  Speaker 4: Instead, elijah leaves.
• 42:18
  Speaker 4: He has to leave the land because his life is being threatened.
• 42:20
  Speaker 4: And listen to his comment here towards God.
• 42:24
  Speaker 4: He says verse 14, I've been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts.
• 42:30
  Speaker 4: In other words, he's saying I did everything right, god.
• 42:33
  Speaker 4: And then he says but the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword.
• 42:39
  Speaker 4: I am the only one left and they are seeking my life as well.
• 42:43
  Speaker 4: He's basically like I did everything right, I was the only one doing things well.
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: And here's the thing Elijah.
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: God did not let Elijah down.
• 42:53
  Speaker 4: Elijah's plans led Elijah down.
• 42:56
  Speaker 4: Elijah thought God was going to create the beginning of a reformation after that moment in that experience.
• 43:03
  Speaker 4: But God's plans were something totally different and Elijah thought that God was in come in fury, in wrath, and everyone was gonna repent.
• 43:11
  Speaker 4: And later on, you see, in Elijah's life, when he climbs up, people don't realize.
• 43:16
  Speaker 4: Well, commentators comment that the mountain that he climbs up is actually Mount Sinai and they wonder if the same cave that he gets into is the same cleft that Moses got into.
• 43:27
  Speaker 4: In the midst of all of that, what you have is you have wind and you have fire, and Elijah has this expectation that God's going to come in fury.
• 43:35
  Speaker 4: But at the very end of it, how does God reveal himself?
• 43:38
  Speaker 4: In a small still voice.
• 43:42
  Speaker 4: I does that mean?
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: What that means is Elijah thought God was going to move through fury and wrath.
• 43:47
  Speaker 4: God does do that, but God also can't be put in a box.
• 43:51
  Speaker 4: In this instance, god wanted to show himself through that small voice of grace in Elijah's life first, and then the life of other peoples afterwards.
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: That's so good, yeah, and in the account we were reading we see what God did, as you mentioned.
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: Oscar says in the fire, in verse 38,.
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: And the fire from the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: Now, when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said the Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God.
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: And Elijah said to them seize the prophets of Baal, do not let them escape.
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: So they seized them and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and executed them there.
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: And so, ray, we see a great victory here.
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: God moves, he shows up.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: I mean a great demonstration of his power, right.
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: But then in the next chapter, right after this great victory, we see Elijah hightailing it.
• 44:44
  Speaker 1: It says and Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah saying so let the gods do to me, and more also if I do not make your life as a life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there, ray.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: He just destroyed, decimated the prophets of Baal, demonstrated the power of God, killed 450 of them, and now this woman, jezebel, is saying she's going to come get them and he hightails it out of there.
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, women are scary.
• 45:23
  Speaker 3: No, it's just that he's a man of like passions.
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: Just like you and I, he was subject to fears, and we see that John the Baptist was likened to Elijah.
• 45:32
  Speaker 3: He came in the spirit and power of Elijah and he was a man of like passions who was subject to depression and fear, as we see when he sent that message to Jesus when he was in the prison at Herod.
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: So we can take consolation that we have our ups and we have our downs, always as Christians.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the way that it ends up wrapping up there in what he said it says.
• 45:52
  Speaker 1: But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree and he prayed that he might die Like Jonah, wasn't it?
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: He was under a tree, yeah, and said it is enough.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: Now, lord, take my life, for I am no better than my father's.
• 46:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's just insane.
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: Well, I'd love to read and talk about this too, because here's, you know, this is in some ways consolation to anybody who's ever struggled with depression and thoughts of suicide.
• 46:19
  Speaker 4: I mean, elijah hit a valley of despair here and he asks to die.
• 46:24
  Speaker 4: But notice, elijah knows that it's not his right to take his own life.
• 46:29
  Speaker 4: He wants to die, but he knows that that's in the hands of the Lord, and Ray, I'd love for you to.
• 46:35
  Speaker 4: I mean, like you, one of the most common questions you ask people at college campuses is have they ever considered suicide?
• 46:41
  Speaker 4: Why do you ask that question?
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: What's the response?
• 46:44
  Speaker 3: that you hear it's rampant in today's society.
• 46:47
  Speaker 3: Never before have we had such conveniences.
• 46:50
  Speaker 3: I mean, I had to open a door the other day.
• 46:52
  Speaker 3: It didn't open for me.
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: You know, when I was a kid you had to get up and change the channel on the TV.
• 46:58
  Speaker 3: You didn't have such things as remotes.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Or voice command, now even for your TV.
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: Voice command.
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: It's just crazy.
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: And then you had to change the gear in your car.
• 47:06
  Speaker 3: Everything's automatic and we've got a generation that's just beyond despair who are considering suicide.
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: The other day I was going to interview someone and a teacher went past and said don't listen to that man, this is the local school.
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: So I followed her on my bike.
• 47:21
  Speaker 3: I said why are you saying that?
• 47:22
  Speaker 3: She said I've had people come to me crying because you've made them feel so guilty.
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: It was one girl.
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: I said well, go to the police.
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: She says I have.
• 47:30
  Speaker 3: And I said what did they say?
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: They said this is America and you've got the freedom to do this sort of thing, to talk to people about things that matters.
• 47:37
  Speaker 3: And what I wanted to say to her but I didn't get a chance because she walked off on me is how many come to you and say they're suffering suicidal thoughts?
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: You don't even know what's happening in your own college.
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, it reminds me of what Jesus said about the Pharisees.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: You know, they strain at the gnat, they swallow the camel.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: It's like, I mean, you think, at the times where Jesus was like raising someone from the dead or healing someone that was bound for decades, and they were murmuring and grumbling you did this on the Sabbath or they were getting jealous and envious, and it's like with that situation, like people are helpless, hopeless.
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: She's not even looking and thinking man, this man is giving people a message of hope, even though I don't believe in it.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: Obviously, it helps a lot of people.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: I'm just saying if you look at it from the secular perspective.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: But it shows the spiritual dynamic behind those that hate the gospel and furthering it.
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: We have to keep that in mind.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: We don't wrestle against flesh and blood.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: That's key and so, yeah, so, friends, that's the gist of Elijah's life.
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: It's a highlight.
• 48:35
  Speaker 3: I'm making a sacrifice what my hand's up in the air.
• 48:39
  Speaker 3: I've just started.
• 48:40
  Speaker 3: This is going to be 18 years.
• 48:41
  Speaker 3: No, it says in 1 Kings 19, verse 8,.
• 48:43
  Speaker 3: So he arose and ate and drank and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights, as it horrible, in the mountain of God.
• 48:53
  Speaker 3: I want to know what he ate.
• 48:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, well, yeah I think I know what it is.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: What.
• 48:57
  Speaker 3: Baklava, no Tabooey Locusts and wild honey, because John the Baptist was a type of Elijah.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: Just imagine dipping locusts in honey Crunk.
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: But isn't it cool, though, that, like the Lord, you know he'd have them sleep, get up, he'd feed them, sleep, get up, he'd feed them.
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: And you know, you just see God's care for his children in those times.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: And I think too, you know.
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: I think it's just a good principle to remember that for those of you that are struggling with suicide or depression, your hope has to be in the Lord.
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: But the Lord also gives us means by which sometimes to get through some of these things and sometimes rest and good diet and exercise and, of course, spiritual discipline and community.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: All those things are important.
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: So don't do it and realize where those thoughts are coming from Exactly.
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: Go get help, go turn to friends, and you're not alone.
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: All of us have dealt with depression, mark myself, oscar Ray.
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: We've dealt with times of despondency.
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: But there's hope in the Lord.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: Turn to Him, let him bring you through this.
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: And, as we said, yeah, elijah John came in the spirit of Elijah.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: Malachi, 4, 5 through 6, says Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: And then, in Luke 1, 17, he, jesus said, will also go before him, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: And so there you have it, friends.
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: That is the life of Elijah.
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: We hope you've gleaned some lessons of just trust in the Lord, faith in the Lord.
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: Be a person of prayer, recognizing your God is able and mighty.
• 50:33
  Speaker 1: Have confidence in him.
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: Let him bring you through everything.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: There you have it, friends.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: Don't forget the track sample pack, the Living Waters mug, the Evidence Study Bible all at livingwaterscom.
• 50:42
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• 50:45
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• 50:47
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• 50:53
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• 50:55
  Speaker 1: We'll see you here next time on the Living Waters podcast, the one podcast you can't wait to turn off.
• 51:04
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