Latest / Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago / 1 Kings 17 (Part 2) Bible Study (Elijah Raises Widow of Zarephath's Son) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh

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1 Kings 17 (Part 2) Bible Study (Elijah Raises Widow of Zarephath's Son) | Pastor Daniel Batarseh · Bible Study with Pr. Daniel Batarseh | Verse by Verse Series | Maranatha Bible Church - Chicago

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  Father, from the bottom of our hearts, we do thank you that in
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  Christ we are rich with every spiritual blessing.
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  Lord, we pray that as we come to your Word, you would help us
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  excel in the things that you call us to mature and including
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  Thanksgiving. But, Lord, we pray that what we
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  study tonight will help us soar in faith.
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  Help us soar in worship and love to you and love to one another.
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  Cancel and delete everything in US that's none of you.
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  Anything that we've accumulated this week that's outside of your
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  will, your purpose for us. But we just pray that it would
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  be crushed by the weight of your glory as we just sang.
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  The glory that would shine forth through the word of life.
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  Thank you, O God, that we are here to meet with you and you
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  are faithful to meet with us. For your word says draw near to
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  God and he will draw near to you.
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  That's what we have come to do. And we thank you that in Jesus
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  we can do it freely. We can do it in any place at any
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  time. That grace, Lord, we do not take
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  for granted. In Jesus name we pray.
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  Amen. Well, meet me in First Kings 17
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  please. And we will begin from verse 8.
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  I will not give you a introduction into this portion
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  of scripture. I'm just hoping that you
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  remember where we paused last week.
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  We know that Elijah was at the Brook Kareth and he remained
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  there because God instructed him to remain there.
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  And as long as he remained there, he would be fed
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  supernaturally by the assistance of these Ravens who came every
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  day to provide breakfast and dinner.
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  And that's where we stopped. And now we continue from that
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  scene. We briefly brushed on verse 8,
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  but we'll look at it in greater detail, and I just want to read
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  from verse 8 down to verse 16 to have a holistic picture of the
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  scene before we dissected together.
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  So let's read from verse 8. Then the word of the Lord came
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  to him. Arise, go to Zarephath, which
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  belongs to Sidon, and dwell there.
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  Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.
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  So he arose and went to Zarephath.
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  And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was
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  there gathering sticks. And he called her and said,
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  bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink.
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  And I she was going to bring it. He called her and said, bring me
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  a morsel of bread in your hand. And she said, as the Lord your
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  God lives, I have nothing, baked only a handful of flour in a jar
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  and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple
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  of sticks that I may go in and prepare for myself and my son,
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  that we may eat it and die. And Elijah just said to her, Do
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  not fear, Go, and do as you have said, but first make me a little
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  cake of it, and bring it to me, and afterward make something for
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  yourself and your son. For thus says the Lord the God
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  of Israel, the jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug
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  of oil shall not be empty until the day that the Lord sends rain
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  upon the earth. And she sent and did as Elijah
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  said, and she and he and her household ate for many days.
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  The jar of flour was not spent. Neither did the jug of oil
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  become empty. According to the word of the
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  Lord that he spoke by Elijah. There are two things that we can
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  take from the opening verse of this study.
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  Look at it again, Verse 8 reads. Then the word of the Lord came
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  to him. Full stop.
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  I want you to observe at least two things from this.
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  The first thing has to do with the timing of God's instruction
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  for Elijah. Notice that it came after the
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  brook dried up. If you need to remember that,
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  look at verse 7 And after a while the brook dried up because
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  there was no rain in the land. Verse 8.
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  Then. Then the word of the Lord came.
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  Now we would think that God was a little late.
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  We would prefer that if God was to give instruction that in his
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  mercy, supposedly he would have done so before the resources
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  were removed. Before, maybe just right before,
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  things would have evaporated. But the first thing that you and
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  I have to observe from verse 8 concerning the character of God
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  is that God is never late. God is never late.
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  He's never late with his direction.
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  He's never late with his providential provision.
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  He's never late with his protection.
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  God is always on time. And where you and I have to be
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  careful is being tempted to grade God's guidance from a
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  carnally dimensional way. Because God leads us and He
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  guides us, and He does what he does in and through us in a way
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  that is deeper than what we might perceive.
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  We look at surface level things. God looks for deeper things, and
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  God's transitions in our lives are prompted by things that we
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  don't recognize right away. And that's OK.
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  That's what makes him God. What was God trying to teach
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  Elijah by removing the brook in this way?
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  I'm sure it was many things. And I think this is predominant,
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  that I see day by day depended on this resources.
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  God reminded him. No, no, no, no, no.
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  I am your ultimate source. I am the one that you depend on.
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  I am the one that you lean on. And when you and I can get very
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  comfortable in our routine, you can get very comfortable with
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  the blessings that God has given us to begin with.
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  Where we lose sight of God, we lose sight of him being The
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  Fountainhead of everything that we enjoy, of our security, of
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  our of our blessings, of our rejoicing.
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  And so in this very real, tangible way, the Lord reminds
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  Elijah keep your eyes on me. Not that he lost focus.
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  No, there's no indication of that.
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  But this is an illustration of what can be if we were in that
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  same position. Now here's the thing.
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  Did God, in doing this, accomplished what he wanted to
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  accomplish in Elijah's life, which is the second observation?
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  I say yes. The faith that he was looking
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  for in Elijah, the faith that he was refining and and working on
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  did develop, did arrive where it was supposed to be.
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  It passed the test. How do we know?
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  Look at the first word of verse 9.
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  Arise. What does that imply?
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  That Elijah stayed put even though the brook dried?
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  He didn't panic. He wasn't frantic.
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  He wasn't drawing a plan in the sand.
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  No, he was staying right there as though that brook was
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  bubbling with water and the Lord recognized that and that's where
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  he found them. So he says, Elijah, time to get
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  up, Time to get up, because that's something else for you
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  now. You know there is a quality of
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  genuine faith that we often miss.
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  There's something that the Bible provides us in a obscure passage
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  that is very beneficial for us concerning one of the
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  characteristics of true trust in the Lord.
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  We're not going to do much cross referencing in this Bible study,
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  but this is one place worth going to.
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  It's in Isaiah 28 and verse 16. I want you to see what the Holy
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  Spirit says concerning what true believing looks like, how it
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  manifests, how you can measure it even for yourself.
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  Isaiah 28, verse 16. It's in the last part of this
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  verse. Here's what the scripture says.
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  Therefore. Thus says the Lord God.
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  Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion a
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  stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure
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  foundation. Here it is.
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  Whoever believes will not be in haste.
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  Whoever believes will not be in haste.
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  And what implies that a person who trusts in the Lord doesn't
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  panic. They don't flee when there are
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  no answers. They don't rely on the strength
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  in the arm of the flesh. There are times in life where
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  circumstances will demand you to act, to act even promptly.
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  But there are moments, like in Elijah's case, where things are
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  happening outside of your control, and those things that
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  are outside of your control can sometimes go out of control.
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  And in those moments, true faith should arise.
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  And what that looks like is this.
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  You do not act in haste. We sang it over and over today,
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  waiting on the Lord. And so if God is never late,
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  then the second truth from verse 8 is that we must learn how to
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  wait. We must learn how to wait again.
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  That doesn't mean that you're passive.
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  No. God gives us wisdom, and God is
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  very practical. You should be able to, in
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  certain circumstances. Many circumstances solve it with
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  the wisdom and the principles that God has provided you.
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  But when it comes to stuff like this, where you can't do
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  anything to change the outcome of it, he who believes is not in
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  haste. He's not in haste.
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  And that's what we see with this man of God.
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  He doesn't erupt in doubt, He doesn't panic, he doesn't act
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  frantically. He's found there waiting, And
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  the Lord says arise. And if you ever need comfort in
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  those moments where you you're trying to search for answers,
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  you're trying to kick down, doors open, and you might even
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  be questioning God's faithfulness, look again at
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  verse 9 and realize this awesome insight of God's preparedness on
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  our behalf. Verse 9 again, arise.
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  Go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there.
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  Read your Bible slowly, please. Look at the last part of verse
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  9. Behold, I have commanded a widow
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  there to feed you. What does that tell you?
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  That while the brook was drying up, God was preparing another
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  vessel to feed Elijah, and Elijah didn't even know about it
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  until now. So here's Elijah depending on
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  this and his lovely. I wonder if he named the Ravens
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  at that point. He was accustomed to this, and
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  what's God doing? God knowing because he's ahead
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  of us. This brook is going to dry up.
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  I want to see if there's true faith in my servant's heart, but
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  I'm also making a plan. I'm also getting things ready
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  for the next leap of faith that Elijah is going to have to make.
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  This is a wonderful insight to comfort your heart and mind that
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  God has everything set up before you even walk into it.
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  It's all prepared, even the promised land.
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  You're told in Ezekiel that God already spied out the land.
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  Ezekiel tells us that. So even though those 12 spies
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  went in originally, God already did the work.
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  And it's a reminder for you and I that God is 10 years ahead of
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  you, 10 years ahead of you. Know he's at your funeral and
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  your birthday at the same time. He's outside of time.
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  It's not the way you see it. You're standing on the side of
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  the road looking at the parade chronologically.
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  God has a helicopter view. He sees it all.
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  And so this is the God that we serve.
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  This is the God that we lean on and depend on.
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  Here we are told that he already commanded a widow.
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  I already have it set up for you there inside on.
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  All you have to do is trust in me.
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  No wonder we shouldn't be in haste.
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  Now if you thought living by a brook and depending on Ravens to
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  deliver food to you every day was challenging, this next
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  instruction is very challenging. Can you tell me why, based on
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  verse 9 alone, you have you can share it.
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  You don't have to give a sermon. Just tell me the points.
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  Give me one reason why this is difficult to obey.
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  Yes. Oh, widows, widows.
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  Widows. Widows of this time.
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  Oh man, they were destitute to begin with.
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  They needed help. And now you're telling your
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  servant that this widow is going to help you?
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  When? When the economy is booming?
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  No. When there's a drought of all
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  times, of all the candidates, of all the people you could have
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  found, you're going to get a widow to host me.
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  That is challenging. Sure.
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  Another point at least one more Sidon is a gentile, modern day
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  Lebanon. So I want you to go to a country
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  you've never been to before. Imagine that.
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  Imagine being told one night. I want you to pack your bags in
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  the morning, take a flight, fly over to a foreign nation that
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  you've never been to, and I want you to wait there at the
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  airport. There's going to be somebody
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  that you've never met before that's going to invite you to
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  the home and take care of you. Well, you said that sounds
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  exciting. Less exciting for Elijah.
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  Can I tell you why? Let me remind you how Sidon
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  connects to this story. Go back to Chapter 16, verse 31
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  of First Kings. And as if it had been a light
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  thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the son of
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  Nabat, he took for his wife Jezebel, the daughter of
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  Ethbaal, king of the Where Cydonians, and went and served
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  Baal and worshipped him. So out of all the gentile
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  neighboring nations, go where Jezebel is from, go where the
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  center, go where the heart of Baal worship is.
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  Now Jezebel gives us a hint of how Baal worshippers feel about
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  worshippers of Yahweh, right? She was slaughtering the
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  prophets of the Lord. So you would think, OK, if if
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  that's what these people do to my people, probably go in the
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  opposite direction and God says no, I want you to go to the
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  heart of it. Go dwell inside on and inside on
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  A Prince, a wealthy woman. No, a widow is going to take
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  care of you. So put yourself in Elijah's
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  sandals for a second and feel it.
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  Feel it. Don't just brush over it.
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  Put yourself there. This is what he was called to
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  do, and the overall observation to make from this is simple.
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  God's guidance is often unexpected and unpredictable.
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  Can I tell you something heart to heart?
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  I give up predicting how God's going to lead my life.
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  I gave up a few years ago when I first came to the Lord, I I was
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  very, very specific and clear with my request, and I had
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  expectation that it was going to play out exactly how I thought
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  it was going to play out. Can I tell you how much of it
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  played out? Exactly 0 zero.
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  Never thought I would move to this country.
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  Never thought I would do ministry in the context that I'm
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  doing ministry. Never thought I would.
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  Every aspect of who I am, marriage, where I live, the car
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  that I'm driving, everything was beyond my expectation.
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  And guess what? That's OK.
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  You know why? Because my little blueprint
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  pales in comparison to what God has in mind.
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  Do you think, Elijah, I wonder? I wish.
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  I'm going to ask him one day. We have a lot of time and
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  eternity. I'm going to ask him, did you
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  expect that I have all the things God could have told you
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  for this next chapter for your life at this point that you
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  would have had to move to side on and be taken care of by a
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  widow? I wonder what he would have
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  said. It's just shocking and it's
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  supposed to be. So don't put don't put too much
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  stock in you trying to have a forecast of how God's going to
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  take care of every single part of your life plan in your heart.
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  Scripture says plan, but the Lord determines your steps
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  ultimately, So enjoy the ride. Yes, pray, have expectations.
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  Yes, bring things before the Lord, even your desires.
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  But trust that whatever the outcome is, it's going to be
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  better than what you thought. And at the same time here I'm
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  comforted to know that as cryptic as the reasons for God's
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  instructions may be here, there is one thing, one thing about
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  this next leap for Elijah that we obviously see and we should
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  expect for ourselves. I mean, what do what do you mean
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  by that? Do you know what Zeraphath
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  means? Anybody have an idea?
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  I'll. I'll let a couple people guess,
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  if you dare. Zeraphath, you ready for this?
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  This is awesome. You can't make this stuff up.
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  Refinery refinement in the same way that you would refine
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  metals. That's exactly what Zeraphath
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  means. How fitting for what we're about
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  to study in Elijah's life that where he's going to go is in
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  fact going to be more refining than where he was before.
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  And not only is it going to be refining for him, it's going to
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  be very refining for the widow who's going to have him at her
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  house. Do you know what you can have
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  certainty about? No matter what season you're in,
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  whether it is a predictable one or an unpredictable one, you can
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  guarantee this, That whatever it is that you are enduring,
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  whatever it is that you're entering into, whatever it is
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  that you're waiting on God for, it's meant to conform you to the
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  image of Christ. Every time, all the time.
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  It's an unending promise. You've been predestined to that.
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  According to Romans 829, you've been predestined to be conformed
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  to the image of Christ, which means that no matter where
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  you're at, because you're in Christ, the destination for you
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  is that he's going to use everything for your conformity
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  to that image. And that's what Romans 828 is
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  all about, that all things work together for our good.
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  All things. Why?
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  Because of verse 29? Because everything has been
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  destined for you to be conformed to the image of the Son of God.
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  So Zarephath is where he's going.
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  What is he to expect inside on? What is he to expect from a
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  widow? Very little, perhaps, But one
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  thing that is for certain is that he's going to be refined.
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  Even this man of God has more refining to undergo so that he
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  can be ready for the next thing that God has in mind for him.
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  That's what I'm comforted by. No matter what phone call I get,
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  no matter how things drag, no matter how things may not be
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  going according to my preferred schedule, one thing is for
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  certain, this is meant to conform me.
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  When things go fast, when things go slow, when things are
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  favorable, when they're unfavorable.
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  God has designed everything to be for that purpose.
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  And so let's see what happens. So verse 10.
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  He arose, went, and went to Zarephath, and when he came to
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  the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering
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  sticks. And he called her and said,
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  bring me a little water in a vessel that I may drink.
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  Look at verse 10 again. So he arose and went to
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  Zarephath. The unquestioning obedience of
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  this man is to be greatly admired.
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  It's the same thing that we saw when he was initially instructed
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  to go to the brook and to receive from the Ravens.
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  No questions. My questions would have been
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  very similar to the original command.
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  How is a widow going to take care of me?
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  Exactly, Lord. And how long is she going to be
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  able to provide for me in this drought?
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  Are you going to put a protective bubble around me as I
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  am now behind enemy lines? All these different things,
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  nothing coming out of Elijah's mouth.
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  He's walking in total trust in the Lord and he goes there.
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  And when he goes there, here's what you have to see.
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  That when you walk with that yielded Ness to the Lord, when
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  you walk in that obedience, that full hearted trust, you can
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  expect this reward among many other rewards in obedience.
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  Providence, perfect Providence, working in your favor.
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  That's one of the jewels of walking with the Lord in
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  obedience. Notice what happens.
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  He comes to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city,
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  look at this word. Behold, like, hey, check this
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  out. A widow was there gathering
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  sticks. So the moment he enters into the
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  the gate of the city, the very person that God said would take
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  care of him appears on the scene.
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  Coincidence. Providence.
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  Providence and if you want to be assured in your life of God's
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  divine orchestration, working in every detail of your day-to-day,
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  just walk with him hand in hand in obedience.
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  That's that's going to give you the ability to see everything
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  with that wonderful lens. God is orchestrating everything
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  here. Sometimes it's very obvious like
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  this and other times you learn it down the road.
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  But I love to be reminded here that these this kind of leading
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  that God has for his servants is is yours and mine as long as you
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  remain close. One of the things that I always
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  think of is Ruth example, she was a mobitis.
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  She comes into a foreign land with a foreign God.
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  She says your people will be my people, your God will be my God.
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  And she right away walks in obedience and as a poor person
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  she what takes advantage of the welfare system of Israel.
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  So she gleans, she gleans from the fields, that's walking in
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  obedience. And where where does she find
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  herself In Boaz's field. And the rest is history.
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  When you walk in obedience, you position yourself, so to speak.
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  You put the pen in God's hand to write out your story in
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  Providence. There's a lot of mess when you
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  step outside of the will of God. I don't recommend it for many
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  reasons, but all the assurance that you inherit, like Elijah
• 20:29
  shows here, so he does come and look.
• 20:31
  He he calls to her and he says, bring me a little water in a
• 20:35
  vessel that I may drink. In verse 11.
• 20:39
  She didn't seem to have a problem with that.
• 20:40
  And as she was going to bring in, he called her and said bring
• 20:43
  me a morsel of bread in your hand.
• 20:44
  That's where it got costly. We tend to be very attracted to
• 20:49
  the things that don't cost as much in obedience.
• 20:51
  But when it comes to things that have a price tag on it, we're a
• 20:53
  little bit more hesitant, are we not?
• 20:57
  So she obviously expressed this hesitation.
• 20:59
  Look at verse 12. And she said, as the Lord God,
• 21:01
  your God lives, I have nothing baked only a handful of flour in
• 21:06
  a jar and a little oil and a jug.
• 21:08
  And now I'm gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and
• 21:11
  prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.
• 21:14
  What is sad comment, This is going to be the last meal that
• 21:19
  we eat before we both die. And Elijah comes and he says,
• 21:25
  can you get me something to eat? Actually complete stranger.
• 21:31
  Imagine how difficult that would be.
• 21:33
  You have your boy back at home and he he, he's just
• 21:36
  experiencing grumbles in his stomach for days and so are you.
• 21:40
  And with a little strength that you have only surviving on
• 21:43
  water, you're going to prepare your last meal to just satisfy
• 21:46
  yourselves and just lay there and die.
• 21:49
  So you can sympathize, sympathize with her a little
• 21:51
  bit. Right, yes, but it depends on
• 21:55
  how you understand verse nine. Look again at verse nine of the
• 21:59
  second part. Behold, the Lord says I've
• 22:01
  commanded a widow there to feed you.
• 22:06
  I am persuaded that based on that verse, this widow had
• 22:10
  received the prior revelation from the Lord of what was to
• 22:14
  come in Elijah arriving and what she was to do.
• 22:17
  I believe that. And I think verse 12 gives us a
• 22:20
  hint of how she had that revelation.
• 22:22
  Because she says to him as the Lord, that's Yahweh.
• 22:26
  She knows the covenant name of God as the Lord.
• 22:28
  Your God lives now. Just because she had received
• 22:31
  that instruction doesn't necessarily mean that she was a
• 22:33
  believer in the true and living God.
• 22:35
  And we have many instances of people who receive dreams or
• 22:37
  revelations that we're not serving God, but we're
• 22:39
  instructed by God. And I believe this is one of
• 22:41
  those cases. So she was prepared.
• 22:44
  She was prepared by the Lord for this very moment, but she was
• 22:48
  still hesitant. And you can relate to that,
• 22:51
  where you know what the will of God is in a particular manner in
• 22:54
  a particular situation, and yet you're still hesitant to act
• 22:58
  upon it because you can feel how much it's going to cost you,
• 23:02
  whether that be awkwardness or your job and anything else.
• 23:07
  You can feel it sometimes. You can feel the heat of it.
• 23:09
  You can feel the consequences coming as you begin to entertain
• 23:12
  me walking in the way God wants me to walk here and now and so
• 23:16
  we can relate to her. But it doesn't excuse her.
• 23:19
  I'm I'm persuaded by that. Some would explain it otherwise
• 23:22
  but I think it's very clean and clear and plain.
• 23:25
  So she's been prepared. So she's she has this
• 23:27
  expectation. It should have been.
• 23:28
  It should have been clear to her that OK, this God that revealed
• 23:31
  this to me, it's obviously coming to pass.
• 23:33
  This is being manifest. But instead she shrivels up in
• 23:36
  her faith and what does Elijah do, this fire breathing prophet.
• 23:42
  You know, if you have a a silhouette understanding of who
• 23:45
  Elijah is, you would expect him to say Thus says the Lord,
• 23:50
  because you have not shown faith and it pronounced some kind of
• 23:52
  judgment on her. That's not what he does.
• 23:54
  Look at verse 13. And Elijah said to her, do not
• 23:58
  fear, do not fear. Go and do as you have said.
• 24:03
  But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and
• 24:06
  afterward make something for yourself and your son.
• 24:08
  You know, I've heard prosperity preachers use this verse to tell
• 24:12
  people who who can't afford their rent and pay off their
• 24:15
  mortgage to 1st give them something and then God will
• 24:18
  bless them. Here's the thing that they left
• 24:20
  out, God told the widow first tracking with me and God told
• 24:27
  one widow not every widow in America on top of that too,
• 24:31
  right? Just a side note.
• 24:34
  So the Lord prepares her. He says, don't be afraid.
• 24:38
  Don't be afraid. And here, here's the beautiful
• 24:42
  thing about this part of the Bible study.
• 24:43
  You can learn something from the widow, You can learn something,
• 24:46
  obviously about the Lord. And you can learn something from
• 24:48
  Elijah's perspective. And right here I learned
• 24:50
  something. There's something that I gleaned
• 24:51
  from Elijah's example. He doesn't reprimand her.
• 24:56
  He doesn't overwhelm her with condemnation.
• 24:59
  He encourages her, he quells her fears, and he stirs her up to
• 25:06
  love and good works. And I see the absolute value and
• 25:09
  blessing it is to have a voice in your life to help you obey
• 25:13
  God better, to help you obey God with greater strength, with less
• 25:17
  fear and concern and anxiety. And this is the blessing that
• 25:21
  Elijah was up to this point, that he was able to nudge her
• 25:25
  and guide her into the place of obedience, even though she had
• 25:28
  already heard and knew about it. It's amazing what community
• 25:31
  does. It's amazing how God has put
• 25:34
  people in our lives to help us love God better.
• 25:38
  And if you think for a moment that you can do it on your own,
• 25:40
  I assure you that you will not be able to know better, worship
• 25:44
  better manifestations of the Spirit, better opportunities to
• 25:46
  please God unless you are connected to a body.
• 25:51
  Elijah here says don't be afraid and he says just do it.
• 25:55
  Trust the Lord and He gives her a promise according to verse 14.
• 26:00
  I wonder if you have been able to identify God's provision in
• 26:04
  your life in the same way this woman was provided through
• 26:07
  Elijah. Were you able to recognize the
• 26:09
  voices and the examples of those who are present in your life
• 26:13
  that help you obey God? Better they are out there.
• 26:18
  I believe Maranatha Bible Church is filled with them, and so
• 26:23
  Elijah serves as that example here.
• 26:25
  And before we move on, I want you to remember last week how I
• 26:29
  mentioned Elijah being a significant reference in the New
• 26:31
  Testament. And this very passage is
• 26:34
  actually quoted by the lips of the Son of God himself.
• 26:38
  And I want you to turn there in Luke chapter 4 to see how he
• 26:41
  interprets and applies this very scene in redemptive history.
• 26:45
  Look at Luke 4 quickly in verse 25 and 26 just to get the
• 26:49
  citation from Christ. I wonder if you knew that Jesus
• 26:56
  quoted this passage. But in truth, he says, I tell
• 27:03
  you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah,
• 27:07
  when the heavens were shut up three years and six months and a
• 27:11
  great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was sent to
• 27:15
  none of them, but only to Zarephath and the land of Sidon,
• 27:19
  to a woman who was a widow. So he he describes this very
• 27:25
  scene that we just finished studying perfectly.
• 27:28
  But what's the context? Jesus at this point in his
• 27:31
  ministry, early in his ministry, is in a synagogue in his
• 27:33
  hometown, Nazareth. He opens the scroll to Isaiah's
• 27:36
  passage about the anointed, the spirit anointed Messiah.
• 27:40
  He quotes Isaiah 61, at least the 1st 2 verses.
• 27:44
  And then he tells the very hearers of that passage.
• 27:47
  This scripture has been fulfilled in himself.
• 27:51
  And we're told there that the people marveled, they marveled.
• 27:54
  But that amazement was short lived because it was quickly
• 27:57
  replaced with skepticism, doubt, and even scorn.
• 27:59
  They begin to say, is this Joseph's son?
• 28:02
  Isn't this Joseph's son? And so Jesus responds to their
• 28:08
  unbelief and he mentions how a prophet is accepted generally,
• 28:14
  everywhere, definitely not in his own town.
• 28:17
  And he is. He's exemplifying that not just
• 28:20
  what's happening in that moment. But then he begins to go to
• 28:22
  history and pull out one of the greatest prophets by way of
• 28:25
  example of how that is true. And he goes to Elijah and he
• 28:28
  says, you know, Elijah was received by a widow Jew or
• 28:33
  Gentile, not a Jew. Elijah because he represented as
• 28:38
  a messenger of God the truth of God was rejected by his own
• 28:41
  people and was accepted by the faith of somebody who did not
• 28:46
  know the covenant blessings that the Jewish people knew.
• 28:49
  And here's what he's saying and conveying this truth to them.
• 28:52
  The same is happening with the Messiah.
• 28:55
  The same is happening with the Messiah.
• 28:57
  You, the Jewish people, not just the Jewish people but from my
• 29:00
  own hometown, are not willing to receive me.
• 29:04
  And so he is compounding on that truth that a prophet is not
• 29:06
  received from his own people. But he says something even for
• 29:10
  that would have irked them. In fact it did irked them big
• 29:12
  time. He takes it a step further.
• 29:14
  He goes, it was a gentile. It was a gentile who received
• 29:19
  Elijah and received the blessing from the Prophet.
• 29:22
  And I'm giving you a heads up because of your rejection.
• 29:24
  The Gentiles will receive a blessing.
• 29:26
  The Gentiles will not just receive a blessing, they will be
• 29:29
  grafted in. They will be accepted.
• 29:32
  They will receive me, unlike you.
• 29:35
  So by giving this prediction, by going back to Old Testament
• 29:39
  truth, the people were so disturbed.
• 29:42
  And I'm sure the people did not like this story in the Old
• 29:45
  Testament because it shows again God's heart for people who
• 29:49
  worship false gods, who again did not have the heritage and
• 29:52
  history with the true and living God, and yet God still willing
• 29:54
  to extend mercy. Here's a reminder for you in
• 29:56
  First Kings seventeen 8 to 16 of a gospel truth.
• 30:00
  God's heart for the Gentiles has always been there.
• 30:02
  It's always been there. And it's more than just the book
• 30:05
  of Jonah. You haven't even here with this
• 30:07
  prophet who's willing to go outside of the boundaries of the
• 30:09
  promised land to bless somebody who didn't deserve it.
• 30:13
  And it's a foreshadowing of what the Messiah would do,
• 30:16
  culminating in the New Covenant, where people from all nations
• 30:19
  would have access to the mercy and goodness of God.
• 30:22
  So this is what Jesus is showing by coming to this text.
• 30:25
  So again, reminder, you can find gospel in your study of the
• 30:29
  Hebrew scriptures. Now let's continue back in First
• 30:34
  Kings verse 17. After this the son of the woman,
• 30:45
  the mistress of the house, became ill, and his illness was
• 30:49
  so severe that there was no breath left in him.
• 30:54
  And she said to Elijah, What have you against me, O man of
• 30:58
  God? You have come to me to bring my
• 31:00
  sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son.
• 31:05
  And he said to her, Give me your son.
• 31:07
  And he took him from her arms, and carried him up into the
• 31:11
  upper chamber, where he lodged and laid him on his own bed.
• 31:14
  And he cried to the Lord, Oh, Lord, my God, have you brought
• 31:18
  calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourned by killing
• 31:21
  her son. Then he stretched himself upon
• 31:23
  the child three times, and he cried to the Lord, Oh Lord, my
• 31:26
  God, let this child's life come into again.
• 31:30
  And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah, and the life of
• 31:34
  the child came into him again. And he revived.
• 31:38
  And Elijah took the child, and brought him down from the upper
• 31:40
  chamber into the house, and delivered him to his mother.
• 31:43
  And Elijah said, see, your son lives.
• 31:47
  And the woman said to Elijah, Now I know that you are a man of
• 31:49
  God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.
• 31:54
  What a shift. What a shift of themes.
• 31:58
  What a shift of experience. The keyword to this next section
• 32:04
  are the 1st 2 words of verse 17. Look again with me after this.
• 32:09
  After what? Not just the widow's obedience
• 32:13
  to the command of God, but to the experience that she had with
• 32:17
  the outcome of her obedience according to verse 15.
• 32:20
  Look at verse 15 again. And she went and did as Elijah
• 32:23
  said, and she and he and her household ate for many days.
• 32:27
  The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil
• 32:30
  become empty. According to the word of the
• 32:32
  Lord that he spoke by Elijah. You got to stop and play that
• 32:35
  through your imagination a little bit.
• 32:38
  This woman was rewarded from heaven for her faith in what God
• 32:43
  had said. And do you know what that reward
• 32:44
  looked like? You had one jar for the flour,
• 32:49
  yet another jug for oil. And they took that and they made
• 32:53
  a cake. That day Elijah came and they
• 32:55
  realized when they made it for him, there was enough for
• 32:57
  themselves. And every time they ate for the
• 33:00
  day, went to bed and woke up, they found those vessels full
• 33:04
  every day. And we're told that it was many
• 33:07
  days that they ate. Can you imagine that?
• 33:09
  Can you imagine going to your fridge, going to your cupboard?
• 33:11
  And what you find in there, no matter how much you ate the day
• 33:13
  before that it was restocked by an invisible hand.
• 33:17
  This is spectacular. This is.
• 33:19
  This is awesome. This is incredible.
• 33:21
  No trips to the grocery store. Nothing.
• 33:24
  No, you couldn't anyway, This time, nothing of the sort.
• 33:27
  Just this private daily intervention from God where he
• 33:32
  was giving them exactly what they needed every single day.
• 33:37
  And with this overflowing experience of blessing comes
• 33:41
  crashing through a tragedy that was so unexpected.
• 33:46
  The son of this woman dies Young, filled with life, tasted
• 33:53
  the the goodness of God for himself.
• 33:57
  And what we see here is that this may be a strange experience
• 33:59
  for somebody who had such a quality of heavenly supervision.
• 34:05
  This isn't really a revelatory, is it?
• 34:07
  No, it's just you and I being reminded, and you're confronted
• 34:10
  with something. You're you're confronted with
• 34:11
  this truth that you can never fail to forget that you have
• 34:15
  this woman here who had experienced radical faithfulness
• 34:19
  and also gloriously favored by God and yet she was not exempt
• 34:23
  from suffering. She showed amazing faith and she
• 34:29
  experienced amazing reward and yet that did not dismiss her
• 34:33
  from knowing severe tragedy. I'm thinking of Mary in John
• 34:38
  Chapter 11. I love that portion of
• 34:41
  scripture. The 1st 5 verses.
• 34:42
  Been sharing that lately. What we're told there that Mary,
• 34:46
  the one who anointed Jesus. So that description of Mary, not
• 34:50
  just to signal her out as the Mary that blessed Jesus in this
• 34:54
  way, because there's many Mary's, but the Mary who showed
• 34:57
  such extravagant worship to the Lord and in that same context
• 35:00
  you learned that her brother was ill.
• 35:03
  You would think that a woman who had a revelation that the
• 35:05
  disciples did not even have by giving Jesus that kind of
• 35:09
  treatment in preparation for his burial.
• 35:11
  You know what that tells me? Mary was listening even when the
• 35:15
  12 weren't. Mary understood that this Jesus,
• 35:19
  he, he's talking about death. He's talking about his burial.
• 35:21
  He's talking about him being a sacrifice.
• 35:25
  Mary heard what the 12 apostles could not register, and she
• 35:30
  demonstrated her faith by giving him a ceremonial anointing, so
• 35:34
  to speak, from her heart, preparing him for burial.
• 35:38
  You would think such a woman with such caliber of insight,
• 35:41
  such caliber of worship and devotion would be saved from any
• 35:44
  peril or problems. And yet we're told it's that
• 35:46
  Mary, whose brother died. Keep that in mind.
• 35:53
  Your love for God, as intense as it might be, it might outshine
• 35:56
  the love that other people might have for the Lord, does not
• 35:59
  cancel out the possibility of you being tested by suffering.
• 36:04
  And that's exactly what this woman is about to experience
• 36:07
  now. You think it's hard enough to
• 36:08
  lose? I can't even fathom it.
• 36:11
  I don't have children of my own. I pray that I will one day.
• 36:13
  I have nieces and nephews. I have brothers and sisters in
• 36:17
  Christ who have lovely babies and children.
• 36:19
  I can't even entertain the thought of what kind of pain
• 36:24
  results from the loss of a premature death.
• 36:28
  But let's let's realize and remember, she's a widow.
• 36:32
  She already lost her husband. So at this time, she didn't have
• 36:36
  government backing like we do today.
• 36:38
  She already lost her husband. All her hope for a secure future
• 36:42
  to being taken care of was in that boy.
• 36:44
  And now that's been taken from her.
• 36:47
  She has no one, never mind anybody, to take care of her.
• 36:49
  Who's there to be just her companion, who's there that she
• 36:53
  can enjoy life with who, who's there for her to make memories
• 36:57
  with. All of that is taken from her.
• 37:00
  So again, feel it. Feel it.
• 37:03
  Imagine being the only one left in your immediate family.
• 37:07
  Everybody's been taken by death, and this is on the other side of
• 37:13
  obeying God when it was really difficult to obey God with very
• 37:17
  little foundation to work with as a gentile woman.
• 37:20
  And yet the Lord does this. And you think to yourself, maybe
• 37:25
  honestly, what's the purpose of this like?
• 37:29
  Wasn't it enough? Didn't she prove herself enough
• 37:31
  by what she did in the previous verses?
• 37:34
  Didn't she demonstrate that she did trust the Lord?
• 37:37
  What What do you get from taking these loved ones from her?
• 37:41
  And as you think about it, you have to remember how God works
• 37:44
  with these things. That despite the devotion she
• 37:47
  showed and the love that she showed and the exemplary faith
• 37:49
  that she showed, there was still more.
• 37:53
  There was still more. Listen.
• 37:54
  Faith for her to develop more worship for her to offer more
• 37:59
  polishing in her character, to create that can only come about
• 38:06
  through the fires of suffering. Only there's some things that
• 38:09
  you can never know, never realize unless you endure
• 38:13
  something. And that's exactly what she's
• 38:16
  about to experience. Can I give you a hint how I know
• 38:18
  that's to be true? Look at the last verse of this
• 38:20
  chapter, one more time, Verse 24.
• 38:23
  And the woman said to Elijah, Now I know that you are a man of
• 38:27
  God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.
• 38:32
  Not that she didn't have a revelation before, but it's now
• 38:35
  more confirmed, just like Job. Job was a man of God who feared
• 38:39
  God. My ears have heard of you, but
• 38:42
  now my eyes see you. Isn't that what he said at the
• 38:45
  end of it all? So there's deeper revelation,
• 38:47
  deeper insight. That's the that's the consensus
• 38:50
  of the Bible. There is always something
• 38:52
  profoundly good to come about with, something that seems
• 38:55
  profoundly horrible. So this son is now taken from
• 39:00
  her, and we see here that both her and Elijah made mistakes
• 39:05
  that we must avoid when we were visited by any level of
• 39:07
  devastation. Here's the first one.
• 39:09
  Look at verse 17 again. His illness was so severe that
• 39:13
  there was no breath left in him. Verse 18.
• 39:15
  And she said to Elijah, what have you against me, O man of
• 39:17
  God, you have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and
• 39:21
  to cause the death of my son. So something about this tragedy
• 39:25
  awakened her conscience of something that she has done in
• 39:27
  the past, where she now thinks God has punished me for this
• 39:30
  past sin. We're not told what that sin
• 39:32
  was, but it was severe enough for her to be haunted by it.
• 39:36
  Do you have, like a kind of past like that?
• 39:40
  Do you? I wonder.
• 39:41
  It's OK. You don't need to tell anybody.
• 39:44
  God knows about it, though. And here's the thing that you
• 39:47
  got to really be careful of to always equate suffering with
• 39:51
  punishment. God is allowing this.
• 39:55
  God is doing this because I did this, and though chastisement is
• 40:00
  a reality for the true child of God, though, God can't even
• 40:03
  wound somebody for their sin to awaken them to repentance.
• 40:07
  I can tell you this guaranteed because the Bible says so.
• 40:10
  If it's a sin that's been repented of, it's a sin that you
• 40:12
  should never be worried about again.
• 40:15
  If it's covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, if you've given it
• 40:19
  to the Lord, if you've left it at the foot of the cross, you
• 40:21
  never have to for a waking moment, think that God's going
• 40:23
  to get me back for that. What is the expectation of you
• 40:28
  when you forgive somebody who's hurt you?
• 40:30
  People always have these convoluted ideas of what
• 40:32
  forgiveness looks like in the Christians life.
• 40:34
  It's very simple. Forgiveness is a vow that you
• 40:36
  make that you will never take vengeance on someone for hurting
• 40:40
  you or causing you pain. You leave vengeance to God and
• 40:43
  you go beyond that where you're willing and you actually want
• 40:45
  them to be blessed instead. And that kind of release is
• 40:49
  stimulated by your revelation of God's mercy towards you.
• 40:53
  So forgiveness is expected of you to look like I vowed to
• 40:56
  never entertain even the thought of somebody experiencing pain
• 41:00
  because of the pain they caused me.
• 41:02
  Is it any less true for God in his relation to you?
• 41:06
  You should never fear for a moment that God is going to
• 41:08
  retaliate against you when you have expressed your desire for
• 41:12
  him to forgive you. And so this idea to equate
• 41:15
  whatever suffering I'm going through with something that I
• 41:18
  must have done, if it's been plunged in the blood, it's done.
• 41:23
  It's in the sea of forgetfulness for a reason, and God has no
• 41:26
  intention of recapturing it and rubbing it in your face.
• 41:31
  So this is where this woman went wrong.
• 41:33
  And she thinks that this is because of something you admire
• 41:35
  her for humility. In some ways it's like a mixture
• 41:38
  of different things that she's showing here.
• 41:40
  She acknowledges that she's a Sinner, but she's applying that
• 41:43
  truth in a wrong way. Here's another thing to look
• 41:46
  here. She doesn't just talk about her
• 41:49
  sin. What does she do?
• 41:51
  Who she blaming here? She's blaming Elijah.
• 41:57
  It's like it's you. You came to my house.
• 42:01
  You did this, You caused this. Implying probably would have
• 42:05
  been better if you. You know, we never met.
• 42:10
  I look at this and I'm reminded here you have a man who was used
• 42:15
  as an instrument of God to not just bring blessing to this
• 42:18
  woman, but to actually be the means for her survival.
• 42:21
  You want to talk about somebody coming into your life and being
• 42:24
  a blessing. That's incredible.
• 42:27
  God used this man to help this woman, not die her and her son.
• 42:33
  And how does she return the favor when things go bad?
• 42:36
  It's your fault, Elijah. Be prepared as a servant of God
• 42:43
  who serves God's people to be unjustly blamed for things that
• 42:48
  have no relation to you or that lightly relate to you.
• 42:53
  Be prepared for people to even in their pain, when they're
• 42:56
  trying to understand the problems that they're
• 42:58
  experiencing and navigating through the hurt and the pain in
• 43:02
  their lives, to project that on you.
• 43:05
  This is especially true for leaders, especially true for
• 43:09
  leaders. If you're a leader serving God's
• 43:12
  people in any capacity, sometimes the people that you
• 43:15
  serve will have unrealistic expectations of you.
• 43:20
  And because of those unrealistic expectations, when you fail to
• 43:24
  do what they think that you should do, they will accuse you,
• 43:27
  They will blame you, They will project their heart hurt and
• 43:30
  their injury on you. Talk to anybody who's been in
• 43:35
  ministry long enough and they can tell you that to be true,
• 43:38
  that that is something that they often experience.
• 43:41
  Here you have Elijah, who's only done nothing but good, who's
• 43:44
  only blessed this woman, and yet what does she do in return?
• 43:48
  She blames him, and there are many reasons for that.
• 43:50
  I can tell you some interesting stories of people that I know
• 43:54
  that were heaped on with condemnation from those words.
• 43:57
  It's like, that doesn't even make any sense.
• 43:58
  But it's just human nature, is it not?
• 44:00
  There are some people who just don't know how to handle pain
• 44:03
  and how to interpret the problems that they are enduring.
• 44:08
  So Elijah here gives me an example of how to learn from
• 44:12
  that experience. Verse 19, he said to her, give
• 44:16
  me your son. What an amazing man of great
• 44:20
  compassion. He doesn't rebuke her again.
• 44:23
  He doesn't lash out on her. He sympathizes with her.
• 44:28
  So here's some of that might be able to relate to you.
• 44:30
  Listen, if you're a Christian, you're going to see other people
• 44:35
  suffer, especially if you're in the church long enough.
• 44:39
  You're going to see people suffer even in the world, the
• 44:42
  people that you associate with, you're going to see them going
• 44:44
  through some things. And when that happens, can I
• 44:46
  give you a suggestion? It is not warranted in the
• 44:52
  presence of someone's deep brokenness where they're trying
• 44:54
  to pick up all the pieces and put it together and make sense
• 44:57
  of it. For you to give a theological
• 44:59
  treatise of why that's happening to them, That makes sense.
• 45:04
  You don't have to preach to them as they are enduring their
• 45:09
  suffering and people for some reason have the need to do so
• 45:16
  That while this person is shattered and broken and
• 45:19
  expressing their pain, Christians just feel like they
• 45:22
  have to explain it. You don't have to explain it,
• 45:26
  actually. Sometimes the best thing you can
• 45:28
  do is just weep with them. And I've actually learned from
• 45:34
  people who have suffered tremendously that Christians
• 45:36
  have actually done more harm by trying to give them an
• 45:39
  expository reason of why. What they're going through is
• 45:43
  why they're going through it. So wisdom doesn't just look like
• 45:46
  and what you say and thinking. It's going to be profound.
• 45:49
  Wisdom actually looks like this. You know what it looks like?
• 45:53
  Not saying anything. A wise person doesn't talk all
• 45:56
  the time. And if you're serious about
• 45:59
  being one who comforts others, learn from that example.
• 46:04
  Just be still and be present. And one day, as time goes on,
• 46:08
  you might have a conversation with that person where they have
• 46:10
  questions and you can expound on those things with them.
• 46:12
  But learn to suffer with people. Learn to suffer with people.
• 46:18
  Elijah here, it doesn't blow up on her, doesn't try to go
• 46:21
  through this great deep thing with her.
• 46:23
  He just simply is there to an extent.
• 46:25
  His words are very brief, and in this particular scene, he's
• 46:28
  actually going to try to do something about it.
• 46:30
  And what does he do? He says, give me your son.
• 46:32
  He took her from her arms, meaning when she said that she
• 46:34
  had him in her arms. And he went up to the upper
• 46:37
  chamber where he lodged and laid him on his own bed.
• 46:39
  And look what he does. Elijah himself is conflicted by
• 46:44
  this trial. So it's not just this woman.
• 46:47
  Elijah's not bulletproof here, and he's not just saying you
• 46:51
  don't have faith. Give me this.
• 46:53
  Let me take care of this. Well, I'll be back in 30
• 46:55
  minutes. Watch, watch, watch what you
• 46:57
  missed out on. He doesn't do that.
• 46:59
  He takes this boy, goes up to the room, and look what he says
• 47:01
  in verse 20. And he cried to the Lord, Oh,
• 47:03
  Lord, my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow
• 47:06
  with whom I sojourn by killing her son?
• 47:10
  You know, in James Five, we're told that Elijah was a man with
• 47:13
  a nature like ours. And he prayed, and the heavens
• 47:14
  shut up for three years and six months, and he prayed again, and
• 47:17
  the heavens poured out rain. And we're like, yeah, that's how
• 47:20
  this man of God prayed. True.
• 47:21
  But I'm so thankful that First Kings 17 includes this man's
• 47:26
  prayer. In this way, it's like, Lord,
• 47:28
  what's going on? What is going on here?
• 47:33
  I did not see this coming. And he begins to pour out his
• 47:36
  heart to the Lord. So in this brief moment, here's
• 47:39
  here's a study within a study. Elijah gives us an example here,
• 47:43
  a model of what to do when unexplainable tragedy visits
• 47:47
  you. When some kind of suffering
• 47:49
  surprises you, what do you do? We praise He comes to the Lord.
• 47:55
  That's his immediate reflex. He goes to the throne of grace.
• 48:00
  And I have three reasons why Elijah made that his reflex.
• 48:06
  First thing is verse 20. He cried to the Lord, Oh Lord,
• 48:08
  my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow
• 48:11
  with whom I soldier and by killing her son?
• 48:13
  The first thing that Elijah acknowledges indirectly in
• 48:16
  asking this question is that he believes in the sovereignty of
• 48:19
  God. You want to know how you can run
• 48:22
  to prayer something that's almost a reflex?
• 48:24
  You have to 1st establish the sovereignty of God.
• 48:27
  So in this Elijah is admitting God.
• 48:29
  Nothing runs by you under your nose.
• 48:32
  Nothing is under your radar. You see all things.
• 48:34
  You know, all things. You permit and allow things.
• 48:37
  And so, Lord, I'm here to just bring this perplexed thing and
• 48:41
  I'm asking you, the sovereign God, how what?
• 48:44
  What's going on here? So Elijah is able to commune
• 48:49
  with God with his problems because he believes in a big God
• 48:53
  who sees it as aware and and he's there.
• 48:56
  So the sovereignty of God, but not just the sovereignty of God
• 48:59
  closely associated with that is verse 21.
• 49:01
  Here's the second reason why Elijah ran to prayer as his
• 49:04
  response. Then he stretched himself upon
• 49:07
  the child three times and cried to the Lord, Oh Lord my God, let
• 49:11
  this child's life come into him again.
• 49:16
  So not just because God is sovereign that Elijah pray, but
• 49:18
  he believed God would answer prayer.
• 49:21
  You can have very little motivation to pray if you don't
• 49:23
  believe God answers prayer. If you just think that's
• 49:26
  something that you should do as a mental and emotional exercise,
• 49:28
  good luck praying like this man. But if you really believe that,
• 49:32
  because he's sovereign, he's not distant, he's very much aware he
• 49:38
  can also intervene. So he brings this thing before
• 49:41
  the Lord. He says, Lord, I'm asking you
• 49:42
  here, can you please bring life, bring life to this young man's
• 49:46
  body again? And you know what makes this act
• 49:49
  of faith so impressive? This is the first resurrection
• 49:53
  miracle in all of the Bible. There is no recorded miracle
• 49:59
  before this where somebody rose from the dead.
• 50:03
  So this is the first of its kind, and you're going to see a
• 50:06
  couple more and you're going to see a few more in the New
• 50:08
  Testament. But this is the there is no
• 50:10
  category for this kind of miracle yet.
• 50:13
  But Elijah had such a revelation of who God was, the author of
• 50:17
  life, the giver of life, the taker of life, that he's able to
• 50:20
  pray with such confidence and liberty.
• 50:23
  Lord, I believe that you can answer this, but it's not just
• 50:29
  the fact that God can answer this prayer.
• 50:33
  Look at this verse 22. And the Lord listened to the
• 50:37
  voice of Elijah. He believed that he can.
• 50:42
  These are very closely associated.
• 50:43
  He believed God was sovereign. He believed that God can do
• 50:45
  something. And lastly, he believed that God
• 50:47
  actually heard him. God actually heard him.
• 50:51
  The Lord listened to the voice of Elijah.
• 50:52
  And what comforts me is that God heard him and honored his
• 50:55
  prayer, even though he came so honestly in the way he did in
• 50:58
  verse 21. He didn't come in saying, oh
• 51:01
  resurrection and power, oh the giver of all life, oh, the one
• 51:07
  who conquers death in the grave. I believe without a shadow of a
• 51:10
  doubt that you can raise this boy from that.
• 51:12
  Not right away at least. He comes with questions.
• 51:14
  He spills his heart, He empties his soul before the Lord, and
• 51:18
  God still listen to him. Elijah is a prophet, a mighty
• 51:21
  man of God. But listen, Elijah is a man like
• 51:23
  you and I, and here's an example of that.
• 51:27
  He comes to the Lord with honesty.
• 51:28
  He comes to the Lord with just raw emotion.
• 51:32
  And I read here in verse 22 that the Lord listened to him.
• 51:35
  The Lord wasn't offended by that.
• 51:37
  The Lord isn't sensitive like you and I might be sensitive.
• 51:40
  He's very understanding. And so, as this man comes up
• 51:43
  with the Lord with such raw emotion, the Lord honors him,
• 51:46
  listens to him, and answers him. We read something that perhaps
• 51:53
  you wonder, why didn't we stop on?
• 51:55
  Look at verse 21 again. Then he stretched himself upon
• 51:58
  the child three times. Did you catch that?
• 52:04
  That's kind of strange. What's he doing here?
• 52:08
  Many people have made attempts to try to explain these actions.
• 52:12
  It could be that Elijah in his praying, was so desperate, was
• 52:16
  so expressive that not only is he vocalizing it, but it's even
• 52:20
  demonstrating what he wants. Lord, Lord, this bring this boy
• 52:25
  to life and he lays upon the boy and he does it again, is it's
• 52:28
  almost like a physical reaction to this request.
• 52:31
  Sometimes in desperation, you and I, we lay prostate, we bend
• 52:34
  our knees, we lift our hands. And it's just a way for what's
• 52:38
  in our hearts to show through our limbs, saying, Lord, please
• 52:41
  look down here, Lord, please see, hear me.
• 52:43
  And it could be that this man is just laying upon this boy
• 52:46
  expressing his desire. The life that's in here, would
• 52:48
  it would you impart life into him?
• 52:53
  Could be that he's just doing something that some would do
• 52:57
  practically. And knowing that this boy was
• 53:00
  fresh still he he just died providing natural warmth to his
• 53:06
  body and trying to preserve with whatever he could do in with his
• 53:10
  own body while he's seeking the Lord.
• 53:12
  If that is true, than what a wonderful example of what prayer
• 53:15
  also looks like. If Elijah is doing more than
• 53:19
  just being expressive, but he's being practical here, then you
• 53:24
  and I have to understand that when we pray and ask God it
• 53:26
  doesn't replace being practical. That's it.
• 53:32
  So we should seek the Lord for the impossible.
• 53:35
  We should ask and bring before the Lord all things even as the
• 53:37
  first thing. But we should also do our part.
• 53:41
  And as we do our part, we can trust and continue to win on the
• 53:44
  Lord and ask him to do his part again.
• 53:47
  If that's what Elijah is doing, then what a comfort it is to not
• 53:50
  be overly dramatic or unwise and not acting in what we can do to
• 53:57
  try to preserve or try to provide or try to make things
• 54:01
  happen. Not dismissing prayer, but not
• 54:03
  also dismissing to be real and to be practical.
• 54:06
  It's a dance, and it's a beautiful dance when the
• 54:10
  Christian knows how to be wise and how they approach certain
• 54:12
  things. So you can equate that to
• 54:15
  anything that you need. Yes, God can answer every
• 54:17
  prayer, but God also asks us to do stuff too.
• 54:21
  When you do both in honor of him, he can do the miraculous in
• 54:24
  between. So here's what he's doing.
• 54:26
  He's laying, He's asking three times, and he cried out to Lord.
• 54:30
  This is desperate. Cries out to the Lord, cries out
• 54:32
  to the Lord, and what happens? The Lord answers you read it.
• 54:36
  Here's where we're ending. And Elijah took the child and
• 54:38
  brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and
• 54:40
  delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, see your son
• 54:43
  lives. And the woman said to Elijah,
• 54:48
  Now I know that you're a man of God, and that the word of the
• 54:52
  Lord and your mouth is truth. So this woman that Elijah went
• 55:02
  to, God sends Elijah to this woman inside on.
• 55:05
  Perhaps for many reasons, but perhaps one of them is so that
• 55:08
  this Gentile woman who is surrounded by Baal ISM, would
• 55:12
  have a chance to hear about the true and living God and be
• 55:14
  saved. God loves the lost.
• 55:19
  He really does. And you might be wondering, why
• 55:22
  do I have the job that I have? I don't want to be here, but
• 55:25
  it's the only opening that I got.
• 55:26
  Maybe there's somebody in there that God wants to use you to
• 55:31
  touch. I know you want better hours and
• 55:34
  you want this and you want that, and that's fine.
• 55:36
  God will honor that. But God loves lost souls more,
• 55:40
  and you should too. So be sensitive to that.
• 55:43
  You may not be particularly happy about where you're at, but
• 55:46
  maybe because there's something there, there's someone there
• 55:49
  that the Lord wants to touch through you.
• 55:52
  So we have that. But there's something also even
• 55:55
  I believe, for Elijah, like, it's so plain, it's it's not
• 55:58
  deep really, right? You have like these episodes in
• 56:00
  Elijah's life and and in these two episodes so far, it's all
• 56:04
  about faith stretching. And so you have him at the brook
• 56:07
  with the Ravens, and he passes that, and then he comes into a
• 56:09
  new semester in the school of God and it's what a widow and
• 56:12
  Sidon and what else? The sun dies, never mind the
• 56:15
  bread and the oil being multiplied, but the sun dies.
• 56:19
  And so Elijah here sees what he sees, God's resurrection power.
• 56:24
  Do you think that's just random? No, no, no, no, no.
• 56:26
  There's a Chapter 18 that we're about to study.
• 56:28
  And what is going to happen in Chapter 18?
• 56:30
  God's going to say arise, show yourself to Ahab.
• 56:34
  And what's going to happen on this face off?
• 56:36
  He's going to confront Ahab. He's going to confront hundreds
• 56:39
  of false prophets on a mountain top with a wavering compromise
• 56:43
  nation. And he's going to stand alone
• 56:47
  and demonstrate devotion and trust in God, pray in their
• 56:50
  presence and see a miracle come to pass.
• 56:52
  Well, listen, it's very hard for you to come to zero to 100, is
• 56:56
  it not? So what does God do?
• 56:58
  Something that he does in you and I.
• 56:59
  He builds his faith. He stretches him, He teaches
• 57:03
  him, and then he prepares him through that to be positioned
• 57:06
  for this glorious testimony. Can I say something to somebody?
• 57:10
  Maybe you're a person who really wants to be used by God.
• 57:13
  That's a wonderful desire to have.
• 57:14
  I can't think of a better one. There isn't a better one.
• 57:18
  You want to know God more intimately.
• 57:19
  You want to be used God by by God more intensely.
• 57:22
  Do not despise the days where God hides you, where God may
• 57:30
  limit you. Like think about it.
• 57:32
  This is a mighty prophet of God like Elijah.
• 57:36
  OK, Elijah, who in the beginning of chapter 17 prayed and the
• 57:41
  heavens shut. And after Elijah prays such a
• 57:47
  mighty prayer and even demonstrates the Ahab.
• 57:50
  Hey, God is the one behind us and I'm his instrument.
• 57:52
  God takes Elijah and he puts him in a desert.
• 57:56
  And then from the desert where does he stick him?
• 57:58
  In a home of a widow with a son, He says.
• 58:02
  Stay there. And this man with such great
• 58:05
  potential, this man with so much power, this man who can, we're
• 58:09
  about to find out, brings a nation to its knees, spends
• 58:13
  years. Because why we're We're going to
• 58:15
  learn verse eight, chapter 18, verse one.
• 58:16
  After three years he is going to go to Ahab.
• 58:21
  So for years he's in this home, ministering to one woman and her
• 58:25
  son. So don't despise the days of
• 58:29
  small beginnings. Don't despise the days of
• 58:32
  hiddenness. You have Elijah, who was tucked
• 58:34
  away in a home outside of Israel, and he served God
• 58:38
  faithfully. Serve God faithfully wherever he
• 58:42
  puts you, wherever He puts you. And even if your ministry is to
• 58:47
  bless somebody in your household, never forget Elijah.
• 58:51
  That's what he did, this mighty man of God taking care of a
• 58:54
  woman and her child. So this faith was being built up
• 59:01
  in this man of God. And let me end it on this point.
• 59:04
  Not only did he witness God's resurrection power, I mean,
• 59:06
  that's going to build up your faith to go against Ahab for
• 59:09
  sure. But his calling was even
• 59:11
  confirmed. It was affirmed by this woman.
• 59:14
  She's like, you're the real deal.
• 59:16
  Like you're the real deal. And God used that to speak into
• 59:22
  Elijah's life. I'm sure if you don't know
• 59:26
  Elijah's story fully, remember that in a couple of chapters
• 59:28
  he's going to doubt his calling. He's going to just.
• 59:32
  I'm a failure. Just Lord take me up.
• 59:34
  I'm no better than my father's. I'm ready to go home.
• 59:38
  And you have this woman early on saying what I know that you're a
• 59:40
  man of God. I know that you're a man of God.
• 59:43
  I know that what's in your that's true.
• 59:44
  You're the true. You're the true speaker of God.
• 59:46
  You're the true minister of God. Can I say something in closing?
• 59:52
  For this woman to come to this confirmation, you know what it
• 59:54
  required? It didn't just require a trial.
• 59:58
  It required a man of God who was also going through a trial but
• 1:00:01
  responded to it well. Do not underestimate the
• 1:00:06
  suffering you're enduring, child of God, because you have no idea
• 1:00:10
  who's watching and you have no idea how your response to that
• 1:00:15
  suffering can melt the heart. Of a skeptic can persuade the
• 1:00:23
  heart of a penitent person that can bring a person closer to the
• 1:00:28
  Lord, that can open their eyes in ways that they've never seen.
• 1:00:30
  God, that can even bring a person from unbelief to belief.
• 1:00:33
  You know what my favorite one of my favorite examples of that
• 1:00:36
  truth is? I said I was finished, but I
• 1:00:38
  have to open my Bible again. I'll finish here one verse.
• 1:00:41
  I promise Acts 16, verse 25. This will be a good place to
• 1:00:49
  end. I'm sure you agree with me.
• 1:00:51
  Yes, that is a place to end. Acts 16, verse 25, About
• 1:00:57
  midnight. Paul and Silas were praying and
• 1:01:01
  singing hymns to God and the prisoners were listening to
• 1:01:04
  them. I love that.
• 1:01:08
  Gashed, bloodied, bruised. And they're chained hand and
• 1:01:14
  foot, praying and singing God to God, hymns to God at midnight.
• 1:01:19
  And the Holy Spirit wants you and I to know those criminals in
• 1:01:22
  that very same place. We're listening to them.
• 1:01:25
  We're listening to them. You have no idea who's watching
• 1:01:29
  you. You have no idea who's looking
• 1:01:31
  at your social media posts. You have no idea who's listening
• 1:01:36
  to you. And the same way Elijah, who was
• 1:01:41
  able to gently, compassionately filled with faith, prayerfully
• 1:01:44
  push through this trial, this woman said in response to that
• 1:01:49
  you're the real deal. May God help us to do the same.
• 1:01:52
  Lord, we thank you for this Bible study.
• 1:02:05
  We pray, Lord, that we would be able to remember these things,
• 1:02:10
  more importantly, to apply them to real life.
• 1:02:18
  We thank you that you lead us step by step, and you're showing
• 1:02:20
  that through Elijah's life. Help us.
• 1:02:24
  Be patient. Help us not be in haste.
• 1:02:27
  Help us to wait on you and help us like Elijah, if we find
• 1:02:30
  ourselves in a limited space, in a foreign space, in an
• 1:02:34
  uncomfortable place to serve you and not just serve you.
• 1:02:39
  But Lord, when things do not go our way to honor you and to
• 1:02:46
  trust that people will see that and it will register Well.
• 1:02:50
  Lord, we thank you for this time again together.
• 1:02:52
  We pray that you would receive our worship as we rejoice over
• 1:02:55
  your word. We're blessed to be fed by the
• 1:02:59
  truth that your Holy Spirit has given us.
• 1:03:01
  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
• 1:03:04
  Amen. Let's stand and worship the
• 1:03:05
  Lord. Yeah.