Introduction:
James 5:17a - Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.
1 Kings 16:33 - Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel before him.
How Am I Called to Obey? (1 Kings 17:1-24)
- By Praying according to God's Word. (1 Kings 17:1)
See: James 5:17-18, Deuteronomy 11:16-17, 1 Kings 8:35
- By Doing exactly what God's Word Say. (1 Kings 17:2-6)
- By Serving as God's Word directs. (1 Kings 17:7-16)
- By Trusting God's Word no matter what. (1 Kings 17:17-24)
James 5:16b - The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:57-00:59
All right, turn your Bibles to 1st Kings 17.
01:00-01:01
1st Kings 17.
01:03-01:11
Growing up, we all had celebrities, athletes, leaders, or family members that we looked up to and admired.
01:11-01:23
You would look at this musician's poster on your wall, this athlete's trading card in your hand, or see this person in action and think to yourself, I could never do what he or she does.
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Take 20 seconds to talk to someone around you about who this person was and why you felt that way?
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Well I'm sure you heard a lot of interesting answers and shared an interesting answer yourself.
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As a kid, this is how I felt about my dad.
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To me it seemed like my dad could do it all and he knew it all.
01:46-01:51
I thought he had an answer to all of my questions and a solution to all of our problems.
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And I grew up with people telling me how talented and hardworking my dad is.
01:57-01:59
And even now, many of you will come up to me and say, your dad is great.
01:59-02:00
And I'm like, thanks.
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What about me?
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Jay's a big fan, dad.
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I remember thinking, how will I ever be able to take care of my own family someday like my dad can?
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How will I ever be able to provide like he does?
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It seems so big and strong in comparison to me and able to protect me from anything.
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Most boys with great dads think this way growing up.
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But at some point, every boy with a great dad realizes that his dad is not perfect.
02:34-02:35
He doesn't know it all.
02:35-02:36
He can't do it all.
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His dad isn't a superhero.
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His dad is just a regular person.
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And now as a husband, father, and provider, I look back at my childhood and think, my dad was just doing his best and living by faith, just like I am.
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He was making it up as he went along, just like I am.
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He was a regular dude, just like I am.
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As we heard in the introduction video a few minutes ago, we can be intimidated by the heroes of the Bible.
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Joseph, Joshua, Caleb, Nehemiah, Ruth, Esther, Paul, and the focus of our study for the next month, Elijah.
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All these people seem so far beyond us and above us.
03:20-03:24
Started to spoil a bit of what's ahead, that the Lord used Elijah to turn the rain clouds off and on.
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He called down fire from heaven.
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And how about this, he didn't even die.
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He was chauffeured to heaven in a glorious chariot of fire.
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We can read all these things in the Bible and think to ourselves, man, Elijah's on a whole other level than me.
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I could never do what he did.
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I am a spiritual loser and he is a spiritual winner.
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But the book of James tells us a very different story in James 5, 17, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.
03:58-04:03
One translation puts it this way, Elijah was a man just like us.
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Isn't that encouraging?
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Elijah wasn't a superhero, he was an average person who the Lord used in great and mighty ways.
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There was nothing special about Elijah in and of himself.
04:17-04:24
What was special about Elijah was the God that he served in the calling that he received.
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And there's nothing special about you and me in and of ourselves.
04:33-04:37
In and of ourselves, we are nobodies with nothing to offer anyone.
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What is special about us is that we serve the same God that Elijah served, and we have received a similar calling to the one that Elijah received almost 3,000 years ago.
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Over the course of this new four week series, just like us, the life and ministry of Elijah, we will hit the major highlights of his story, unpack his victories, and also discuss his greatest weaknesses and failures.
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And to be clear, the goal of this series isn't to learn a bunch of interesting facts about Elijah that we can use to win a Bible trivia contest.
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The goal of this series is to draw nearer to the God that we serve, to become more who he has commanded us to be, and to lean into the mission that he has called us to.
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So before we continue, let's go to the Lord and ask for his help.
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Please pray for me that I'll faithfully proclaim God's word and I will pray for you that you will faithfully receive it.
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Father, we thank you for this awesome opportunity come together as your people to worship you and hear your word proclaimed.
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This is not a small thing to check off our to-do list and move on to something else.
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Lord, this is the main event of the week where we are recharged, where we hear from you and are empowered to do what you've called us to do.
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Lord, I pray that your word would accomplish the purpose for which you sent it out, that you would watch over your word to perform it this morning.
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We ask all this in Jesus' name.
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Amen.
06:18-06:23
Well, if Elijah was a man just like us, he lived in an evil time just like ours.
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After Solomon's reign and death, the kingdom of Israel was separated into two kingdoms, Judah in the south and Israel in the north.
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And first kings focuses on the long line of horrible kings in the northern kingdom.
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And the worst king of the northern kingdom by far was Ahab.
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We know this because the Bible says so.
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1 Kings 16.33, "Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, "the God of Israel, to anger "than all the kings of Israel before him." It's hard to imagine a more corrupt ruler than Ahab.
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He marries a pagan princess named Jezebel from a pagan place called Sidon, and he doesn't just get a wife out of this deal, he gets new gods to worship, Baal and Asherah.
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And it isn't enough for these two to just worship these false gods behind closed doors No, they mandate the celebration and acceptance of their beliefs in public.
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Does that sound familiar to you at all?
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This state religion mandated sexual sin and the murderous sacrifice of young children.
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Again, does that sound familiar to you at all?
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And perhaps the thing that points to Ahab's immorality the most is the fact that he allowed Jericho to be rebuilt again.
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The city that God tore down brick by brick is rebuilt again brick by brick.
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This wasn't an accident, it wasn't a whoops, didn't realize that, no, it was an intentional slap in the face of God, a total disrespecting of his past victory.
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It was a loud and clear message.
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We don't care what God has to say, we're gonna do whatever we want to do.
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One last time, does that sound familiar to you at all?
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Ahab lived and ruled as if Baal was alive and the God of Israel was dead and gone.
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Reverence for God was cast aside for ridicule of God.
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Purity was set aside in favor of perversion.
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Joyful obedience was cast out the window in exchange for willful disobedience.
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But then Elijah showed up on the scene and we're given little to no information about him.
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All we know that he was a Tishbite from Gilead, which I'm sure means a lot to all of you sitting here today.
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But the meaning of his name tells us all that we need to know.
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My God is Yahweh.
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Elijah didn't dabble in idol worship.
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He didn't cave into peer pressure.
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He didn't follow the crowd.
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He obeyed God even when it was hard, even when it wasn't popular.
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This morning, we're gonna focus our attention on four seemingly random stories from Elijah's early ministry, and we'll quickly learn that these stories are not random, but they're held together by one main theme, obedience to the word of God.
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Elijah's obedience will reveal your need for obedience.
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Like Elijah, you are called to a life of wholehearted obedience in a culture that celebrates disobedience.
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I've been hoping and praying all week that you would walk away from this sermon fully convinced that obedience is the essential overflow of your faith and not an optional add-on to your faith.
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There is one question you need to ask yourself and answer this morning as you are challenged by 1 King 17, how am I called to obey?
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How am I called to obey?
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First answer, by praying according to God's word.
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By praying according to God's word.
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Let's read chapter 17, verse one.
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"Now Elijah the Tishbite of Tishbe and Gilead "said to Ahab, 'As the Lord the God of Israel lives, "'before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew "'nor rain these years except by my word.'" Like a movie, we're just thrust into the middle the action as the prophet Elijah stands before King Ahab to give him a message.
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And I love how he starts off the message, as the Lord, the God lives before whom I stand.
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In other words, hey, Ahab, you know that God you've been ignoring and treating like a deadbeat dad?
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He is alive and well and I serve him and not you.
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Elijah fears God, not Ahab, which leads him to share a very difficult message, a devastating drought and famine is coming because of Israel's unrepentant sin and shameless idolatry.
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And the rest of the passage from James I read a few minutes ago fills in some really important details.
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James writes this, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he prayed fervently that it might not rain and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
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Then he prayed again and heaven gave rain "the earth bore its fruit." So why won't it rain?
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Because Elijah prays that it won't.
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You know, on a first glance, doesn't this prayer kind of seem mean and horrible?
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Who's ever prayed for a drought before?
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I don't think any of us have.
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Imagine the ramifications of this prayer.
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The land will grow hard and not able to sustain crops.
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Families will suffer.
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Livelihoods will be destroyed.
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People will die.
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How could Elijah pray something like this?
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You know, when I was younger, I'm not proud to admit this, but I'll tell you today, I used to hope and sometimes even pray that my teachers would get sick so I could avoid turning in a challenging project or avoiding a test.
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Did anybody else do that growing up at all?
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My wife did, wow, I married the right person, I guess, the only other person who did that.
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If you were or are a teacher, I'm so sorry.
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I promise I'll pray for your good health later after this sermon.
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But can we all agree that these childhood prayers can be filed under the unrighteous category?
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Does Elijah's prayer belong to the same category?
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What do we think?
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No.
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My prayers were very self-centered and unrighteous, while Elijah's prayer was God-centered and righteous.
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Do you know why Elijah's prayer strikes us as unloving in 2025?
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Because we do not know the character of God and the integrity of his word as we should.
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Elijah is simply praying God's word back to God.
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Listen to this warning that was given to Israel hundreds of years before Elijah even prayed this prayer.
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Deuteronomy 11, 16 through 17.
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Take care lest your heart be deceived and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the lamb will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land the Lord is giving you.
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Here's another prayer from King Solomon decades before Elijah.
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When heaven is shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against you, if they pray towards this place and acknowledge your name and turn from their sin When you afflict them, then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants, your people Israel.
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This changes how we view Elijah's prayer, doesn't it?
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God is bringing consequences upon his people to get their attention and draw them to repentance.
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The Lord is waging a holy war against the false gods that Israel has chosen to worship over him.
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He is publicly embarrassing Baal, the storm god, and showing that Baal cannot control the skies.
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He is proving that Asherah, the goddess of fortune and fertility, cannot do anything to stop him or reverse the drought once it starts.
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Elijah deeply believes in the promises and warnings of scripture, and he obediently acts upon the knowledge that he possesses and prays according to the truth.
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Elijah knows God's word, he loves God's word, and he prays God's word.
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Can you say the same for your own walk?
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Evaluate your prayer life over the past week or two.
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What percentage of your prayer life was dedicated to asking God for the easiest week possible with the least amount of road bumps?
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The answer to that question convicts me because it's so far from where it should be.
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Yes, God calls us to bring our requests and personal needs to him, but we're called to do so much more.
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We're called to thank him for who he is, to praise him for what he has done, and to ask that his kingdom would be advanced in our neighborhoods, our communities, our city, our nation, in this world.
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If we're honest, our prayers often look like grocery lists of wants, more than heartfelt pleas for God to glorify himself and further his perfect plans.
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Our prayers so often seem to be addressed as someone who exists to serve us, rather than someone whom we exist to serve.
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Harvest, let us be a church that doesn't settle for weak and shrimpy prayer lives.
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Let us instead pray to our big God and expect big results.
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Pray that God would use your faithful witnessing to draw that unsaved coworker to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
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Pray the Lord would raise up more faithful pastors, godly politicians, godly school teachers.
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Pray that the Lord would destroy wicked ideologies and organizations that are wearing away at the fabric of our society.
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Pray that our church would grow in unity with one another.
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Pray that God would show himself as mighty and the gospel of Jesus Christ is irresistible through the love we show for one another and the community around us.
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Harvest, let us obediently pray according to the truth of God's word.
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How am I called to obey?
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Second answer, by doing exactly what God's word says.
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by doing exactly what God's word says.
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Let's read verses two through four.
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"And the word of the Lord came to Elijah, "depart from here and turn eastward "and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, "which is east of the Jordan.
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"You shall drink from the brook "and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there." That's kind of weird, isn't it?
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Those instructions are kind of out of left field.
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I don't know about you, but I've never seen a bird put food into people's hands.
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They only take food out of people's hands.
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Who's ever seen seagulls descend upon people with food at the beach?
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Who's ever seen seagulls deliver a pizza to a hungry family?
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But this isn't hard for Elijah to believe, according to verses five through six.
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"So Elijah went and did according to the word of the Lord.
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"He went and lived by the brook Cherith "that is east of the Jordan.
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"And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.
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Elijah has no problem trusting in a God who can turn the rain off and door dash food through wild birds.
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This story might seem kind of random and trivial, but it captures an important snapshot of Elijah's faith.
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Elijah obeyed God in the big things and the small things, because Elijah realizes that there are no small commands Every command that God gives is essential and important.
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God doesn't give advice, God doesn't give suggestions, God doesn't give optional commands.
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Everything that he says is to be followed to the letter.
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We must precisely obey because we serve a precise God.
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And as crazy as this bird command might seem, it was given for Elijah's good.
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All of God's commands are given for our good.
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To bless us and not to hurt us.
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To give to us and not to take away from us.
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You know, at times, my kids can be very sneaky in their disobedience.
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A few months ago, my three-year-old daughter, Emmy, was getting really mad at her older brother, and she kept hitting him.
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And I told her, "Emmy, if you do that again, "you're gonna go to timeout." And as I gave this parental lecture, there was a YouTube kids dance video in the background.
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That will prove very important in a few seconds.
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Not a minute passed before Emmy started wailing on Sam again and I used my dad voice.
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I said, "Emmy?" And as soon as she heard that, she pivoted from hitting her brother to pretending that she was dancing.
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And that's the last time you're ever gonna see me dance in church, so I hope you enjoyed it.
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You know, I first had to stop myself from laughing and send Emmy to time out.
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My kids think they can fool me, but they can't.
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You may think that you can fool God and sneak your disobedience under the wire, but you can't.
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I don't know how you're struggling to obey and do exactly what God's word says.
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I can only speak for myself and my own struggles.
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But as tempting as it is, You cannot justify disobeying commands that don't appeal to you very much because you obey other commands that are easier for you.
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Maybe during the giving series a few months ago, you bristled at the reality that God's word commands you to give of your treasure.
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Instead of opening up your wallet, you opened up your box of excuses.
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You thought, well, I give of my time and my talents, that's good enough.
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Oh, is it?
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Think about what the Bible says.
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No, according to scripture, obedience to giving of your time and your talents does not excuse you from obedience to giving of your treasure.
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Maybe you know the Bible commands all professing believers to be baptized, but you refuse to do it.
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And you think, you know what, I'm a Christian, I'm saved, I read the Bible, I don't see the purpose, I don't think this really matters for me.
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and say to that, isn't it enough that the Bible tells you to?
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That God says to?
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Isn't that more than enough?
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Or maybe you do a great job of providing for your kids physically, but you're dropping the ball on providing for them spiritually.
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You rarely sing worship songs with them.
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You barely read the Bible with them.
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You occasionally sometimes pray with them.
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And you may justify this by thinking, well, I take my kids to church, they hear the Bible there, that's good enough.
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Well, kudos on taking your kids to church and obeying the Lord in that area.
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It doesn't excuse you from being the primary discipler of your children.
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And I can go on and on with more examples.
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But please hear me, I am not saying any of this to shame you.
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I'm saying this to help you.
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If you are in the family of God, Please understand that your heavenly father isn't a dictator who's waiting to pounce on you whenever you mess up.
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He isn't hiding behind the corner, jump out and go, "Aha, I got you," whenever you sin and then pull the rug out from underneath of you.
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No, again, God wants you to obey all that he says because he loves you and wants what is best for you.
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As God took care of Elijah's physical needs through his obedience, the Lord wants to provide for your spiritual needs and abundantly bless you through your personal obedience.
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So how am I called to obey?
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Third answer, by serving as God's word directs.
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By serving as God's word directs.
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Check out verse seven.
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And after a while, the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land.
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The ripple effects of Elijah's prayer have finally caught up to him.
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The brook he was using as a personal water fountain goes belly up.
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Now what?
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How is God going to provide?
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We find the answer in verses eight through nine.
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Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah, "Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, "and dwell there.
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"Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you." You know, this would seem even less likely as a source of provision to Elijah than being waited on hand and foot by ravens.
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As the text tells us, Zarephath belongs to the region of Sidon where Queen Jezebel is from.
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Zarephath is Baal central.
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Elijah traveling to Zarephath would be similar to a Jewish family trying to set up shop in Nazi-occupied Berlin in the height of World War II.
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This is not the safest of destinations for Elijah.
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But once again, he obeys the Lord, does exactly what he is told to do, and finds exactly what God promises in verses 10 through 12.
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"So Elijah arose and went to Zarephath.
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And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks.
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And he called to her and said, bring me a little water and a vessel that I may drink.
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Now she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.
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And she said, as the Lord your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour and a jar and a little oil and a jug.
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And now I'm gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.
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Imagine how the widow must have felt receiving these commands in the middle of a drought and famine.
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As someone living in abundance, I don't like to even share my food at lunch or dinner.
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Who's with me?
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Who doesn't like to share their food from their plates?
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I'm not even a huge fan of sharing cheesecake with my wife for dessert, because I'm always doing the mental math in my head.
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Okay, how many bites has she had?
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How many bites have I had?
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How could I eat even more without looking like a gross and selfish pig?
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All of us husbands have been there and done that.
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It's hard for us to fathom being asked to give the very last portion of our food supply.
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This widow is willing to give a cup of water, she can do that, but even giving the smallest piece of bread is a bridge too far because the fridge is empty and the pantry is bare.
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And she even swears in the name of God, I can't help you, I can't do what you're asking.
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And notice that she swears in the name of your God.
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Not my God.
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Her gods are Baal and Asherah who are failing miserably at the moment.
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Yahweh is Elijah's God, but not her God, yet.
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That's all gonna change very soon.
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Check out Elijah's response in verses 13 through 14.
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And Elijah said to her, do not fear, "Go and do as you have said, "but first make me a little cake of it "and bring it to me, "and afterward make something for yourself and your son.
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"For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, "the jar of flour shall not be spent, "and the jug of oil shall not be empty "until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the earth." So the widow's at a crucial crossroads that will determine her fate.
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Will she make this last cake for her little family, or will she make it for Elijah?
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Will she trust in herself in her limited supply, or will she trust God in his infinite supply?
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Will she disobey the word of the Lord or obey?
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Will she serve herself or serve a complete stranger first?
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Let's see what path she takes in verses 15 through 16.
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And the widow went and did as Elijah 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 become empty, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke by Elijah.
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The widow takes the right path, and she is rewarded with an infinite amount of food until the famine is over.
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Unsurprisingly, the word of God proves true, and the promise is kept.
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Both Elijah and the widow survived starvation by obediently serving the other.
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They both serve as God's word directs them.
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And there is such an important principle here that we have to grab a hold of.
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Putting yourself first leads to emptiness, while putting others first leads to abundance.
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You know, the Christian life is a massive paradox.
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You find your life by losing it.
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You discover joy by denying worldly happiness.
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You come in first by putting yourself last.
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You serve yourself by serving others.
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Is it just me or is this really hard to live into?
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It's hard to have this kind of faith.
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It's hard to have this level of obedience because it's uncomfortable and it's inconvenient.
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It's so easy to keep your head down and just focus on you, your family, your wants, your needs, your schedule, your bills, your house projects, and nothing else.
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It's hard to pick your head up and see the needs of others, especially those who could do nothing for you in return.
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It's difficult to view the resources in your possession as belonging to God and not to you.
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Because when you serve, you are simply giving to others what has already been given to you.
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who are lending to others what has been entrusted to you.
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But you will not obediently serve in this way if you don't make space for it in your mind, your heart, and your schedule.
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You have to see a need and recognize it in your mind, and then desire to meet it with your affections, and then set aside time to meet the need.
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Serving others never happens by accident.
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It requires intentionality, it requires intentional obedience.
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Who and how is the Lord calling you to serve right now?
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Don't shout your answer, but share it with someone after service.
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And ask them to hold you accountable and check back in to see if you followed through.
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And don't fall prey to thinking, "Oh, well this isn't gonna matter that much, "it's not gonna make a difference." If the Lord could use a widow's small act of service and obedience to keep her and Elijah fed and her son fed during a famine, imagine what the Lord will do with your small act of service, with your small act of obedience.
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And you may not even see a tangible result right now, but guess what?
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Guess who sees?
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God.
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He sees your obedience, and that matters more than anything else.
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You know, this seems like the perfect place to end the story of Elijah and the widow, doesn't it?
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What a nice family sitcom moment to freeze frame on in classic '90s fashion.
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But the story doesn't end here.
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There's still one more trial to cover.
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There's one more lesson about obedience that Elijah, the widow, and all of us need to hear.
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How am I called to obey?
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Final answer, by trusting God's word no matter what.
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By trusting God's word no matter what.
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Let's read verses 17 through 20.
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After this, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill, and his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.
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And the widow said to Elijah, "What have you against me, O man of God?
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"You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance "and to cause the death of my son." And he said to her, "Give me your son." And he took him from her arms and carried him up to the upper chamber where he lodged and laid him on his own bed.
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And he cried to the Lord, "Oh Lord my God, "have you brought calamity even upon the widow "with whom I sojourn by killing her son?" What a horrific turn the story has taken.
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One minute it's three's company with Elijah, the widow, and her son, and the next minute the son is gone.
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And she immediately turns on Elijah and his God.
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She shoots the messenger and accuses Elijah of bringing Yahweh's punishment upon her.
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She responds a lot like us when suffering falls upon our heads.
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This woman is in agony.
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She's experiencing the worst nightmare a parent can imagine.
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She must be thinking, "I trusted God, "and look where that got me." But as we talked about in the series on Job in November and December, God doesn't owe us favors because of our obedience.
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God is in no person's debt, and obedience is not the easygoing path of least resistance.
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It's easy to trust God when everything is going well and everyone is healthy.
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It's hard to trust God when nothing seems to be going right.
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The widow doesn't immediately respond in faith, and Elijah is shocked by the boy's death as well.
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But there is a key difference between the widow's reaction and Elijah's response.
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Elijah doesn't complain about God to others.
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He takes his problem and his questions directly to God.
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He prays to God, God, this doesn't make sense.
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This cannot possibly be why you sent me here.
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He then prays a big prayer, expecting big results that we talked about a few minutes ago in verse 21.
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And Elijah stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the Lord, "Oh Lord my God, "let this child's life come into him again." You know, as Christians, this side of the empty tomb, resurrection isn't very foreign to us.
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But Elijah is praying in faith for something that had not yet happened in biblical history at that point.
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We don't see in scripture that anyone had been raised from the dead yet.
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What a bold prayer.
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Bold strategy, let's see if it plays out for him.
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In verse 22, "And the Lord listened to the voice of Elijah, and the life of the child came into him again, and he revived." That verse is absolutely astounding.
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The Lord listened to Elijah.
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Another Old Testament verse is that word for listen or hear could be translated as obeyed.
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Earlier, Elijah did exactly as the Lord commanded, by going to the brook and then Zarephath, and now the Lord does exactly as Elijah asked, by making history and bringing the first person back from the dead.
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How does this work?
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How can God be in total control and our prayers still make a difference?
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Are you ready for my really deep theological answer that I went to seminary for for three, well actually it ended up being seven years.
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You know what the answer is?
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I don't know.
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I don't know, but I trust that both realities are true because the Bible says so.
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Our God loves to work through our prayers.
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He is sovereign over the ends of events.
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He's also sovereign over the means by which these events happen.
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Somehow the Lord uses the means of our prayers to accomplish his divine ends.
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James says this in the verse before his teaching on Elijah, "The prayer of a righteous person has great power "as it is working." Let's wrap up with verses 23 through 24.
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And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother.
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And Elijah said, "See, your son lives." And the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God, "and that the word of the Lord is in," Sorry, now I know that you're a man of God and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth.
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We've come full circle.
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At the beginning of the chapter, we see that Elijah spoke the word of the Lord and now the widow is firmly convinced of that fact.
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She believes that Yahweh is the only living God and his word is to be trusted and obeyed no matter what.
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but this faith had to be kick-started by pain.
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She had to walk through the valley of death to come to God's green pastures.
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The glory and beauty of the word shines the brightest in the darkness of our helplessness.
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You know, this is the first Sunday of 2025, and you may feel very optimistic about the year ahead, while others of you feel very pessimistic.
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You're already convinced that 2025 is not going to be your year.
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You're going through a troubling time of testing and you don't feel like worshiping.
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You don't feel like reading the Bible.
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You don't feel like obeying God's word because it seems pointless.
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As the new year continues, I want to encourage you to keep trusting God even when it feels like God has betrayed you.
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Keep obeying God even when you don't feel like it.
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Keep putting one foot in front of the other when you feel like collapsing and just staying still.
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Keep believing that the word of God is the truth and obedience to it leads to great reward in this life and in eternity.
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You know, as we close, you may feel crushed onto the massive list of ways that God is calling you to obey.
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You may look at your outline and think, oh great, another bunch of things to add to my already busy schedule.
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I cannot do what Elijah did.
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This is impossible.
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You know what?
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You're right.
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It is impossible.
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You cannot possibly carry out this list on your own.
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but stop taking your eyes, but take your eyes off of yourself for a minute.
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Also take your eyes off of Elijah because he never perfectly obeyed either.
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Instead, look to the one who Elijah points you to.
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Focus your attention on the one who perfectly obeyed in all the ways that you have failed, Jesus Christ.
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Go through the list.
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Did Jesus pray according to scripture?
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What's the answer?
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Every single time without fail.
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Did Jesus do exactly what the Father told Him to do?
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Down to the very last detail.
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Did Jesus serve as the Father directed?
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The Son of Man, the Son of God, came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.
38:58-39:01
Did Jesus trust in His Father no matter what?
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In the Garden of Gethsemane, when death, agony, and suffering where a few steps down his chosen path, Jesus submitted to the will of the Father, even though he knew how horrible this would be.
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If you do not know and love Jesus, I want to tell you that he knows you, and his love is offered to you this morning.
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Obey his call and command to come to him for forgiveness and eternal life.
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If you have trusted in Christ and turned from your sin, guess what?
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Your disobedience was placed upon him at the cross and his perfect obedience is now your obedience.
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When you struggle with feeling helpless and hopeless, remind yourself of this glorious truth.
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Jesus, the one far above us, willingly chose to become just like us.
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He chose to become just like you.
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Jesus became just like you so you could be set free from the impossible task of trying to earn God's approval and save yourself.
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Jesus became just like you so you could joyfully obey God's commands.
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Jesus became just like you so that you would be empowered to become more and more just like him.
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Let's pray.
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Father, we come to you, and all of us are in different places right now.
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For those in this room who think that they know you and don't, or have chosen willingly to reject you, Lord, I pray that today would be the day of visitation and salvation, that today would be the day that the lights turn on, and faith in Christ is placed in what he has done.
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And for the rest of us, Lord, Some of us are coming in here burdened, and we feel like we can't do any of the things you've called us to do.
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Lord, help us to look to your Son.
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Help us to look to your Holy Spirit who lives within us, and help us to remember we're not alone.
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We don't need to do this alone.
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We have a Savior, we have an advocate, we have a helper.
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We have someone living within us to empower us.
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Father, I pray as 2025 continues that we would walk in obedience to your word.
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I pray that we would look more and more like Jesus Christ at the end of this year than we do right now.
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I ask all these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
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Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 Kings 17:1-24
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Does your prayer life seem unbalanced right now? What would it look like to pray big prayers to a big God and expect big results?
How do we justify or excuse our disobedience to God’s Word? How do you see yourself struggling to obey the Lord in a specific way right now?
What holds you back from serving others as God’s Word directs? How do you feel called to serve right now?
Breakout
Pray for one another.
