Old Testament in a Year: 1 Kings 17-22; 2 Chronicles 18-23

And God really highlighted two things to me in these chapters, 1 Kings 17 through 22. Two things that we're gonna be talking about, the provision of God and the protection of God. Today, we're gonna be focused on the provision of God in chapter 17 and 18. Next Sunday, I'll talk about the protection of God out of chapter 19, and then I wanna hit on next Sunday a very puzzling verse of scripture that's found in chapter 22. We know God's a God of truth. We know the Bible says that God cannot tell a lie, yet we find this scripture in chapter 22 that says a lying spirit came forth from God. Anybody ever wondered how that could even be possible? Well, I'm gonna talk about that next week. A lying spirit coming from God. So I want you to be here next Sunday for part two of this message. I think all of us are aware that there are things that happen in our journey with the Lord that we don't understand. Isaiah chapter 55 verse nine tells us that the ways of God are higher than our ways, that his thoughts are higher than our thoughts. And that can be a stumbling block for some people because we wanna compartmentalize God. We want God to fit into some box or some container. We wanna be able to work God into some formula so that we can understand everything that God is doing.

And how many of you know God is never gonna fit into your formula? God's never going to allow you or I to put him into some box. I've shared many times that in 1999, our life and our ministry journey took a hard left. It was troubling, it was hurtful, it was painful, it left us with all kinds of questions about God and about our destiny in life and all of those things. And there were many things that we didn't understand at the time and still don't understand, but you've heard the saying that hindsight is 20-20, right? And so now looking back on that time, I do realize this, that had we not walked through that season, there would not be this thing called the refuge today. And even though we walk through things that we don't understand, we have to trust and believe that it does not change the character of God. That it does not, even though you can't explain it, it doesn't change the makeup of God. And we're gonna see that in chapter 17 and 18. Some things that happen that make you scratch your head and go, I don't understand this, I don't get this. And especially for this guy by the name of Elijah who's living it out, he's in the midst of it and there were things that happened that just didn't make sense. And we'll start in chapter 17. In verse two, chapter 17, it says this,

and then the Lord said to Elijah, go to the east and hide by the Kerith Brook near where it enters the Jordan River. Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you for I've commanded them to bring you food. And so Elijah did as the Lord told him and camped beside Kerith Brook, east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening. And he drank from the brook. Now verse seven's where it gets interesting. But after a while, the brook dried up for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land. Let me ask you a question. Has anybody ever experienced a season in your life when the brook dried up? Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Like maybe you got laid off from your job and there was no real explanation for it and you didn't see it coming and you couldn't understand and that stream of provision for you all of a sudden dried up. I've been journeying with someone who recently was just done wrong by corporate America and I'm sure there's some of you that can relate. Just treated unfairly. treated unjustly, didn't make sense, put in a position to have to resign. It was hurtful and painful and just wrong. Everything about it was wrong,

but now that person is beginning to see that it was the hand of God drying up that brook because he was in a job that was slowly destroying his life. And there are things that happen sometimes where the provision of God dries up and we don't get it. You go through a divorce after 20 something years of marriage and there's no explanation. You didn't make the choice to go outside of the bonds of marriage and have an affair. You're not the one who made the decision and yet you're the recipient of now wondering how God's gonna provide. Maybe your spouse unexpectedly passed away and now you're left to figure out how are we gonna make it. Here's Elijah, he's experiencing supernatural provision, crazy provision where every single day birds have now become his waiter and waitress. Birds every single day are bringing food to him in the morning and in the evening. He's got all the fresh water that he wants as he drinks from this brook where God let him, God put in there, God told him to go to that spot. And now, like for no explainable reason, the brook begins to dry up, causing Elijah to scratch his head and say, God, you led me here, you brought me to this place. Some of you can say the same thing. God opened the door, God led me to that job, God led me to this relationship.

And now, all of a sudden, the brook is dried up and you're scratching your head and it doesn't make sense. And I'm sure that Elijah was doing the same thing. Why, God, would you lead me here? And now, all of a sudden, the birds are gone and the brook is dried up. What is going on? And I need you to understand today that God did not stop caring for the prophet. He just had a different assignment for him because there was a widow who needed a miracle and Elijah couldn't see it. Elijah knew nothing of this widow in a neighboring town called Zarephath. But Elijah never would have left that spot because he had such a good gig going on, unless God dried up the brook. Come on, are you with me? And sometimes, we view God drying up the brook as God being unfair, God being mean, God being unjust. And the reality is, God just has a different assignment for you. And God is moving you to a place so that you can be the vehicle that a miracle is released for somebody else. You can be the answer to somebody else's prayer. Verse 18, pardon me, verse eight, then the Lord said to Elijah, go and live in the village of Zarephath near the city of Sinai.

I've instructed a widow there to feed you. So he went to Zarephath and as he arrived at the gate to the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks and he asked her, would you please bring me a little water and a cup? And as she was going to get it, he called to her, hey, bring me a bite of bread also. But she said, I swear by the Lord, your God, I don't have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. And I was gathering a few sticks to cook the last meal and then my son and I are gonna die. Like it's desperate, desperate times for this widow. Notice verse 13, but Elijah said to her, don't be afraid, go ahead and do just what you've said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what's left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel says, there will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again. So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days. There was always, everybody say always. There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers. just as the Lord God had promised through Elijah. Go back to verse 13.

This woman's made it very clear to the prophet. It's desperate times. Bring me a piece of bread. I don't have any bread in the house. As a matter of fact, I only have just enough for myself and for my son. We're gonna cook it, we're gonna eat it, and that's it. Then we're gonna die. He said, I get it, go ahead and do what you're saying, but first, make some bread for me. I want you to know, I want you to understand, Elijah was not being selfish or insensitive in that moment, but Elijah was being used by God to teach her the principle of sowing and reaping and the principle of first fruits. I might get a little uncomfortable here for a moment, but the Bible says that she did as Elijah said. She gave to the prophet first. Let me tell you, that's how tithing works. We give to God first. We don't wait until we've paid the bills and gone out to eat and bought the new purse, and then if we have some left over, we give that to God. That doesn't take any faith, but it takes faith on the front end when the math ain't mathing. And you say, God, we're gonna honor you first. That's first fruits. We're gonna honor you first, and it doesn't work on paper that we're gonna have enough,

but somehow, supernaturally, can I get a witness in the room that somehow, supernaturally, even though it doesn't work, even though the math ain't mathing, that when you honor God first, he always takes care of you. I'm so grateful that I had parents when I was a little boy that taught me about tithing. They taught me about the importance of honoring God first. I'm so thankful that I have a wife of 43 years that in 43 years, not one time has she ever said to me, hey, you know what? Maybe this month, we shouldn't tithe. Things are really tight, and we got back to school clothes to buy, and we've got extra bills that have come in. Maybe just this month, we should not tithe. Not one time has she ever done that. Because we've known from day one, we will honor God first. Let me tell you, when we first got married, my annual salary was $8,900. Not my monthly salary, my annual salary, and we tithed on $8,900. Because let me tell you, I realized a long time ago, if I'm not gonna tithe on $100, God will never give me the opportunity to see if I'll tithe on a million dollars. If you cannot be obedient with the little, God's never gonna entrust the much to you. And here's a woman, Elijah gives her the word of the Lord and says, if you'll do this, God's gonna provide for you.

It's gonna be supernatural, and she does what Elijah says. And all of a sudden, where there was no oil in the bottom of the jar, now there's oil. Where there was no flour, now there's flour. And there's enough constantly for her to feed herself and to feed the prophet and to feed her son. Let me tell you something, every miracle that you experience in your life, builds your faith for the next miracle. Every time you honor the word of God, every time God comes through, every time there's a miracle in your life, it builds your faith for the next miracle. And we see that in this widow's life. She had to trust God, doesn't make sense. The math ain't mathin', it doesn't work. I know how much oil's in the jar. I know how much flour we have. It's not gonna work if I give bread to you first, prophet Elijah, but I'm gonna exercise my faith. And I'm gonna trust that what you're saying is true. And let me tell you something, from a pastor who loves you today, the only time in the Bible that God says to test him is in regards to tithing and giving. And I'm. I'm here to tell you, the Word works. Not sometimes. Somebody help me out today. Come on.

The Word works all the time. The Word works every single time. You can stand on the promises of the Word of God. You can anchor your life. You can anchor your income, your salary, your future, your retirement to the Word of God because the Word of God works. Verse 17, sometime later the woman's son became sick. He grew worse and worse and finally he died. And then she said to Elijah, O man of God, what have you done to me? Have you come here to point out my sins and kill my son? But Elijah replied, give me your son. And he took the child's body from her arms, carried him up the stairs to the room where he was staying and laid the body on his bed. And then Elijah cried out to the Lord, O Lord, my God, why have you brought tragedy to this widow who has opened her home to me causing her son to die? Watch. And he stretched himself out over the child three times. And he cried out to the Lord, O Lord, my God, please let this child's life return to him. And the Lord heard Elijah's prayer. Anybody grateful that when you cry out to him that he hears your prayer? He heard Elijah's prayer. And the life of the child returned and he revived. And then Elijah brought him down from the upper room

and gave him to his mother. Look, he said, your son is alive. Now, I gotta be honest with you. When I read that story, I wonder, maybe you don't, but I wonder, why didn't the life return into this little boy the first time that Elijah stretched himself out on his body? Elijah's powerful. He's anointed, we know that. Powerful prophet of God. He lays himself on that boy and he cries out to God and he prays and nothing happens. Why did God not raise him up the first time? Here's the only explanation I can come up with. His ways are higher than our ways. His ways are higher than our ways. I do know this. Some of you have given up too quickly on your miracle. You've stretched yourself out over your finances or over your marriage or over your prodigal son or daughter one time and nothing happened. And just like Naaman who was instructed to dip seven times, had he stopped at three, he would have missed the miracle. Had Elijah given up after one time or two times of stretching himself out on that boy, he would have missed the miracle and a widow mother would have grieved over her only son being dead. But Elijah didn't give up. He trusted God.

He stretched himself out again, Naaman didn't stop. He dipped not three times or four or five or six but seven times and he experienced a complete miracle of healing and maybe God's speaking to you today. Maybe there's some miracle you've been asking him for, some prayer you've been crying out to God and you say, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. You say, God hears us when we cry out to him and I've been crying out to him and nothing has happened and the enemy is trying to convince you that nothing's gonna change. And some of you have given up too quickly on your miracle. And I wanna challenge you that you keep trusting, that you keep believing, even though you don't understand his ways. Listen, God does not operate on our timetable. God doesn't operate on Crono's time. He operates on Cairo's time and we don't get to decide when the miracle is gonna happen. But we can decide, are we gonna continue to trust him? Come on, are you still with me today? Chapter 18, we'll skip down to verse 16. You can go back and read some of the events leading up to this, but Elijah goes and finds a man by the name of Obadiah. Obadiah was a guy who had taken 100 prophets of God and he stuck 50 in one cave and 50 in another and fed them and kept them alive when Jezebel was trying to kill the prophets. And Elijah goes and he finds him.

In verse 16, he says, so Obadiah went to tell Ahab that Elijah had come because Elijah went to Obadiah and he said, I've got a word, I need to speak. to Ahab the king, who's married to Jezebel. And Obadiah said, no, no, no, I'm not playing this game. No, I'm not gonna go find a king for you and tell the king that Elijah's here and you wanna speak to him because I know what's gonna happen. Like I'm gonna leave, I'm gonna go try to find Ahab and while I'm looking for Ahab or bringing him back, angels are gonna pick you up and they're gonna transport you to some other town and I'm gonna come back and you're not even gonna be around and then Ahab's gonna kill me. So no, I ain't playing this game. And Elijah says to Obadiah, I give you my word that before the end of the day, I will speak with Ahab. Go get him. So Obadiah goes and he finds Ahab. They're 17 and when Ahab saw him, he explained, so is it really you, you troublemaker of Israel, he says to Elijah. I've made no trouble for Israel, Elijah replied. Notice this now, I want you to notice, the enemy always wants to control the narrative because Ahab accuses Elijah of the very thing that he's guilty of.

He's the troublemaker for Israel, not the prophet Elijah. Oh, is it really you, you troublemaker of Israel? Let me tell you something, the enemy wants to control the narrative in your mind. He wants to live rent-free in your headspace. He wants to say to you over and over, oh, you're a loser, oh, you're in prison, oh, you'll always be an addict, you'll always battle this, you'll never be healed, you'll never find freedom and he's trying to control the narrative and Elijah says, I've made no trouble for Israel. You and your family are the troublemakers for you've refused to obey the commands of the Lord and you've worshiped the images of Baal instead. Verse 18, pardon me, verse 19. Elijah says, now summon all of Israel to join me at Mount Carmel, along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah who are supported by Jezebel. So Ahab summoned all the people of Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel and then Elijah stood in front of them and he said, how much longer will you waver, hobbling between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal is God, then follow him. So Elijah says, enough is enough. Elijah said, this nonsense has been going on long enough in Israel.

We are a people of Yahweh. We are a people who worship God and you've brought all these other gods in and it's enough and we're gonna settle this once and for all. So Elijah says, get all your prophets. Get the prophets of Baal, get the prophets of Asherah and meet me at Mount Carmel. I've got a couple of pictures from Mount Carmel. I've been there several times. Right at the top is a statue of Elijah and I'm sure he looked exactly like that. Like the sculptor somehow knew what Elijah looked like. All right, we'll give him some grace, it's okay. But it's really moving to see at the top of Mount Carmel, that statue and then the picture on the right, that's the view looking all across out over Israel from the top of Mount Carmel. Amazing, amazing view and that spot, when you stand on that spot, knowing from 1 Kings chapter 18 that this massive showdown was taking place. And Elijah calling them out, challenging Ahab, challenging all of the people, saying how long are you gonna do this? How long are you gonna waver? Hobbling between two opinions. That word hobbling in the Hebrew is the word pasach and it means this, it means to hesitate. It means to make lame.

In other words, we're living in a culture of people who are hesitating. Well, I wanna follow God, but I don't know or is God the only way? We live in a culture that says. many ways to God and we find people that are hesitating, we find people that are paralyzed and not moving at all. You know, Elijah says, how long are you gonna do this? Where you're just hesitating, you're not making a choice. Some of you are just paralyzed, you're not even moving, you're not moving at all. We've got so many people nowadays in our culture that are convinced that Jesus can just be a part of their life. Like they don't really have a problem with Jesus. Oh, I'll factor Jesus in and Jesus can be a part of my life. Let me tell you something, the one who is all cannot be a part of anything. He is either your life or he's not. And we've got a generation of people that say, I'm okay with Jesus and I can factor him into my life, but I want him to just be a part. Because I also want this part of my life so I can keep partying or I can keep drinking or I can keep sleeping around. I don't have a problem with Jesus, he's a part of all of this. It's kind of quiet. How long are you gonna hobble between these two opinions? How long will you hesitate?

How long will you be lame and say, well, I don't know, I'm kind of torn between two things or 10 things or whatever it might be. And I feel like that's a word for somebody today. It's somebody who's here, somebody who's watching online or somebody who's joining us on the Pando app. That's you, that's you. You've been wavering between two opinions, not making up your mind because you want Jesus to just be a part of your life. And the reality is Jesus wants to be your whole life, everything. Verse 23, 24. Elijah says, and I'll bring two bulls. The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without setting fire to it. I'll prepare the other bull, lay it on the wood on the altar, I won't set fire to it. And then call on the name of your God, I'll call on the name of my God. And the God who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God and all the people agreed. Listen to me, church. A distinguishing mark of the presence of God is the fire of God, the fire of God. Let me say today, we need the fire of God. You need the fire of God. Listen, when a group of people gathered in a room in Jerusalem and were praying and crying out,

there was a distinguishing mark as tongues of clove and fire were hanging over each one of them. It marked them. And we need a generation that's marked by the fire of God. The Bible says you can read the story later. These false prophets all morning dancing around their altar, crying out to their God, the God of Baal, crying out. You know why they chose that spot, Mount Carmel? There was a reason. The reason Elijah summoned them to Mount Carmel was because Carmel was one of the most fertile places in the entire nation of Israel. Carmel received more rainfall than any other place in that region. And Baal is a God of fertility and the God who controls rain. And Elijah was saying, let's battle this out on your God's turf and we'll see who reigns supreme. So they're dancing around, they're crying out to their God. And the Bible says around noontime, Elijah starts mocking them. I just gotta be honest with you, I kind of love this about Elijah. Elijah's like, hey, maybe your God's deaf. Maybe he doesn't have his hearing aids in. Maybe he's screaming louder. Elijah says, hey, maybe your God's in the port of John. Some of you, some of you don't believe me. That really is in scripture. It doesn't say port of John.

It says maybe your God's relieving himself. And so they start screaming loud. They're going crazy. They're going berserk. They're yelling and dancing and screaming and they're taking stones and cutting themselves and bleeding and nothing's happening. Nothing's happening. And then this is what Elijah does. Verse 37. Oh Lord, answer me. Answer me so that these people will know that you, oh Lord, are God. And that you've brought them back. It's interesting because Elijah repaired the altar. He cut the bull into pieces, put it on the altar and then the Bible says he takes these large jars, three of them, fills them up to the brim with water. And he has the servants take the jars and pour those jars over the sacrifice, soaking, drenching the sacrifice. He says, do it again. They do it again. Do it again. They do it. A fourth time, 12 large jars full of water. He dug a trench around the altar and the water saturated the sacrifice and filled up the trench. Now keep in mind, they were in a drought for three years

and Elijah's taking one of the most precious commodities that they had and he's also taking the thing that their God represented, the God who controls the rain. And Elijah's thinking, you think your God does this? Let me tell you, this is nothing to my God. Oh, this is precious to you right now because we're in a drought? No, no, no. My God's the one who controls this stuff. And we'll see in chapter 19, the rain came like in torrential downpours. And Elijah pours it all out and then he cries out, oh God, I love this too much. Answer me so these people will know that you, oh Lord, oh God, and that you've brought them back to yourself. Elijah didn't say, God, please, Lord, I've gotten myself in a major jam. My reputation's on the line. God, I'm gonna look really, really bad. I'll lose all kind of Instagram followers if you don't show up. Because Elijah knew this wasn't about him. This was about Yahweh. Oh God, just show up. God, just show up. And immediately, the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench.

And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, the Lord, he is here. God, yes, the Lord is God. These are all these false prophets of Baal. And when God showed up and answered by fire, they just immediately fall on the ground and said, your God is the one true God. And here's my question today. Where are the Elijahs of our day? Where are the ones who are gonna stand toe to toe with the false prophets of today? Where are the ones today who are gonna stand toe to toe with those who are trying to eradicate the word of God from our culture, those who are mocking God, and the demonic forces that are trying to destroy the church? Where are the ones who are gonna challenge them and say, I've been touched by the fire of God? Where are the Elijahs of our day?