Lessons from Elijah
Notes
Transcript
Lessons from the Life of Elijah
Lessons from the Life of Elijah
In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, more than all who were before him. And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a wooden image. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
The rulers in Elijah’s day were wicked, ungodly people. They gave themselves to the worship of false gods.
This was not a good place to be living as a follower of the LORD. It was a hostile environment.
And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.”
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”
So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.
Ravens brought Elijah bread.
‘And these you shall regard as an abomination among the birds; they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, the buzzard, the kite, and the falcon after its kind; every raven after its kind,
God used an unclean bird to care for Elijah, during the reign of two very wicked people.
Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”
Jesus teaching in Nazareth
But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
God used a woman who was a gentile
3 years and 6 months.
And it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth.”
So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab; and there was a severe famine in Samaria.
1 Kings 18- the Mount Carmel Victory
And Ahab had called Obadiah, who was in charge of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. For so it was, while Jezebel massacred the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.)
Question:
If Elijah has spent 3 1/2 years on the run...
If the 100 prophets of the LORD were hidden in a cave...
How did they celebrate the Day of Atonement, Passover, the Feast of Tabernacles?
How did they offer sacrifice for sins? How did they go to temple?
How did they live faithful?
Could he have secretly walked to Jerusalem?
We are all aware of how life has changed since March.
I have heard numerous explanations and theories.
There are some people who feel this is a virus and we are trying to be smart and healthy.
There are some people who feel that this is the beginning of people losing their rights in this country.
The question I ask myself and to you, is does it matter either way?
How does either scenario effect how I am to live for Christ?
If this is a virus, I live for Him
If we lose our rights and this country is on the verge of changing, I live for Him
We may be getting creative with how we gather, but we still live for Him.
If we get locked out of church, we meet in homes or in parks or anywhere we can
We fellowship in smaller groups, we care for one another, encourage one another.
We live in a way that we read about in books about missionaries.
These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
tribulation - affliction
Was Jesus speaking to all of us or just people in other countries?
Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
Now Saul was consenting to his death.
At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being defamed, we entreat. We have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things until now.
so that we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure,
But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me.
the bible says a lot about persecution. The early church was persecuted. We pray for the persecuted church. What happens if WE become the persecuted church?
I speak in a ‘what if’ situation
How would I live, if we experienced the same persecution as believers in other countries?
How would we live if things get worse?
How would our Father in Heaven want us to live?
The people of Israel were carried away into captivity into Babylon.
Elijah lived under horrible pagan leaders that were killing the prophets of God
We have hope.
Our hope isn’t in America, USA, land of the free
Our hope isn’t in the Constitution of the United States of America.
I am not saying these are bad.
I am saying that our hope is, has to be, in Jesus Christ.
Our lives are in Him. We live for Him
We walk in His strength. We follow His path.
We wait for His kingdom. This is not our world.
Like the 3 Hebrew boys before the fire
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”
Brothers and sisters, we are called to live for Jesus.
We always talk about being in the end times. We talk about ‘the time is at hand’
Should we then be surprised if things get bad?
If we experience what other believers go through, we will learn what it means to love and encourage one another.
And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.
The devil will not prevail. Evil will not win.
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.