Sermon Tone Analysis

DRY BROOK UNIVERSITY

*TEXT: 1 Kings 17:2-7*

*INTRODUCTION*: Boot camp: for those who have served in the military, it is a place that they well remember.

For many, it was their first time away from home.

It was a time of brutal discipline, unending work, regimented training, cold fear and acute loneliness.

Yet, it is in boot camp that soldiers are born.

A soldier would never be able to serve on the battlefield unless he has first been through the training of boot camp.

In boot camp, soldiers have their self-will striped away.

They lose any rebellion that may in their heart.

They learn to follow every order from a superior without question.

They learn to follow their leader, even to death, if necessary.

Of course, the positive side of all the training, the discipline and the pressure is that the soldier grows stronger, more disciplined and more mature.

He is transformed from a common man into a battle ready soldier.

You might say that boot camp is much like enrolling in a compressed university program.

The soldier learns much in his short time there.

However, what he learns in boot camp is essential to his survival on the battlefield.

God has place that each of His children must pass through.

He has a university, a training experience, for each of those He intends to use.

Elijah is about to enroll in this university in the verses we are considering this morning.

When we think of Elijah, there are usually two events that seem to characterize his life.

The first is the fact that he was carried away to Heaven in a chariot of fire.

The second has to do with his great victory on top of Mount Carmel.

I think we need to be reminded that before we can be trusted to stand on Carmel, we must first pass by the dry brook.

What I am trying to communicate is the truth that before God can use His servants, He must train them.

Before He can use us greatly before men, He must first break us before Himself.

Surely, every wants to be used by the Lord.

However, before that can happen, we must first pass through God's university.

There are lessons that we must learn.

There are courses that we must have.

Before God can place us on the battlefield as a soldier of the cross, He must first send us to boot camp.

This isn't a truth we enjoy thinking about, but it stands to reason that before God can really use us, He must first remove from us all that hinders His will from being done.

Therefore, let's join Elijah this morning as he enrolls at Dry Brook University.

His experience contains several elements of truth that we need to explore together today.

These things will help you when it is your time to enroll at Dry Brook University.

!

I.          *THE PLACE GOD ORDAINED *2-4

Elijah has just stood before the King of Israel and delivered the message of judgment that God had given him.

Now, the next word from God is command to hide himself away.

It seems to me that God would want to keep Elijah in the face of Ahab.

However, God's ways are not our ways!

You see, God has a plan!

He wants to transform Elijah from Elijah the Tishbite into Elijah the Man of God.

To accomplish this, God is going to have to send Elijah to school.

!! A.        *The Name Of That Place* - Cherith - The word means "to cut off, to cut down".

God has cut off Elijah from public view so that He might cut him down to size.

2-3

!!! 1.

One of the hardest lessons the child of God will ever learn is that God must send you to *Cherith* before He can use you for His glory.

He must hide you away and cut you down so that His image may be more clearly revealed in you.

Just as the silversmith heats the silver and skims off the dross until he can see his image in the silver, so God will work in our lives to bring us to that place where His image is seen in us,* Eze.

22:20-22*.)

!! B.        *The Nature Of That Place* - It is a hidden place.

Note the command from God, "Hide thyself", *v.

3.* Cherith is by nature a hard and lonely place.

Here Elijah would be removed from the spotlight.

Here he would dwell alone while the Lord worked out His will in the prophet's life

!!! 1.

Of all the lessons that we can learn from these verses, one of the most powerful is that we must never overlook the power of the hidden life.

It was in this place, hidden away from public view that Elijah became a man of God.

It was here that he learned to trust God totally.

It was here that Elijah was forced to learn to lean on the Lord.

You see, before we can ever give out, we must first take in.

Before God can pour anything out of our vessels, He must first put something in them.)

!!! 2.      We all need to learn the value of the hidden life.

You see, there is a part of us the world sees and a part of us they do not.

It is the part that men do not see that defines us.

It is that time spent alone, in the presence of God that can make us great for His glory.

How much time are you devoting to the hidden life?

!!! 3.      Of course, there are times when we think God should use us more than He does.

However, when He hides us away from the eye of the world, His plan is to grow us up in private so that He might display us for His glory in His time.

A life that is lived in solitude, before the Lord is a life that will one day be used to bring Him great glory.

You see, God wants us to come to the place where we are found faithful in the hidden life.

When we are found faithful there, He will expand our sphere of influence and bring us out of the hiding place, "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.",

*Luke 16:10*.

Therefore, we must come to the place where we are as willing to be hidden away, as we are to be used*.*

That is the nature of Cherith!

It may mean being passed over.

It may mean being left out.

Never forget, though, that God knows where you are.

If He has sent you to Cherith, He has hidden you away so that He might reveal you in His time!

!! C.        *The Necessity Of That Place* - Notice the use of the word "there".

Cherith was a specific place.

It was the only place Elijah could be and be right with God.

If he had gone anywhere else, he would have starved to death.

God had ordered provisions for Elijah, but He had ordered them to be delivered to Cherith.

It was the only place to be. 4

!!! 1.

When the Lord sends us to a difficult place in life, there is the tendency to want to be somewhere else.

After all, who likes pain?

Who likes sickness?

Who likes financial trouble?

Who likes to struggle?

What we must learn is that if God sends us to a Cherith, He knows what He is doing.

The only place for us to be is where God sends us!

If we find ourselves in a difficult situation, we can do not better than to submit to it as the will of God for our lives and learn to trust Him while we are there.

I really think we forget Who is in control!

I just want to remind you that if the Lord has sent you to Cherith, it is merely part of His plan for your life, Rom.

8:28.

Therefore, you have only two choices.

The first is rebellion.

You can fight God and stay in your Cherith longer, or like Elijah, you can submit to God,* *and He will work out His plan in your life.

In other words, you can either choose to be miserable as you go through the difficulties of life or you can choose to rejoice in spite of the situation,

!!! 2.      There is a place for you that has been ordained by God.

You can do no better in life than to willingly follow Him there.

It may be a hard place.

It may be a place that hurts.

It may be a frightening place.