YP Talk—David Mearns
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And we could start with the.
One verse of 318.
318.
Somebody start that for us. Just the first verse.
Oh my God.
Ask the Lord for His help.
Our God and our Father, we thank thee for that Blessed One. Our Lord Jesus, we thank thee for many mercies that are ours, for this happy time we've been able to have together. And now we have another opportunity. Our God to to.
Open like precious word and Lord Jesus, we've just addressed thee in this in this hymn that we've sung as the Lamb of God and we've made our petition to thee, blessed Savior, that we would be kept and we just would ask this our God for each of us here, each of these young hearts that have come here, many perhaps.
Come for the fun, many perhaps coming with searching hearts as to what's before them in life.
And we just would pray our God, that thou wouldst fill the heart of each one that's here. And we in a special way would ask for help for the speaker, our God, who needs these things every bit as much or perhaps more than the young people. We would ask for special help now that we would have anointed lips and we would be able to hear thy voice. We'd ask this, our God, as we give thanks and worthy and the precious name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
Can I change gears here a little bit?
I just as to what we've had, just thought maybe we'd look at something a little different than what I thought I'd carry on with. So let's turn to to the Book of First Kings.
The Book of First Kings, chapter 17.
We have us. I'd like to look at a few things in connection with the life of Elijah.
And.
He's an instructive person. We, I said yesterday that you young folks are made of the same stuff that I am. I'm made of the same stuff that you are. That's not a compliment to either of us. We read about Elijah. He was the same. We read Elijah was a man of like passions as we are. And I thought as we go through some of these details in his life, it would be for profit for us. There's a statement that is made and it's made.
Of times and it's if you read it here in the second verse of first King 17 it's the word of the Lord came unto him. The word of the Lord came unto Elijah. We have that a number of times at least at least eight. We're not going to go through them all. We're going to go through a few of them and I thought in my own life how important the word of God is you know I had.
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It's interesting one of the.
One of the.
Before the Lord took my dad, one of the things he was loath to do was to miss the prayer meeting for the gospel as an old man. He'd come tottering in there, and I remember getting there earlier. I used to drive him. I remember getting there early with him once, and all the old men were there.
At that time, it wasn't me.
A bunch of us guys in our in our 40s and 50s hadn't got there yet, but there's all these old men sitting around and everyone of them had a hearing aid and.
One of them said to my dad didn't have one.
Or he'd left it at home. I'm not sure. But one of the old men turned to my dad and said, Mort, you must have really good hearing. You don't even want to hear without a hearing aid. And he leaned forward and said, I beg your pardon?
But one of the last things there was although his natural hearing was impaired.
There was nothing wrong with his spiritual hearing.
One of the last statements he made to me on his deathbed was David.
Reed, the word of God with your ears, not just your eyes, Read the word of God with your ears. That's something we need to do because it's the word of God that's going to touch our hearts, the Word of God that's going to give us instruction. We had instruction yesterday. Teddy gave it to us in Psalm 119.
As to the word of God being a light, being a lamp to our feet, to our pathway, that's the way it is and that's how we hear the voice of the Lord.
Through our spiritual ears. So when you're reading this book.
Keep those ears open, just as if it's the Lord speaking to you. And we have it here.
The word of the Lord came unto him. I just just it's impressed me. I told you a little story about this, this this man who was an alcoholic that the Lord laid on his heart to to start to read his Bible again and it's that what's touched him. I had I had an incident happened just oh, it's a year ago.
I was working in a kitchen of I was with my son-in-law who works for me. We're working in a kitchen and I work for these folks before typically my customers. I don't preach to them if I do.
Have something to say to them, but they're. So I usually make an appointment after work or another time and say hey look, I'd like to talk to you about something This is not work I don't do it I try not to be obnoxious and.
Try to let my feet speak for me. Anyway, I'm having never spoken to these folks. I'm working in the kitchen and the lady comes in. The man's sick, OK? He's in a hospital bed in the living room.
He's 90 years old.
She comes in, She's 85. She said that, Dave.
You seem to have.
A lot more confidence.
A lot more peace than anybody at our church. Would you take my husband's funeral?
OK, so these are these folks are not the Lords.
They go to a church that I don't know if the pastor is the Lord's. So I kind of gulped and thought, yeah, I guess I could do that.
Went into the family room with her and and she's all about works. All the good things she's done, all the good things her husband's done and she's just rolling out of her.
And I said, do you have a Bible here? Yeah. She goes in the backroom, pulls out a Bible, and I kind of take it.
Blow the dust off it.
I read her the story of the thief on the cross. I read it to her and I asked her. I said how?
How much good works could he do?
So you couldn't pay back what he stole, couldn't even go to someone they stole from and say he's sorry?
What about him?
No answer. I left. That's so impressed her that she takes this into her husband who is in a hospital bed in the living room, reads it to him, and he comes to the Lord.
Not through me, through her. Who's not the Lords? My wife gets there the next day. She's knows that they're not well. She's never met them. She comes with some fresh baked buns and touches in with him and he's he's at peace.
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Totally at peace. She has a couple hour conversation with him. He's not well. He's just, he's at total peace. What was it? It's it's the word of God. It's the word of God that touches a soul that's lost.
It's the same word of God that's going to touch us if we would only listen.
To what the Lord has to say to us.
You know, a couple days later he passed away that week.
And before the funeral, I there's a long story. I won't tell it, but I went to work, I went to their house, locked on the door. She comes to the door.
Said Dave. I've just been reading, been reading in John. She's reading first John. I flipped it open, I guess.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. How do you randomly open like that and start to read?
And she said that. She said to me, this is worth the front door. I'm not even in yet. She opens up the door. She said, Dave, I just asked God to forgive me of all my sins. Do you think he has? I'm thinking, are you kidding me?
It's the word of God, young people, that touches a lost soul.
And it's the Word of God that's going to touch our hearts as well if we read it.
So let's look at a few of these in Elijah's life where we get the word of God, the word of Lord that comes to Elijah, and it's this first one is this.
Because this is the first time we pick up on Elijah the 17th chapter, we maybe look at a bit in this chapter, a bit in the.
In the next chapter, or maybe even a.
Maybe even something in the following chapter. I'm just going to pick snippets out here. It's you can take up a whole series on on Elijah. It's not my purpose to do that, just to take little things. So let's read now Elijah the Tishbite who was of the inhabitants of Gilead.
Said to Ahab as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand. You know, Elijah standing here in front of the king who's an idolatrous king. He's someone who's got all power and he's got the courage to stand before this one. The only reason he could stand before this man is because he had been, as we find in James, he had been he, he was found on his knees before the Lord. And if we are in that posture before the Lord, it opens up areas.
That would never be open to us if we don't take up on that posture every morning. So we read here the word of the Lord came to him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook. Cherith, that is.
Before Jordan and the only young people, the Lord would have everyone of us to be in secret with him. If we're going to be of any use to the Lord in a public way or in anybody else's life, we must be alone in secret with Him.
You go through the word.
Everybody that was of any use to God found themselves in secret with the Lord. For Moses it was 40 years.
In the desert for Adam, it was behind a tree.
Forgetting it was behind the wine press, threshing wheat. Everyone of us need to spend time alone in the presence of God. If we do that, then it puts us in a position where we can be useful. So here we find. Get the hints. Turn the eastward. Hide thyself by the brook, Cherith. That is before Jordan. It shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook that I have commanded the Ravens to feed thee there.
Rather unlikely source.
For food.
You think of a flock of flock of crows, you know, and and some bread. The bread would be gone very very early. But no, this is the word of the Lord seems very unlikely, but you know it says here in verse five. So he went.
And did according unto the word of the Lord, for he went and dwelt by the brook sheriff, that is, before Jordan, And the Ravens brought him bread and fish in the morning, bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening. And he drank of the brook.
You know his his confidence.
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Was not in the Ravens. His confidence was in the words I have commanded. And there may be some very unlikely things in our life, but that's where our confidence needs to be. Our confidence needs to be in I have commanded. It needs to be in his word, not in the unlikely circumstances. And young people, I'll be frank and honest in my life.
Circumstances.
Have been a fog.
That have hindered me.
From seeing what the Lord wants me to do.
We can get so focused on our circumstances that it can really be a fog, really be a fog, can't see in a fog.
Can't see, Can't see in a blending snowstorm.
Remember Ethan in Maine a number of years ago in your home assembly after the conference, we left. We were, we were all told to stay because there was a blinding snowstorm. But Dave, who's who's driven in snow before and all, he can take off, he can go home. We got about a mile and a half down the road and I couldn't even see the front end of the van. And it's just a blinding snowstorm. Just where's the road and and.
Some of you know. Some of you who know my son Ron. He leans up.
To me and he says, Dad, did you pray about this?
We, we, we have, we need to, to, to receive the word of the Lord, wherever it comes from, that comes from my bratty son. That's that's good. That's maybe where it comes from, but but we need to we need to be have our ears open. Anyway, I turned back Ethan and we spent the night at at the Saxes and all was well. We'd love for the next morning.
But circumstances, they can be just like that. All sudden you just can't see. Remember the people of God here to follow the cloud.
But they couldn't follow the cloud, they couldn't follow the pillar of fire if they were looking down. And it's not different with us. It's not different with us.
We have to have that uplifted gaze, young people, if we're going to be able to get direction from the Lord.
So what does he do? It says he did.
According to the word of the Lord. Now it's interesting here in the seventh verse it says that came to pass after a while. The brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. You know, I pictured Elijah.
Alleged stated. You know there's not gonna be rain for three years.
And the Lord had told him he's gonna park here and he's gonna have bread. The Ravens are gonna bring him bread and he's gonna have water to drink. Well, the brooks getting smaller and it's getting smaller and it's getting smaller.
I can imagine when the brook was like this, much of A trickle, he was starting to think.
You know, how long am I supposed to be here? And you know, young people, the Lord's not going to give us direction in our pathway, a long way down the path.
He's just going to give us the next step. Every day of our life, all we're going to see is the next step.
And that's that's the way the Lord works. He gives us the next step, doesn't give us five steps, doesn't give us 10.
He doesn't do that. He gives us the next step, and we need to trust them for the succeeding steps. And I believe Elijah did that. And as we go through this and see how he picked up on this, it fortified him for that which was ahead. So we read here. The Ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, bread and flesh in the evening. He drank of the brook. He came to pass. After a while the brook dried up and there because there had been no rain in the land. And what happens then? The word of the Lord comes to him again.
Sometimes we would really like.
The word of the Lord to come to us before things dry up. We would really like to see what's going to happen next year, what's going to happen next week or what's going to happen five years from now. We would we would like that naturally we would really like that but that's not the way the Lord operates. He doesn't do that. So verse eight, it says the word of the Lord came unto him. Here's the second time we read that second time that the word of the Lord comes to to Elijah and.
It comes after the brook dried up.
And then he gets the next step for his pathway. And what's that?
Arise, get thee Desirafath, which belongeth to Zaiden, and dwell there. And behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widowwoman was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray the immortal of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not.
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But a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in a cruise and behold, I am gathering 2 sticks that I might go in.
And dress it for me and for my son, that we may eat it and die. And Elijah said unto her, Fear not go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake 1St And bring unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel. Here's that word again. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel. The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the crews of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did.
According to the word of according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did eat many days in the barrel of meal wasted not neither did the cruise of oil fail according to the word of Lord, which he spake by Elijah.
Young people.
I'm going to give you some instruction that I've struggled with.
I've really struggled with totally trusting the Lord and young people. You need to expect the Lord to show up because he's going to.
It's far more likely that we're not going to show up than he's going to show up because he is going to show up in every area of our lives, you know?
I'll tell you an incident.
A year ago this past.
Spring while year goes. This past winter I had a guy phone me up. One of my customers hadn't hadn't been working for him for quite some time. I got 68 years old. He calls up. He's actually calling from a car dealership.
His mother-in-law had dropped her ring down the back of the seat and they couldn't get it. And he was at the guard leadership. They had the whole car apart trying to find this ring. He says it's pretty important. But what he said was he said, Dave, I want your peace.
He said I had two ants pass away and they had your peace. I want your peace.
I said.
Come on over. So he comes over.
We're sitting in the living room. Some of you have been to my living room. You can picture the living room. We're sitting there just me and him, nobody else in the house. We talk for some time and.
I said, you know how real is this? Oh, it's real. I said real enough to talk to God about it right now. Oh yeah, port is hard out to the Lord. Just told God what a rotten scenario he was. Came to the Lord right there in my living room. Well, he left and.
A couple months later, a few months later, he, when I'm talking to him, he said to me, he said, you know, I'm having a hard time reading the Bible. So I read all kinds of things, but I'm having a hard time reading the Bible. I'm thinking, you know, it's pretty vital in our Christian pathway. We had breakfast this morning for our growth and for maintaining our body. We need the same thing. We need the spiritual food in our in our, in our spiritual life. We desperately need it.
And.
I thought about that. We I didn't say much, but I was reading in my personal reading.
In in Luke's gospel. OK, so in Matthew, Mark and Luke we have the parable, the sower.
And in Luke's Gospel, it's a little different than Matthew and Mark. In Luke's gospel, when it says, when it talks about the good seed falling on the rocky ground, it says it lacked moisture and withered. OK, that's the wording. Look it up. Luke's Gospel, it lacked moisture and withered. I thought, you know, he needs to hear this.
He needs to hear this.
So I, this is a couple days later, I get in my truck and I, I drive over. I'm kind of a little bit worried about how I'm going to be able to present this. I'm a little bit worried about how he's going to be able to receive it. That I would be in a good spirit to tell him that he really needs to read and his spiritual life's going to wither if he doesn't, if he doesn't get the moisture from the word.
Whole array of things I was worried about. Anyway, I pulled off to the side of the road and I just committed it to the Lord and asked the Lord for help. Ask the Lord for right words, and ask the Lord that the circumstances would be just fine.
I drive into his driveway.
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Just he has a sprinkler, it's going OK. And he has planted some grass a week before and it's up this high. He goes over and he takes a sprinkler and he plants it right over on the grass. It's going. I've just driven in the driveway and I'm looking at this scene. I'm thinking, are you kidding me? He he comes around to my side of my car. I roll down the window and I just read on the portion.
He kind of listens to me. He kind of looks over at the.
At the grass and at the at the sprinkler. And he says I get it now.
You couldn't possibly orchestrate that to have the Lord have him plant the grass the week before to have me pull over on the side of the road for a few minutes just so he could get the sprinkler ready.
He, I drive in the driveway just as he's walking down the driveway to put him on the grass. Like, are you kidding me? God is going to show up, young people, he does it. Our lives, we're the ones that don't show up.
If we would just recognize that God is willing and He wants to show up and He wants to be there and He's going to be there. We're the ones that are not there. So if the Lord lays something on your heart, whatever it is.
Young people show up because he's going to be there already. He's going to be there and you know.
Elijah found that out. Elijah went to this widow woman. What's happening? He goes in there. This would a woman. She's gathering these sticks and she's getting ready to die and and Elijah gives her this message. You know, I pictured him. I expect that he's going there. He's probably thinking there's going to be some rich widow that's got piles of food that's going to feed him. It's not that way with the Lord. It's not that way.
There's a barrel. It's not a barrel that's full and going to last for a long time, There's just a little bit in the bottom.
Same with the oil, just a little bit. That's the way God works in our lives. It's step by step, it's line upon line, precept upon precept. It's not different with us than it is for Elijah. So verse 13.
I have this verse.
Above my desk, Get up in the morning. That's where I do my studying. Sometimes in the middle of the night. I have this verse. I had someone make it. Make me thereof a little cake first.
Make me thereof a little cake first. Young people do that when you get up in the morning.
And you say to me, well, I'm not a morning person.
I'm good with that. I made the mistake of telling an older brother that in our assembly. I told him I said I'm not a morning person, he says. Well, become one, I thought. Are you kidding me?
Well, I have become one. I'm not saying you have to become one, but I'm saying if you set your alarm clock at 7 to whatever you do, whether it's to get up for work or whether you're you're going to school or whatever, 7:00, some people set it at 6:50. At least get a little something.
From the word, spend a few minutes with the Lord, make me thereof a little cake first. Just give the Lord a little bit. Even if you're studying is even if your time at your your quiet time that you spend with the Lord is going to be at night. That's fine. I'm good with that. Whenever it is, I'm good with it. But when you get up, just give the Lord that little piece first. First, there's great, great benefits.
You know, the the, the fortification I've got in my Christian life.
By the little portion I've got at the beginning of the day has been just fantastic and it has helped me to realize.
That whatever it is that I come across on my pathway, the Lord is going to be there first. He's going to have orchestrated everything. He's going to have the grass planted a week before. He's going to have the man buy the grass seed two weeks before. Whatever it happens, it's all going to be orchestrated. The times the reason we don't see it happen is because we don't show up.
Not the Lord. Think of all the things that could have happened there that.
The the timing would have been wrong. I could have said, yeah, yeah, I I don't think you'll listen to me.
I, I, I don't, I don't think he wants to read the word of God. I could have had 1000 excuses, but no, God has organized all these things so often in our life for us to show up and we don't and we miss out. He'll use somebody else. He will well make the Lord a little cake first, not a big one.
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We're not talking about many loaves, just get a little something.
When you get up in the morning, a little something, the benefits are tremendous. Now it says, for thus saith the Lord, verse 14. Thus saith the Lord God of Israel.
The barrel of meal shall not waste.
Neither shall the crews of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did, according to the saying of Elijah.
You know, look at verse five. So he went and did according to the word of Elijah and verse 15 she went and did according to the saying of Elijah. It's amazing in my life, those that I have looked at.
That have been an encouragement to me, just because they got a little portion in the morning and shared a little something with me. It has been such an encouragement. This lady, she went and did according to the word of Lord. Why? Because He did it.
It has that *********** effect, young people, when we are here for the Lord. We just had two very, very good addresses on following the Lord.
Two hours of them that our brother Ted gave us very, very excellent instruction.
Are we willing to do that? Well, if we are, it's going to be a tremendous encouragement to others, as it is to this lady.
Now the next little incident in the latter part of this chapter, it says in the 17th, it came to pass after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house fell sick. And there's it, I'm not going to read it, but there's this little instance where this her son, he passes away. He's he's gone and.
He's raised and the method that the Lord uses is Elijah, and it says here Elijah speaks with her in verse 19. He said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom and carried him up to the loft where he abode, and laid him upon his bed. And he cried unto the Lord, and said, Oh Lord, my God.
Hast thou also brought upon evil upon this widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come unto him again. And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. There's a there's a principle here, young people, that is very, very needful, I think, for all of us.
For for those of you who perhaps are working with children, perhaps working with Sunday school.
I'll be honest, young people.
It's a long time since I was 20.
It's a long time since I was 14.
A long time.
It's a lot easier for me.
To enjoy something that I've enjoyed with my peers over there, it's a lot easier.
My dad said to me when my little girl was born, who's now 33.
David.
Whenever you're visiting with her, she's now just born. She's going to be 5. She's going to be 10. The Lord leads us here. She's going to be a teenager. She's going to be in her 20s. She's going to be in her 30s. Always remember what it was like to be her age.
So although it's a long, long time ago since that I was 14.
151617182512.
13 It's been a long time.
It takes a bit of a stretch to take something I've enjoyed at a level that I would perhaps share it with my older peers here than sharing it with you. And it takes a stretch because because think of this portion. It says Elijah, Notice what it says there in in verse 21 Says he stretched himself upon the child. Like go through that thought process. You got this child, this, this, this person that's small. You have Elijah and it says he stretched himself like we would say he constricted himself.
No, it says he stretched himself.
Sometimes in sharing something that we've enjoyed with someone that perhaps is struggling or perhaps going through something and we want to share it with them, it takes a real stretch, but there's benefits. There are real benefits in taking what we've enjoyed and stretching it to someone and asking the Lord that it might be palatable for their circumstances. Just like I read that portion to that man that came around to the window and I, I didn't even say anything. All he did was read in the portion. I said, you know the, the.
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Seed that fell on the rocky soil.
It lacked moisture and it withered and I stopped dead and the Lord took that and the Lord did the rest of the work.
As he had orchestrated that he was going to and all the details before that, well.
When Elijah here stretched himself in the child, there was great benefit, great benefit to him, great benefit to the child.
Great benefit.
To the mother.
It's always going to be the same in our own lives. Let's go on.
Next chapter we find the third time we have the word of the Lord.
And that comes to Elijah, so in chapter chapter 18.
A lot of things happen in this chapter.
First verse the word of the Lord came to Elijah the third year saying go show thyself to Ahab and I'm going to tell you to read this portion at your leisure because what we find is.
It's quite a story.
Where the prophets of Baal gather with Baal and and and Elijah's there and. There's two sides, and and.
There's a sacrifice that's that's to be killed. And Elijah said, you know, the, the God that is going to send fire out of heaven. Let's, let's see that he is, he's the one that's God. And you have the prophets of Baal and there they shriek and they, they call and they cut themselves. They make a big scene and they're calling the bail to, to, to send fire. Nothing happens. Zero happens.
So then the word that Elijah says.
Um.
Notice verse 21.
Elijah came to all the people and said, how long halt? I'm going to let's read this as if the Lord is speaking to us, OK, The Lord is not speaking to anybody else here but us. Word of the word of Elijah. Elijah came to all the people and said how long halt He between two opinions. Maybe, maybe there's somebody here this afternoon and you're halting between two opinions.
You're just not sure whether you want to follow the Lord or not.
Or maybe you throw in the towel and you have followed the Lord. You're just you're saying, oh, it's too tough, too tough.
How long halkey between two opinions? Notice the statement if the Lord be God.
Follow him.
You know, I say to you young people.
If the Lord be God.
Like hello.
If the Lord is God.
It's a no brainer. It's a number brainer. Follow him. We've just had tremendous ministry on that.
Is the Lord going to show up? Yes, He is, and he wants.
He wants us to follow him and the the people answered the end of the 25th 1St just like you answered just now. Never a word.
You know, to go through this portion and I I would just like to to go.
Let's let's go to.
Further on down in the chapter after, after the prophets of Bailey did everything they possibly could, verse 30, Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down.
You took 12 Stones, Verse 31 According to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, with whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. He made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two measures of seed. He put the wood in order, cut the Bullock in pieces, laid him on the wood, said, Fill 4 barrels with water, and poured on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood. And he said, Do it the second time. They did it a second time, he said.
3rd.
They did it the third the water ran round about the altar, and he filled the trench with with water, and came to pass the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the Lord God, that thou hast turned their back again in the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the.
00:40:26
Sacrifice.
You know, one of the difficulties in my, in my pathway young people.
Has been that when there's a spiritual victory in my life, it's given me some confidence and I think, wow, I did that.
We need not to have any confidence and recognize that if there's anything for the Lord in our lives, it's the Lord that does it. And I think the Lord chose that in this portion because.
There's two prayers here.
There are two prayers and the first one is Elijah prays. In the end of the 36th verse. He says, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and nothing happens.
Absolutely nothing happens.
So he prays again, and he says, well hear me, O Lord, verse 37 hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God. He leaves out that I am thy servant. No, we we like a little recognition. And he wanted to have that.
He wanted the people to see that he was a little something anyway, and the Lord wasn't going to answer by fire if it was going to be that the Lord was going to answer only if the work was entirely His work. And so that's why he leaves it out and says in verse 37, hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God. And verse 38, the fire of the Lord fell, although we might realize in our lives any work that's done is the work of the Lord.
Give him.
The full credit, the work of a soul is the Lord's work. The work of my soul, the work of your soul is the Lord's work. We just have to respond to his call. All that we would do that let's turn over now.
We're we've got 15 minutes left, we can maybe look at Chapter 19.
This is an interesting chapter.
Because in the previous chapter, there's such tremendous victory in in Elijah's life in this chapter.
He gets discouraged, and I know you young people have never been discouraged before, but I have.
And the principles that we find in this chapter, if there is to ever be a time sometime when you do get discouraged.
This is a good chapter.
I didn't have baloney for breakfast.
We all do get discouraged, I understand, and I think some of the principles we find in this chapter show us the steps. Let let's just read chapter 19. We were the first few verses. They have told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and with all how he had slain the prophets of the sword. And Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, so let the gods do to me, and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose and went for his.
Came to Beersheba, you know, I think. Are you kidding me?
Here he's just called fire out of heaven, and now he's running away from an angry lady.
You know, but there's reasons. There are reasons.
Why he gets discouraged and young people, if we can identify those first steps towards discouragement, it's a big help just like yesterday we were talking about that line and that first step that we take that takes us away from the Lord. The steps of discouragement are exactly the same way and they and they snowball they they they land us in a shipwreck is what they do It's what it's what landed at Elijah. It says verse 40. He went himself a day's journey into the wilderness and.
And sat down under a juniper tree. And he requested for himself that he might die and said it is enough now. Oh Lord, take away my life, what a baby.
And yet I can do the same thing.
After such tremendous victory, to say you know I'm.
He's posing here.
He's saying, you know, take away my life and what does he do? What is it that causes that? You know, it's an area.
That all of us struggle with. We have a struggle often with comparing ourselves among ourselves. You know, the Corinthians struggled with that here. What's what's, what's Elijah struggling with? He says at the end of the fourth verse, take away my life. I am not better than my father's. He looked at those before him. He looked at his father. He looked at his grandfather. He said, you know, I can't do what they're doing. And that can be a discouragement. And young people, if we do that, it's discouraging. There's always going to be someone.
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There's always going to be someone that can lead basketball better than we can. There's always going to be someone that can play any kind of sports better than we can. There's always going to be someone that has more money than us. There's always going to be someone that looks better than us.
The you could just go down the list if we compare ourselves with each other. It's a discouraging work. And I would just say as soon as soon as you start that first little comparison with someone else, nip it in the **** Nip it in the bud because it's end is going to be horrific. You know, I took my family to.
To Alliance Safari, this is when the kids were younger.
We go to this Lions ferry and we're driving around and, you know, the monkeys do their thing. They crawl all over the van and they pull pieces off it and whatever. Anyway, we're, we're, we're coming along and there's the giraffes and the giraffes come up with this. This huge giraffe comes over. My wife got the window down over there and she takes a Ritz cracker and passes it out to the giraffe. The giraffe just eats it up.
Well the giraffe wants more so puts his head in the van. Well the drops head is this big.
Like 2000 LB giraffe with its head in the van. Like we're having a hard time moving and it wants these. So my wife just takes handfuls of these Ritz crackers to give them to until the box has gone and it's chewing and chewing is chewing is chewing all of a sudden stops.
Takes a big breath.
And then it sneezes.
I don't know how big the lungs are of a giraffe or how long the neck is, but our inside of our van was pasted with chewed Ritz cracker and green slime.
Why? Because that first cracker was given to that giraffe. It is exactly the same thing with discouragement in our lives. If we hand over that first tidbit to the enemy, who starts to get us discouraged, The end is the same. We become totally discouraged everywhere we look. It's discouraging. We look at every young person that got a big a bigger, better portion than us. They're happier. They're whatever.
And it's it's a total disaster. And that's what landed Elijah where he was totally discouraged. He says I'm not there in my father's. Let's look at the portion in in Corinthians just to see that where how the Corinthians struggled with that exactly the same thing in Two Corinthians.
2nd Corinthians.
That's actually First Corinthians.
Maybe somebody can help me. Those comparing themselves with themselves among themselves are not wise.
Somebody have that?
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
2nd Corinthians 10.
And verse 12 For we dare not make ourselves of the number to come to compare ourselves with them that commend themselves, but they measure measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise. Young people don't fall into that trap. Don't hand over the first Ritz cracker.
It doesn't end well.
Back to First Kings.
So we read in verse nine, he came thither to a cave lodge there, behold, the word of the Lord came to him and said to him, What does that hear, Elijah? He said, I've been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts of the children of Israel, Forsaken thy covenant, throw down thine altars, slain thy province, thy prophets with the sword, and I even I am left, and they seek my life to take it away.
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I just picture the Lord listening to that and thinking.
So he asks him again.
Verse 13 It was so when Elijah heard it that he wrapped his There's a whole lot of instruction here into the details which we're not going to look at. He wrapped his face in his mantle. He went out and stood in the entering of The Cave. And behold, there came a voice unto him and said exactly the same thing. Elijah, what are you doing here?
What do us out here, Elijah, you know, he had no direction from the Lord to do what he did. When he had direction from the Lord, he acted on it. But when he didn't have direction from Lord, he went and acted anyway. And that's why the Lord's saying like I didn't give you any direction to come here. Well, what are you doing here? And he shows, he answers and he answers exactly the same way. Notice he said I've been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts. The children of Israel are forsaken like covenant.
Downline altar and slain thy prophets with the sword, and I even I only am left, and they seek my life to take it away.
You know, the Lord says.
In verse 15, go return on thy way to the wilderness of Damascus, when thou comest anoint Hazel to be king over Syria, Jihu the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel, and Elisha the son of Shaffat of Abel, behold, shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room. To me this is a sad portion because you know the Lord had a work for Elijah to do.
And Elijah has got discouraged and he says, you know, I'm the only one. There's nobody else.
And the Lord says, you know, we're going to have to have another prophet in your stead because this isn't working.
And I'm going to, I'm going to suggest something. Young people, turn to Romans 11 for a moment.
Romans 11.
We read this.
Romans 11 I say then, hath God castaway his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham. It's it's Paul speaking here of the tribe of Benjamin. God hath not castaway his people, which he foreknew what she not what the Scripture saith of Elias.
How he made intercession to God.
Against Israel saying, I have killed by prophets, dig down line altars, I am left alone, and they seek my life. And what saith the answer of God unto him I have reserved to myself. 7000 who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal, even solvent. At this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. Young people on this is the only failure.
Of an Old Testament prophet.
That is mentioned in the New Testament, the only one. And why?
I believe it's because we are prone.
To this failure of speaking against our brethren.
We're prone to that. We're prone to criticizing each other for whatever reason. It's it's, it's something that's within us. It's such an easy thing to criticize each other and there's no place for it amongst the people of God to the point where we have this story.
In the Old Testament and we have this.
This nagging cancer.
That the Lord puts in the New Testament for our good and for our benefit. And I would suggest, young people, if the Lord has looked on any one of your brothers and sisters in Christ, whether here, whether in the Pentecostal Church, whether in the Catholic Church.
Who am I?
Who am I when God has placed enough value on them to give his life, to give his Son for the Lord Jesus to give his life? Who am I to criticize? That does not mean I go along with what they go along with, but woe to me if I criticize my brethren. It gets me into trouble and what happens is.
Yes, Elijah was used of God afterwards. He was, but his discouragement got him to that place where that which the Lord had him to do, it was passed on to Elisha. In fact, those other things he was supposed to do, Elisha did them. He didn't even do them. Yes, he was used of God after. We're thankful for that. We're thankful for that, that young people.
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Don't don't criticize your fellow young people. Don't criticize your your brethren. Don't criticize other believers. It's you know, I'm in the building business.
It's sure an awful lot easier to go in and demolish a site than it is to build it up. May we be builders. May each one of us be builders. Sometimes it's hard to build, you know? Turn over to the Book of Nehemiah for a minute.
Book of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah, chapter 4.
In my chapter 4, I'm going to leave you with this.
Nehemiah chapter 4, they're building verse 10 and Judah said the strength of the the bearers of burden is decayed and there is much rubbish so that we are not able to build the wall. Young people, do you have some rubbish in your life? You can't build if there's rubbish.
You just can't build. I get to a site and it's filled with all kinds of clutter. We got to clean it up before we can build.
And I've had a lot of rubbish in my life that I've had to get rid of before I can build Oh, young people.
As we've considered this.
Dear man of God, that's what he's called. Yes, like passions, as we have, as we are to think of how a man can.
Have such victories and then get discouraged.
To be able to look at the people of God and say hey if.
If the Lord's God follow him, to be able to say that, and then to run away and hide in the wilderness because he was discouraged.
Oh, be aware of those first signs of discouragement and take them to the Lord.
Lest you have.
The giraffe sneeze in your van. It's, it's, it's, it was really a mess. And it's not different in our personal lives because one discouragement leads to another leads to another, and then it, it breeds contempt and other people get discouraged. Who's going to let's face it?
Who do you get encouragement from? Someone's discouraged or someone that's encouraged like that's?
You only have to think about that, although we would have our eyes fixed on that blessed one. You know, sometimes I'll use this little incident.
It's interesting, the people of God.
Our time is gone, the people of God.
They were told.
To.
To follow the pillar fire and to follow the cloud. OK, they're told to follow it.
Let's turn to the portion. It's good in numbers. Numbers, the book of numbers.
The Book of Numbers.
Have to find it here.
My fingertips. Evidently I'm looking for the place where.
People of God came to Eden. Oh.
It's around 20 I think.
Maybe we're not supposed to read it, but I'll have to tell it.
I'll do that. So the people of God came to eat them and they and they said to the people of Eden, they said, you know, we'd like to go through your land. We'd like to. We're not going to eat anything. If we eat anything, we'll buy it from you. We won't drink your water. We'll buy the water. And I'm thinking.
Why is there all this negotiation? Why not just follow the cloud? Why not just follow the pillar of fire? What do you have to negotiate with these people? Why don't you just follow? And you know, young people sometimes in our lives.
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We're not following the cloud. And when we look up the clouds a long, long way off and we got to figure out how to get there. Did it go this way? Did it go this way? Did it go this way? Did it turn around, go back that way 1St? And how did it get there? And the Lord's not going to, He's not going to return to the US, to the place where we left.
And it's.
It's very important and very necessary that we keep an uplifted gaze all the time because the benefits are tremendous and.
The downside is horrific if our gaze isn't lifted above, so you know when we get discouraged, it's a horrific thing.
The the *********** effect it has in our lives and in others is it's horrible, although we can see the first sign.
Well, I'd encourage you to take up this, this story of Elijah. Go through those chapters, go through the, the, the succeeding chapters. Tremendous story and so much, so much instruction for our, our pathway as young believers and old believers. Let's just commit ourselves to the Lord.
Our God and our Father were We're so thankful for the Lord Jesus. We're so thankful for that precious word.
We're still thankful for the word of the Lord that came to Elijah and the instruction that we can find from it. And we know our God, that that same instruction comes to us. And so often we're not listening. Help us, our God, to read thy precious word with our ears, that we might hear thy voice.
Help us to beat encouragement. Help us to be builders. Help us to be spared from discouragement.
Our God, we struggle with these things. Help us not to have a critical spirit of of our fellow brethren, other believers. We just ask for help in these things.
We we all struggle with them just like Elijah did, and we ask for help our God. So we just leave ourselves like here now, thankful for this happy time we've been able to have together. And now as we would face some more time with our brethren over like precious word, we just earnestly pray our God that it would be a time of rich blessing for us. We'd ask it all as we give thanks, the worthy and the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus.
Amen.