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[0:00] 1 Kings chapter 19.

[0:16] Sorry, I'm still all fell too fast if so much phone might go up. Okay. Forget me in advance. 1 Kings chapter 19. Well?

[0:28] I have a testimony regarding what we've been studying. Okay. I've had an opportunity to share what we're studying about Elijah. Good. Several people have really been timely.

[0:40] Good. So we've been talking in 1 Kings 19, the first four verses, we talked about the fact that Elijah was facing depression. He had been through a lot of things.

[0:53] He was worn out, and he just kind of went into a time of being really discouraged because Jezebel had said that he was going to be dead, and she was after him and stuff.

[1:06] And so he ran and went somewhere else. Now we're talking about the fact that the fallen are restored. And we talked about the fact that he was, his biggest problem was, had been pride.

[1:21] And we use verses, 1 Corinthians 10, 12, saying, Wherefore let him to thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. Romans 12, 3. For I say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man a measure of faith.

[1:43] And so we talked about, first of all, the fact that Elijah had been through a whole lot of misery. And he had really not handled it well, and he had been discouraged.

[1:54] Then we started talking last week about the fact that God had a ministry to the prophet. He's going through all this. He's miserable. So God starts ministering to him.

[2:06] And we said, first of all, it was a ministry of consideration. God was thinking about what he was going through, and he gave him the things that he needed. It involved rest.

[2:16] It involved refreshment. It involved building his strength back up, getting him back to the point where he was able to handle things the way that God wanted him to.

[2:27] And he had a ministry of compassion to him as well. We talked about the fact that the gentleness that God showed to him by giving him the nourishment and the rest that he needed.

[2:44] He didn't rebuke him. He didn't go after him. He didn't, you know, holler at him and didn't preach him any sermons or anything like that. He just let him get the rest that he needed and let him get the refreshment that he needed.

[2:58] We use verses from Exodus 34, 6. Numbers 14, 18.

[3:11] The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression. God was able to show him some graciousness.

[3:22] And then it involved grace. God's grace. How did God show him his grace? His presence. God gave him his presence there with him.

[3:32] He shows us the same thing. He says in Hebrews 13, 5, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. He says in the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 20, he says, I will be with you always, even unto the end of the world.

[3:49] So God is not going to take off and leave us. Ephesians 4, 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit, God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. God is not going to take off and leave us.

[4:02] We've been sealed. He is right there taking care of us. 2 Timothy 2, 13. If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. He cannot deny himself.

[4:13] So God says, you may question, you may do things, but he said, I'm going to be faithful. I'll be there. I'll be helping you. Jeremiah 31, 3.

[4:24] The Lord hath appeared of all old unto me, saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee.

[4:35] So he did that. He showed them grace. He provided for him, which is the next thing. He gave provision. He gave him everything he needed. You know, we might run from him, but God is always going to be faithful to us.

[4:52] And then God's patience. Even though Elijah had run, had gone away from what God wanted him to do, God was still right there watching out for him.

[5:06] God's going to be patient with us as well. He says in Jeremiah 29, 11. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you an expected end.

[5:18] God has a plan for our lives. God has something he wants us to do. And he's going to be there with us, giving us what we need to be able to accomplish those things and do those things. You know, Elijah went through all this.

[5:34] He had seen all these different things happen. And the last one we saw was, of course, Mount Carmel. He was there. When he had this session where he left, ran, went up, he never quite got back to the same level that he had been before.

[5:55] But he still had things to do. And God still had things for him to do. And God still used him. And then God had a ministry of confrontation with him as well.

[6:07] Look at verse 9. We've read the other ones. Look at verse 9 of chapter 19. It says, And he came thither unto a cave and lodged there. And, behold, the word of the Lord came to him.

[6:19] And he said unto him, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts. For the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, slain thy prophets with a sword.

[6:33] And I, even I only, am left. And they seek my life to take it away. What are you doing here, Elijah? Elijah? Why are you here?

[6:43] Remember God had given him the rest? God had given him the food. And what did he do? He gave him the food so he could go for 40 days and get to Mount Horeb. Talks about that back in verse 8.

[6:56] God has a challenge for him. He arrives there at Mount Horeb. He goes into a cave. You know, it's a place, Mount Horeb is a significant place for the children of Israel.

[7:10] Anybody know what happened at Mount Horeb? A couple of different things happened there. Remember the burning bush? That took place there. Ten Commandments.

[7:22] Sound familiar? They were given there. So this is a significant place. And so Elijah goes there. But is that where God wanted him? So God kind of challenges him.

[7:35] He says, look, you're here. But is this really where you belong? He says, what doest thou here, Elijah? He's asking him a question. Why are you here?

[7:46] What is this? You know, what are you doing in a cave inside of Mount Horeb? So, you know, you just had the thing at Mount Carmel where people repented and turned back to me.

[8:01] Shouldn't there be somebody there preaching to them, teaching them how they're supposed to live their lives, what they're supposed to do? You know, he said, I didn't call you to run to a cave and hide.

[8:13] I know Jezebel put a thing out about you dying and everything, but haven't I taken care of you? Haven't I watched over you? You know, I called you to stand before kings and before false prophets, and you have done that.

[8:29] He says, I've called you to be an example. What are you doing here? Why are you here? You know, think about that for a second. He's calling Elijah to examine his life.

[8:42] Elijah, you're doing things, but are you doing what I called you to do? Are you doing what I want you to do? You've got a plan in mind for yourself, but is it my plan?

[8:56] You know, we need to kind of look at our lives and say, okay, God, what is it you have for us? What do you want us to do? You know, Elijah's kind of, if you read through that, especially verse 10 there, and then verse 14 is almost going to be a repeat of verse 10.

[9:11] It's, he's kind of whining. I'm the only one here. I'm the only one who cares. I'm the only one who's, you know, but if you're going to whine, whine to the Lord.

[9:24] Don't whine to other people. They don't want to hear it. They didn't. It just kind of drives them crazy. So God is, what are you doing here? I didn't save you to be here in this condition.

[9:38] I didn't call you to do these sort of things. I called you to serve me. What are you doing here? It makes it so we need to stop and think.

[9:50] What is it God has for us, and what does he want us to do? You look at it, like I said, up to this point, God has not gone after him and been harsh with him.

[10:04] But now he's like, what are you doing here? Revelation 3.19 says, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent.

[10:14] So God's going to give him a command. Look at verse 11, the beginning of verse 11. And he said, Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord.

[10:26] Stop there. He gives him a command. Go forth and stand before me. Go forth and stand before God. What's he want from Elijah?

[10:39] He wants him to be like he had been, total surrender. I will do whatever God. You think of how this whole thing that we've been doing, how it started.

[10:50] Elijah, I want you to go to Ahab and tell him it's not going to rain. Well, Elijah up at that point hadn't seen a body raised from the dead. He hadn't seen fire come down from heaven.

[11:01] He hadn't seen, you know, all these different things. And he goes and does it. God said, I want you to get back to that. Will you just trust me? No matter what I say, just trust me.

[11:12] And, you know, we kind of need to look at our lives. Do we trust him like that? You know, are we fully surrendered to what he has for us today? I thought it was interesting that I was reading some about this.

[11:29] He said, did you know that your problems aren't your problem? Did you know that your trials aren't your problem either? Did you know that your depression, your discouragement, your defeat aren't your problem?

[11:41] Did you know that even your sins aren't really your problem? He says, when we have problems in life, whether they be spiritual, material, or emotional, the root of the problem is that something in our eyes has become larger than God.

[12:04] Something in our lives has become larger than God. We see things out there and we say, I don't think God can handle that. I don't think God's got this.

[12:16] I'm not sure I can handle what's coming and what's going on. And God says, but I can. Trust me. And so Elijah had to get back to that place where he's looking at things.

[12:30] You know, I think, I always think of the example of Peter in the getting out of the boat. You all know the story.

[12:42] What happened? Looking at Jesus, not a problem. Take your eyes off of Jesus, big problem. And same thing here. Elijah had taken his eyes off of God and what he had done.

[12:55] I mean, you think about that for a second. The ravens, who pick and eat food for themselves all the time, are bringing him food. You know, the barrel of meal and the cruise of oil, never running out.

[13:11] It's like a two-year period and it never runs out. Body raised from the dead. Fire coming down from heaven. God is taking care of everything for him, but he takes his eyes off of God when Jezebel says, by this time tomorrow, you're going to be dead.

[13:31] And he lost it. He took his eyes off of God. We need to make sure we keep our eyes on him. Hebrews 12, 2. Looking unto Jesus.

[13:42] Hmm. Good verse. I wonder if I've heard that before. And then there's a confrontation. God's going to kind of confront him. Look at the end of verse 11 there.

[13:53] He says, And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and break in pieces the rocks before the Lord. But the Lord was not in the wind.

[14:06] And after the wind, an earthquake. But the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire. But the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, a still, small voice.

[14:18] And so it was so when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entering in of the cave. And behold, there came a voice unto him that said, What doest thou hear, Elijah?

[14:34] Did he learn anything? Look at verse 14. And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts, because the children of Israel have forsaken their covenant, thrown down thine altars, slain thy prophets with a sword.

[14:48] And I, even I only, am left. And they seek my life to take it away. Sometimes we're a little thick. Aren't we? Sometimes it's like, you know.

[15:02] So here's Elijah. God's showing him all these things. God speaks to him in a still, small voice. And he's still not quite getting it. You know, he takes and does all these spectacular things.

[15:16] You know, the winds and the earthquake and the fire and all these things. And Elijah had become used to things like that. He'd become used to the spectacular.

[15:31] You know, God sending fire down from heaven after a 63-word prayer. Sending it on an altar that had been laid out with all the stuff and then drowned 12 barrels of water on top of that altar before the fire came down.

[15:47] One of my big questions I want to find out someday, where'd the water come from? They just had three and a half years of drought. Where'd the water come from? But they put 12 barrels of water on top of that.

[16:01] And God sends down fire and burns up everything. It says he even burned up the dust, if you go back and read that passage in chapter 18. See, Elijah's used to the remarkable, the spectacular.

[16:15] But where did you find God? In a still, small voice. Too many of our churches today, I think, are looking for the spectacular.

[16:30] But we need to take time to just look at the still, small voice. When a child, I've learned that when a child is screaming, or somebody's screaming and throwing a temper of cancer, the only way to get their attention is a small voice.

[16:51] Because then they have to be quiet in order to listen to what's being said. So maybe I got it from there. Yep. Yep. Yep.

[17:04] We need to stop all the, and just listen to what God has to say to us. What is it he wants us to hear?

[17:14] What is it he's trying to tell us? You know, we're guilty of the same things. We're trying to just look for all this big stuff. And he says, no, look for me in a still, small voice.

[17:27] As God speaks and grows an individual, his glory is revealed that way. I mean, he revealed his glory by doing all those things.

[17:39] But did Elijah actually understand it until God said, Elijah, what are you doing here? Then Elijah kind of is like, oh, maybe I should be somewhere else.

[17:52] In a few minutes, he gets there. You know, God said over in Ephesians chapter 4, you know, he talks about he's given some apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastor teachers and all that.

[18:07] And one of the things that those guys are supposed to do in Ephesians 4.13 says this, What is it we're shooting for?

[18:27] To do all these marvelous, wonderful things or to have the fullness of Christ in our lives? In order to have the fullness of Christ in our life, we have to listen for that still, small voice.

[18:43] You know, when you want to talk about miracles, you know, there's all kinds of miracles in the Bible. There's all kinds of things that happen. And even today, we see different things that God can do.

[18:54] But if you want to talk about a miracle, take a sinner. Save him by God's grace and help him to become Christ-like in the way he lives his life.

[19:10] That's a miracle. There's some guys at the jail, you know, seeing those guys come to know Christ and then have their lives transformed by becoming more and more Christ-like as they grow.

[19:29] Those are miracles. It doesn't have to be the big and the spectacular. It's still a small voice. God loves you. He died for you.

[19:40] He rose again for you. That's a miracle. You want to see something? Okay. All right. We're going to stop there for tonight.

[19:52] Think about it. I'm looking for a miracle. What am I looking for? I'm looking for that still, small voice of God coming and working on my heart and my life.

[20:02]  Thank you.