Derek Grier - Looking Forward
We're gonna be in 1 Kings chapter 17 and verse 1. And out of nowhere, this guy just pops up. We don't read about him anywhere else. We don't get a genealogy. He just shows up in chapter 17. And it says here "And Elijah," his name literally means Jehovah is my God. You see, it's not enough to believe in a distant God somewhere out there in the sky. But at some point you gotta learn to tap into your inner Elijah. Jehovah is my God, my God, my God, my God. Thank God for what he did for Noah. Thank God what he did for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But he's my God, too.
Psalm 46:1 says, "God is my refuge and strength". And watch this. "A very present, nearby, ready, and available help in trouble". Just because God doesn't always do things according to our plan doesn't mean he's not working all things together for good. God still knows how to make the worst things in our life work for the best things in our lives. 17:1, "And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead".
So this little background, this is all we really know about Elijah. He was from this really harsh, rugged, mountainous area east of Jordan. And you know, it was real rough and tumble. You know, it would be like our West, if you will, in the United States, you know, a couple hundred years ago. But what I wanna say here is where we come from is all part of God's preparation and all part of God's plan. You know, I learned in the hard places, nobody's gonna feel sorry for me. How many y'all learned that too? Yeah. Maybe Mama, you know, maybe auntie somewhere, but no one's gonna feel sorry for me.
But I also learned in the hard places, God is on my side. So nobody's gonna stop me, either. You hear what I'm saying? So we can learn some things in hard and tough places. Elijah said to Ahab, "As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I," what, "stand". Now, during Ahab's reign, he was probably the most wicked king in the Northern Kingdom's history. While he was reigning, he married this woman Jezebel from another kingdom. The worship of Jehovah almost became extinct. So out of the hundreds of thousands of people that lived in Israel, 1 Kings 19:18 tells us only 7,000 people were left that still worshiped the God of Israel over Baal.
Now, just so you know, we have something like 6,000 members. So 6,000 of our members, 1,000 of other, imagine that's all that worships the living God. This was the environment. But don't be afraid of being outnumbered. Few things are more fulfilling than doing what the odds say you can't do. He said, "As the Lord God of Israel lives". Now, everyone else thought God was dead. But in Elijah's life, he was very much alive. And a thousand churches may fall at my left hand, 10,000 at my right, but it shall not come near us. We're gonna continue to worship our God. He said, "As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand".
Now, what does stand mean? To maintain an upright position. So despite what was going on in his culture, what was going on in his world, Elijah still maintained an upright position before his God. And likewise, no matter what goes on in culture, what goes on in our nation, we need to continue to maintain an upright position before our God, why? Because if I continue to stand before God, I will never fall before men. And that's the same for each of us in this room. "Therefore, there shall not," so he connected this statement with his relationship with God.
In the book of James, James digs into that. And he explains it was actually Elijah's prayer life that caused the rain to stop and then the rain to come. But he said, "Because of my relationship with God before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years". Now, this was a colossal challenge to the God of the hour. Because Baal was considered the weather God. He controlled, you know, the rain, the snow, and all the rest, and you know, people can argue theology, people can argue denomination, but they can't argue results.
So what's about to happen is despite the fact that nobody knew where he came from and he might not have been the type of person you expected to walk up to the king, but despite his background, this man's about to get major results. Watch the next statement. He says, "It shall not rain. There would be no dew except," watch this, "at my word". Now, here's the question. Who does Elijah think he is? He just told the king that it would not rain until he said so. I can't explain it, but when you've really heard from God, there's a boldness that sets in. And you know, I'm not talking about being rude and being nasty, but there's a confidence that only God can give.
And I've learned it for myself, you know, no matter what other folks are doing, if you're really hearing from God, he will keep you, preserve you, and uphold you. He's that type of God. But watch this next portion. "Then the word of the Lord came to him again saying," now, God had him give this brave, this bold, heroic word. But then that same voice came to Elijah and then told him to go and hide. And you know, that would be a little upsetting me. But you know, God guides us the way he does, not because he's weak, but often because he knows who we really are and he has to protect us from ourselves.
You see, those of us that he uses greatly, he has to humble deeply. Why? Because the disease of the big head has destroyed more prophets than Ahab and Jezebel ever could. So this prophet's about to do something great. And he delivers this great word, but in the midst of all this greatness is a humbling going on. There was a pastor that said he was having the highest time in his life. I mean, you know, he was all in the ministry and everything, his ministry was taken off, and you know, his book was on the "New York Times," like number one. I mean, it was an amazing thing that God had used him to do.
But at the same time, his son was dealing with mental issues and committed suicide. And what he said was life runs on two tracks. And you know, thank God for the good things and the positive things, but also, at the same times, there's often negative things and things we don't like going on, often though to keep us humble. I'm not saying that God made that happen with this child. That's not what I'm saying. But often in life, there are things that, you know, you want to just put your chest out, but sometimes God allows some things and causes you to fight through some things just to keep you leaning.
You know, keep you humble and remind you who you need and where you came from. So he has this great word. Again, he comes into the presence of the king. People don't just get into the presence of the king. He delivers a word. But then God gives him another word. He said, "Get away from here and turn eastward". And then watch this next part. My particular personality doesn't like this next part. "And hide at the Brook Cherith which flows into the Jordan".
Now, if I was Elijah, I would be very conflicted. God, I just went to the king thinking I was Moses. Acting like my God is big enough to control the weather. But then my God tells me to hide. God, this is not a good look. God, this doesn't make sense. God, I don't like this. What type of God are you? But Deuteronomy 8:2 tells us something. It says, "And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness". So a journey that could've lasted 11 days actually lasted 40 years. So what could've been a straight line ended up being a circle. Why? Why? Why are we sometimes going around in circles?
Lord, people are watching. People are commenting. People are saying things, God. People are coming to opinions about you through my life 'cause I said I was yours. But why? But God is the type of parent that will discipline us in Walmart. He will discipline us in public. He doesn't care who's watching. Push him hard enough, you hear what I'm saying? I'm from a generation that used to do that. In fact, if your mother didn't, every other adult in the store will stare at them till they did. Different generation, different time. I'm not telling you to get arrested now. I'm just talking about my past. Yeah. But they were in this wilderness for 40 years. But watch this. Why? To humble you.
The quicker they humbled themselves, the quicker they were able to break the cycle. So the way they got out of the circles in the cycle was when they submitted to the humbling process. Let me read it again. "And you shall remember," don't forget. And there's some periods in your life you need not never, ever forget that the Lord your God, he was not absent. He wasn't asleep. He was paying very much attention. It was the Lord your God who led you all the way, those 40 years during those difficult cycles and that monotonous circle in the wilderness to humble you. You almost wanna take that out of the Bible, don't you? And to test you.
So the quicker they passed their test, the quicker they got out of their circle and their cycle. And then it adds to know, not that God didn't know, but so you can know and everyone else could see what was in your hearts. And the quicker they would check their hearts and stop blaming God, the quicker they could get out of their circle and their cycle. And some things happen to see if you'll obey. You know, I raised my dog named Max and all the rest. I think he's since gone on to be with the Lord in dog heaven somewhere. But while I was training him, I would intentionally put food right in front of him.
And I'd say, "Max, sit". And I'd stand there. I wasn't trying to be cruel. But the dog became like 60, 70 pounds, and I had, you know, little 50, 60-pound kids in the house. And I needed to make sure that he understood who the master was. He need to understand, you know, who was the alpha in the house, it wasn't him. And my dog would try to, he tried to tell me, no, I'm the boss. I'm like, "No, you're not the boss". So in training him, I put the food down, it was time to eat. And how many y'all know dogs are hungry? And that's one of his strongest impulses. And I say, "Sit and stay," and I'd stand there and watch. And it wasn't until I said release that he could eat. And if he moved, he wouldn't eat for a while.
See, all the dog lovers, I would feed him eventually. I could feel you in the room. But it's this 80-pound animal in my house, and I have children, and I needed to make sure he'd mind me. And if he wanted the benefit of this climate-controlled environment, I'm telling you, this just the way I think. Food he didn't have to hunt to get. I had to go to work to buy. How many of y'all know how expensive dog food is? All right. He was gonna learn to mind me.
And likewise, before God could entrust the Israelites with all that power, powerful, beautiful animal, he had to test whether or not they would keep his commandments or not. And the quicker they would follow God's word in all things, no matter what people said, the sooner they would get out of their cycle. "And it will be that you shall drink from the brook".
So he says to the prophet, hey, you're gonna go hide. So this was humbling. You'd expect him to say, you know, like what he said to Moses, you know, when Korah and them rose up against him, you know, if anyone rise up against you, I'm gonna cause the earth to do something it's never done. It's gonna open up and swallow your opposition. Or you know what, Elijah, I'm gonna anoint you to pick up the jaw bone of a donkey, just like Samson. And you're gonna slay them by the thousands. Or you know what, Elijah, just like Abraham, I've set aside 318 fighting men, and they're gonna fight with you in battle, but no. And there are many ways I could've imagined, you could've imagined God fixing things and changing things. And it's like, if he was the God of the Bible, wouldn't he have?
But instead of the great demonstration of power, it will be that you, I appreciate what I did with Moses, celebrate what I did with Samson, but you, thank God for what he did with others. But you shall drink from the brook. Hide by a tiny stream in a remote place by yourself until further instructions. One of the hardest tests in life is patience to wait until the right moment. And I have, I'm still in control, even though you're hiding, even though you're waiting. I'm still in control. I am still the sovereign over the universe. I am still the King. And sometimes our circumstances make it feel like God is a little weaker than he is.
And you know, we worship so strongly, but then there's an opposition, and sometimes we gotta step back and move a little bit sideways. And it could change sometimes our perspective and image of God, but he said, no, I'm still in control, but I'm gonna do it my way. And I have commanded the ravens to feed you. Now, ravens are predators. They'll eat anything dead or alive. But they are very rare birds in that when they come across a carcass or something like that, they don't immediately gorge themselves. They don't do what most birds do. They caw and invite other ravens to come that are nearby.
Also the ravens were unclean birds. This is most important. They were the least likely source God would use to feed a prophet. But God was still able to use these unclean birds for good. The moment you think you have God figured out, he will pull something new from up his sleeve. He said, and I'm still in control. I know what's happening. I have commanded the ravens. God's work done God's way will never lack God's supply. That's why I'm not worried. But watch this as we get to our focus this morning. And I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. Notice where God commanded the ravens to feed Elijah. God only promised to provide for Elijah there in the place of Elijah's obedience. Not necessarily the place of his preference, but the place of his obedience.
I'm so grateful for what God has done here. Thousands of souls have literally come to this altar. We have literally reached millions of people, if not tens of millions of people across the globe. But it's time to move from here to a new place of blessing over there. I like what some people call the 10th beatitude. Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape. If you cannot be flexible in life, move with the cloud, you will live an irritable life. So despite the fact it wasn't what he wanted, the way he wanted, he went. And he did according to the word of the Lord. It's not enough to hear it. We gotta do it. "For he went," watch this, "and stayed by the Brook Cherith".
When you stay in the place God has called there, you will have nothing to fear. I couldn't begin to tell you the numbers of times that this ministry was on the brink and most of you didn't know it. But we were at our there, so we had nothing to fear. We had moments when banks pulled out, lawyers attacked, newspapers misreported, people tried to divide us, our cities in this nation were set on fire, a pandemic set in, but we stayed the course. We held on to the reins. We wouldn't back up and we wouldn't let go. From the bottom to the top, now we're here. "For he went and stayed". And those of us that stayed with the process, those of us who have stuck with the Lord's voice to you when he called you to this house and made you a part of this people, "For he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith which flows into the Jordan".
Now, what the Bible is saying here, the brook was going somewhere. It might not've looked like it at first to Elijah, but the brook was going somewhere. It was just a place of small beginnings. And the Bible says never, don't despise the day of small beginnings, because everything big first started small. Verse 6, "Then the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening". Now, at this time in history, it was unlike today. I have, you know, eggs for breakfast, and I might have a burger for lunch, and then I have more meat for dinner. But royalty only ate meat daily. The poor, they would have bread. But when Elijah obeyed, he ate like a king. You see, when you're in that place that God has appointed for you, there'll be provision that doesn't make sense.