Steven Furtick - The Drop Zone (03/22/2018)
In this powerful Mother's Day message from 1 Kings 19:2-5, Pastor Steven Furtick examines Elijah's collapse under a broom bush after his greatest victory, where exhaustion, disappointment, and isolation led him to pray for death. Yet God met him there with provision—an angel bringing food—showing that the drop zone of our deepest weakness becomes the place of divine supply and strength when we surrender and return to our calling, reminding us that God's provision often comes closest when we've had enough and collapsed in the wilderness.
Elijah's Unexpected Collapse
Well, let's go to the Scriptures now. First Kings chapter 19 verse 2 through 5 contains my assignment. Hey, let's do this in the message translation of the Bible. I think it's very vivid how Eugene Peterson translated this passage.
How many are excited that there is a cloud heavy with blessing hanging over your life? We rejoice today for the reign of God's presence in our life and the promise of things to come. And so we're standing on the foundation of his faithfulness and we are declaring that he is with us in every season of our lives. Amen.
And so as we declare that, we want to go right here to First Kings 19. I am switching translations on my YouVersion Bible app. Thank you, Pastor Craig Groeschel and Bobby Grunewald and Life.Church for creating this wonderful application where I can stall while I tell it I will update later and read as follows.
Let's go to verse 3. First Kings 19. No, it didn't work. Hang on a second. Y'all need to fix this app, Pastor Craig. No, the app is fine. It's a user error. Okay, here we go.
You ready? Say, I'm ready. Ask your neighbor, you ready? Tell them I'm ready. Now compliment them on something they're wearing. Your neighbor. All right.
Where'd it go? Where'd it go? Coming up on the screen. When Elijah saw how things were, he ran for dear life to Beersheba, far south of Judah. Huh? Elijah? Must be talking about Jonah. I know Elijah's not going to run. Especially with revival breaking out in that nation.
But no, he did. He did. Strong faith doesn't preclude weak moments. Weak moments don't preclude strong faith. Sometimes the two have to walk side by side. And he is running. Forrest Gump has nothing on this prophet. Running.
Like we talked about last week, he's running from the rain. Now his faith released the rain. And just as the nation is coming out of a drought, he's entering into one. It's not the kind you can see. It's not that he's having to sell stuff on eBay to pay the light bill. It's not that kind of drought anymore.
It is that inner wilderness that many of us live in and nobody can see it. And since they can see it, they sometimes can't encourage us in it. Because we're dealing with it all alone. And Elijah is like, not just going around the corner because he just received a death threat from Jezebel.
Who he knows good and well can't kill him because he just destroyed all of her prophets and the gods that she swears by on a mountain called Carmel. But the one who had the faith to climb to Mount Carmel is now starting to cave. His faith is starting to cave. His courage, his emotional resolve is starting to implode.
And it says that not only did he run, but he left his young servant there in Beersheba. And then he went on into the desert. Another day's journey. He came to a lone broom bush and collapsed in its shade. Wanting in the worst way to be done with it all to just die.
For some reason, this seemed like an appropriate Mother's Day scripture to me. You have to forgive me. I have a bleak view of parenthood. But listen to what he said. Doesn't this sound like something a mom would say at some point? Enough of this, God!
Oh, y'all are gonna be like that today. Like you're always baking brownies. Your kids always leave with matching socks. Get out of my face. Because sometimes you hit a place. Come on. A place where you have had enough and your kids know and they hide.
It's like we have pushed the woman too far. Amen. So, it's actually a very serious scripture. I'm just trying to bring hopefully a little lift to it as we get into it today.
But he has come to this place called enough. Enough. I've had enough. Listen how bad it is. Take my life. I'm ready to join my ancestors in the grave.
Exhausted. He fell asleep under the lone broom bush. And suddenly an angel shook him awake. I'm gonna try to do that today, okay? And said, get up and eat.
I want to minister to you for a few moments on this very special Mother's Day at Elevation Church. And my subject is the drop zone. The drop zone.
Father, bless your word. Open hearts to hear it in Jesus' name. Amen. Touch somebody and say, God's trying to hook you up. And then take a seat, please.
The Drop Zone Revelation
Where I first heard this term drop zone was from my brother. My brother serves in the United States Air Force. Oh, you can clap for that. Yeah, it takes a lot of pressure off of me because I want my mom to be proud of her children. And she only has two. And so if I screw it up, she can always say, but I have a son in the Air Force.
And so, you know, so that's kind of cool. I never really understood what he did. He's been in the Air Force for like 15 years or so like that. And he tries to explain what he does. I know it has something to do with an airplane called the C-130. Yeah!
And he drops stuff. And he was telling me about it one day. It's not that I don't care about what he does. It's just that sometimes I don't understand what he's trying to tell me because he's bad at communication.
And he was telling me one thing that they did, which again, it's kind of, I don't know, it makes me feel like maybe what I do isn't that important because he was telling me about this one mission and he got my attention.
He was saying that they dropped for Operation Christmas Drop. They flew out and went to like the remotest part of the earth or something like that. The Micronesian Islands. Did I say that correctly? Is that what it's called? I don't know. Let's pretend like it is all together, okay? Since none of us know, we'll be collectively ignorant.
And he said they just dropped stuff for people who would have never received anything for Christmas otherwise. And I was like, man, that's cool. You did that? And he's like, yeah.
And he explained it to me. He said they had to get down really low. Like, I think he said 300 feet, which I didn't even know you could go down that low unless you were landing. But I don't know anything. So what do I know?
And he said they have to first find it. And he said we have to find the drop zone. Now, when he said drop zone, my mind went to preaching. Because, again, I've never done anything that cool in my life.
I mean, he told me he's dropped Humvees off of the airplane. He's a crew member on that plane, the C-130. He said that they have dropped refrigerators with concrete for target practice. Big, heavy refrigerators off the plane.
I've never done anything like that in my life. So he's telling me about all these airdrops. And I'm like, well, yeah, well, I dropped wisdom. So what? You dropped boats? I dropped truth bombs. Amen.
He's proud of me, Mom! Mama! And he's telling me all these things. So I'm thinking with my preacher's mind, I'm like, drop zone. The term just got my attention.
And I was thinking about that in a preacherly way. I was thinking about that as it relates to God's provision in our life. And, you know, isn't it cool how sometimes God will get you what you need where you are?
That's how I was thinking about it. Because, yeah, for me, I feel like the Word of God is what I live off of. And it is amazing to me how many times in my life, even when I have felt so remote from God.
I know you've never been distant from God. You stay close to him through daily devotion and prayer, meditation, fasting, and living a righteous life. But sometimes, like me and Elijah, like these kinds of people, we run to the Micronesian islands, spiritually speaking now.
And how does God find us? Like, how does he locate us? And I know he's God and he's everywhere. And I was thinking about all of the ways that God provided for Elijah. It just got me kind of grateful today, because if you will be honest, you will admit that there were times that God provided for you when you were not even looking for him to parachute into your situation.
I mean, that's the honest truth. That's the honest truth. And the passage got my attention in first Kings, because on the surface, I would assume that if Elijah is supposed to be prophesying in a certain place and he leaves that place that, well, I always heard where God guides, he provides.
And that has been the case for Elijah up until this point. He was guided by God to Ahab, where he declared a drought over the land of Israel, and God directed him, or you could say guided him to the Kerith ravine. Look this up in your Bible. Are you going to take any notes or not? You're just going to sit there looking all pretty Mother's Day.
All right. This is first King 17. God said, I have some birds that I have directed to drop off the supplies that you need so you can live through the famine. Because even though the land is subject to famine, I will not allow my children to go without. I will provide for you in the worst situations. I will provide for you.
Maybe not through who you expected me to provide through, but I will provide. That's my name, Jehovah Jireh. Look up and see it. Here comes the drought. Does somebody say, I got the drought? And no matter what happens around me, I can always be confident in the Spirit of God, which is my supply. I got the drought.
So then when the birds got done dropping off food for Elijah, then there was this woman and she was about to drop dead of hunger. And because there had not been a drop of rain in the land because Elijah called for a drought. And yet God sent the prophet to drop off something for her.
But she didn't know that because she was about to drop. And so you've got this exchange happening. Like Carl Lentz, one time in New York City, he just stopped by this weird place in the middle of the city and picked up something somebody had left for him.
And I said, what was that all about, man? Was that legal, what you just did? And he said, yeah, it's our drop spot. I grew up in Monk's Corner. We didn't have drop spots in Monk's Corner. But he told me there are certain places in the city where he has arranged it, where it's hidden, where you don't know unless you know.
And God has those places. But that's not really what I want to preach about today or intend to preach about today. I want to use it in a little different sense. I want to talk about that other kind of drop.
And I hope you'll go here with me because, you know, church people like to come into church in a state of delusion and denial. And sometimes when you get to this point, everybody looks like you're talking about somebody that they knew once in fifth grade.
And look at how it happened for Elijah. He came to a lone broom bush and collapsed. He dropped. What could drop a man of God who was so great that he dropped 850 false prophets on Mount Carmel?
What could drop a prophet so powerful in word and in deed that when he said, not a drop until I say so, it didn't rain for three years? You can't even control your kitchen sink that well. And he drops. Collapses.
The traditional interpretation is that he was afraid. Now, certain English translations of the Bible do read that way, but it's an interesting thing. You know how we tend to overgeneralize? He just up and left his wife. He slept with this other girl. I guess it was a midlife crisis.
But that's just an overgeneralization of something that was probably accumulating for a long time. The truth is you have no idea why he really ran. You don't know what happened in his childhood. You don't know how well he was doing to even make it through the first 20 years of marriage.
So all you see is he drops. And when they go to chronicle Elijah's life, to me, it's unfortunate that all we get is Elijah was afraid and ran for his life and collapsed in the shade because there was a whole lot more going on than that.
I mean, what about all of those days that he survived the drought living as a refugee on the run? Not because he disobeyed God, that's one thing, but because he obeyed God. We hear a lot about the consequences of disobedience, but sometimes obedience has consequences as well.
Sometimes following God will lead you straight into a famine, as was the case for Elijah. So it caused me to go back a little bit and just study why he really dropped. I discovered four factors that I want to share with you and which one is for you. You'll know it because I have a clear assignment today to drop this word on somebody who is starting to cave in your faith.
Maybe you already have. Maybe the whole thing of you being here at church is external, internally. Can I drop this? Can I drop it like this? Like it's the Word of God?
Factors Leading to the Drop
So, the first thing I thought about was Elijah's disappointment. Usually, when we talk about disappointment, we talk about the disappointment of defeat. We would expect Elijah to run, of course, if he had stood up on Mount Carmel, called fire from heaven, and God said, not today, buddy.
We would have expected for Elijah to drop. It's intuitive that he would collapse and that his faith would cave and that his courage would go away if he had stood up in front of the nation and declared war on the false prophets of Baal.
And when they called on Baal, Baal showed up, did a dance in making rain. You would run. Then you would run. If you were taunting false gods and they turned out to be true, I mean, you would run.
And sometimes we assume that the only disappointed people in the world are the ones who don't have much money or didn't get a husband. But some of the most disappointed people in the church are not single. They cannot nod in affirmation with this part of my sermon.
But some of the most disappointed people in this church are not the ones who are waiting. It's the ones who are waking up next to something. There's a Bible story where Jacob was trying to marry one woman and he woke up next to another.
And you know, a lot of marriages feel like that. He woke up the next morning and was like, who are you? Now, I want to go on record and say this. I love my kids. Now that we got that out of the way.
I was not prepared to be a parent. I had a good mom, good dad, a great mom and a good dad. Amen. And that's not what I mean by it. I mean, just like, I think I just had realistic expectations, honestly. Unlike Holly.
Now, again, for the record, Holly is a much better parent than I will ever be, as well as a much better human being than I will ever be. She is better at every single aspect of parenting than I could ever hope to be. Now that we've gotten that out of the way.
There's one way in which I was prepared for parenting that Holly wasn't. I don't know where she got her blueprint for what a baby was going to be like. But when Elijah was born, yes, you son. Not that you were a disappointment. You have exceeded our every expectation thus far.
Holly had this one-year period of trying to reconcile the reality of a baby with the imagination of a baby. The reality of motherhood... I see couples fighting right now while I'm preaching. I just see all kinds of trouble.
Because the advantage I had over Holly was I expected it to suck. I was like, this is exactly why I told you that we should wait 70 years and then have a baby like Abraham and Sarah in their old age and really trust God. We should have done this later.
Because I knew that the moment we did this we would no longer have a life. What were you expecting? Just having fun. It's an interesting question. Who drew your blueprint?
What I think we see with Elijah in 1 Kings chapter 19 is someone who expected the rain and not the resistance. Who expected that when the drought was over that the battle would be over as well.
But then he found out something that you have to learn in life is that more blessings create more battles. More blessings create more battles. Do you remember when the church was praying this for the churchy people? God, enlarge my territory.
Yeah, that's more grass to cut and property taxes to pay. It all gets bigger. All of it. And so for me, I was like, what did you expect? Like, that's what happened to John the Baptist.
Now, Jesus was sending a message to John the Baptist and he was comparing John the Baptist to Elijah the prophet. One thing they both had in common is that they had a blueprint of what the kingdom of God would look like that did not match the reality of what it looked like once God started establishing it in his way.
So John the Baptist has preached his way into prison. Jesus is moving forward in the purpose of God. John sends a messenger to ask him, are you the one or should we expect another? Is this how it's going to be? Is this really what serving God feels like? Is this what it really means to be a Christian? Is this how it's going to be for the rest of my life? Am I going to have to struggle like this forever? Am I going to have to hurt like this forever? Is it really going to be this hard?
Look what Jesus said. Go tell John. This is Matthew 11. Go tell John. Matthew 11. The blind see. The lame walk. Lepers are cleansed. The deaf hear. The dead are raised. The wretched of the earth will learn that God is on their side.
That's good, right? It depends on your perspective. John wasn't expecting all of that. When he preached, he preached the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent. I woke you up, didn't I? You weren't expecting that. The explosive on the mic.
Watch what Jesus said. Because John was expecting judgment, and Jesus came and brought mercy. His blueprint of the kingdom of God is now he's separating the chaff from the wheat, and it's on the winnowing floor, and he's about to burn y'all up.
And Jesus said, be healed. What were you expecting? That's what Jesus asked. What were you expecting? Is this what you were expecting? Then count yourself most blessed.
Disappointments and expectations are correlated in such a way that if you expect the wrong thing, a lot of the times that we're disappointed, it's because we went in delusional.
How could we not when we watch movies all the time that end at the wedding, that end with the kiss, and show us nothing of the conflict? How can a teenager grow up with a healthy view of sexuality when the blueprint of sexuality is we tear each other's clothes off the first night, and that's passion. When that's not passion.
What that's called is hormonal realities that need to be brought in subjection, or you will find yourself... I don't feel like preaching on Mother's Day, God. They're just going to look at me. But I was talking about disappointment.
And for Elijah now, there is the reconciliation between how he thought it would be and how it was. You have to imagine that for three years while he's running in the drought and waiting for God to give him the word to release the rain, that he's imagining that when the rain finally comes, the nation will turn back to God.
When the rain finally comes, then they will repent. When it is finally proven to be true that you are God, then the nation's hearts will be turned back to you. Remember, Elijah's goal was never really rain. It was repentance.
When the rain came and the first drop fell, with it fell the hope that maybe now the nation will turn back to God. So when Jezebel, who was running the nation, when Jezebel, who had promoted the worship of false gods, sent word to Elijah, I'm going to kill you.
I believe his greatest fear was not that he would die, but that nothing would change. That's when it gets hard. It's not hard to sacrifice when you see the significance of it. What's difficult is when you gave it all you had and nobody said thank you.
That's the disappointment. It's when you raised your children right. I did not raise them to act this way. How am I down here at this school again? Who taught them this? It wasn't me.
See, it's not the dysfunction because if I hadn't raised them right, I wouldn't be disappointed. It's the fact that I did everything I could to show them how to act. And here we are.
And Elijah said, it's enough. I'm done. I'm out. I can't. You can have it. You can have it. I don't want this responsibility anymore. Oh, the responsibility that used to feel like a privilege.
That's my second word. Responsibility. He said, I don't want this anymore. I don't want this anymore. I'm tired of being unique. I'm tired of being different. I'm tired of fighting against the culture and trying to raise my kids in a godly way when all it does is make them hate me.
I'm sick of this. Oh, I'm going to preach to the three real people, not the little angelic Christians who came in here like seraphim floating above the trouble. I'm talking about the people that know that the blessing of God gets heavy sometimes.
Hey, hey, hey, the parents that never complain about being parents aren't doing it right. They gave up. It's only the one who gave it all that they had that can really know how much it costs.
So I'm just going to break this down because I've never been a mother, so I can't talk about it like I want to talk about it, but I have been a preacher, and it is a privilege to preach God's Word.
Don't clap for that. You don't need to. It's a privilege. Oh, it's a privilege. It's a great privilege, and I'm sure Elijah felt that way too.
You know what I can't find in the whole Scripture of Elijah, because I've been studying him now for years, probably the Bible character I've preached the most sermons on, I can't find one time that God gets mad at him.
And here he is writing a suicide note when he should be celebrating. And what does God do? Because you have this idea that if you really told God and got honest with God about how things were, that he would strike you down.
According to this story, when prophets run from God and have the honesty to open up and say, here's where I am and here's how I feel, he puts Krispy Kreme donuts beside their head.
Can I fix this Scripture like I want to fix it for Mother's Day? What do you want? Cream filled? Original glazed?
Now I want you to notice this. Up until this point, God has provided for Elijah everywhere that God has sent Elijah. But now Elijah is going somewhere that God didn't send him and he still provides.
Can we take 23 seconds and praise God for the provision we did not earn, for the mercy we did not deserve? Yeah. That kind of grace, that kind of God.
Micronesian Island mercy. I said it wrong, didn't I? I don't care. God knows what I'm trying to say and so do you. I'm trying to say that he collapsed and there at the place of his fainting in the shade of the broom tree, which he never should have seen, away from his post, there he wakes and finds bread beside him so that he can continue the journey.
Being a preacher is a privilege, but I'd be lying to say that there are not times. Oh man, how much should I tell them, Lord? If I tell them too much, they won't respect me anymore. If I don't tell them enough, they won't relate with me.
If I preach too hard, they'll think I don't love them. If I don't preach hard enough, they won't have any change in their life, because it'll all just be sugar-coated nonsense.
The difference between me and you is you don't know what I meant to say when I get up here. You don't have the blueprint. Some people would say, that was a great sermon. Meanwhile, I'm telling God to take my life.
I mean, I don't want to die, but I don't want to preach the 1130 either. Yeah, that's somewhere between us too. Not because I don't love it. Please don't hear me. Oh, it's so hard to be a pastor. It's so hard. I'm so sorry for you. We're praying for you, Pastor.
I'm not saying I don't appreciate it. That's what I used to think. It used to make me feel bad because I would feel like the fact that I didn't want to do it anymore was because I didn't appreciate the opportunity to do it.
Okay, we're going to break down this wall for a minute where y'all are looking at me like I'm the only one. How many parents have ever had a fantasy of just leaving? I mean, just out? Just fix your own Easy Mac? Pop your own Pop-Tarts? How about it? No note? No map?
See, y'all ain't got no kids. That's why you're not standing up. You had never been a preacher. That's why you can't relate. That's why I make Holly. I usually make her preach on Mother's Day.
She said, if you do that to me this year, I'm going to make you stay home with the kids for a weekend. I said, I'll preach. It costs you to carry something. It costs you to wear a mantle. It costs you to stay and raise those kids. It costs you to stay in the rain.
But what happens to you over time? It's not that you're not grateful and it's not that you're rebellious. That's not why you run. That's not why you run.
The reason you say I've had enough is because you don't feel like you are enough. That's why he ran. I don't know. I don't know what else to do. I called for the drought. I released the rain and nothing's changed. I'm done.
When he said, I'm done, he wasn't telling God, I don't want to do it anymore. He was saying, I don't know what else to do. He's done. I can't carry this anymore. I can't do it.
So I'm not necessarily going to leave my house. I'm not necessarily going to leave my marriage physically, but emotionally. I'm going to withdraw 15% of the time and you'll never even know I was taking my heart out of it.
One day at a time, he went into the wilderness running from the disappointment. He wasn't running from Jezebel, bro. He had the drop on Jezebel. And it's interesting to me that the most dangerous place that he could have gone was away from the one who was threatening him.
He would have been safer to walk right up in Ahab's palace and say, bring your wife out here. I want to tell her something. He would have been safer to drop a diss track on Jezebel and tell her, what? You want some too. Hashtag, hey, Jezebel.
I thought about writing a letter to Jezebel. Hey, Jezebel, you can go to…. Write down the word opposition. Because certain battles you expect to have to fight.
I went on Twitter one time…. That enough should produce tears. I went on Twitter one time and somebody said something. It was crazy. Now, please, I don't mean this to be a depressing sermon. We're just talking today, all right?
They said they hoped that I had pancreatic cancer and died a slow, painful death. So I clicked on the profile. I was like, what kind of atheist is this? Their handle had a scripture verse in it.
What was weird about that is, I expected to have to fight people who didn't know God. Why are church people some of the meanest people around? I expect to fight you if your Jersey is a different color. That's how the game goes.
But you were supposed to be blocking for me. Elijah wasn't scared of Jezebel. Let me tell you what broke his heart. Can I show you this? Go to verse 10. I think it's 1 Kings 19, 10.
When God asked him a question, it's a very strategic question, he said, What are you doing here, Elijah? By this time, Elijah has long passed through Beersheba where he left his servant.
Now the enemy has got him right where he wants him, in isolation, because the first thing the devil will do when he wants to drop you is make sure he catches you alone.
The attack will not come here in the church. He's too stupid to show up and fight you here. It will be when you leave here. It will be about 326 when you go into a good carbohydrate coma. That's when the thoughts come. That's when the fears come.
It's going to come tonight when you have nobody to talk to and nobody to message. He leads his servant, and he goes into the wilderness, and the thoughts come. He's having this conversation with a God that he can't see about an opponent that he did not expect to have to fight.
Here's why I ran. Here's why I want to quit. Here's why I dropped. Because I did my job. I was responsible. And I'm disappointed because the Israelites... Notice how he has separated himself from the very people that he was called to serve.
He's talking about them like they're a third party. He is an Israelite. Okay. The Israelites... You know how you do. Your kids... She does that to me all the time. You need to talk to your son.
I know it's not because he just mastered a new piece of piano music when she says it like that. You better talk to your son. You better talk to your people, God. You better talk to your children.
Because I did my job, and I did my best. Sometimes I talk to God like that about y'all. God, you better show these people how good I'm preaching right now. Because they don't understand what it cost me to bring them this word, and they're just looking at me. Real crazy.
I did my job. But they tore down your altars, rejected your covenants, and tried to put your prophets to death. And now I'm the only one, and they're trying to kill me too.
Now, you know that they can't kill you, or else you wouldn't have said they're trying. But it's not Jezebel you're fighting. It's not even really the Israelites. I expected to have to fight people.
I expected to have to fight for a parking space. I expected to have to fight against the corrupt world system. I expected that. What I didn't expect was the inner me to be my greatest enemy.
I'm out. I'm done. I could fight the false prophets. I could even deal with Jezebel. But I'm sick of this. I'm sick of being like this. I'm sick of thinking like this. I'm sick of pretending like this. I'm sick of telling everybody fine when I'm really frustrated.
I'm done. And he drops. And I thought I might end the sermon here. In the drop zone.
You know, it's an interesting thing. When Elijah tells God how he feels, the Spirit of God is in this place right now, and he's about to put something on a parachute and drop it right into your spirit.
Let me tell you who he's speaking to right now. The one who doesn't even want to hear it. Elijah said, I don't even want to be a mom anymore. You know, the Bible says he went and hid in a cave.
We talk a lot about man caves, but how about mom caves? I'm sick of it. I am sick of all these other moms. I'm sick of their fake Pinterest. I'm sick of all of it. I am sick of this.
Now, maybe you don't need this message today. You can either sit there judgmental or you can file it for Tuesday when you go into your own cave. I don't know what he's talking about.
God's Provision in the Wilderness
Elijah said, I'm out. God said, not so fast, because the reason you have collapsed is not because of your situation. It's because of your position. I never dropped a parachute with a refrigerator filled with concrete for target practice.
I never dropped a gift supply for somebody who never received a pair of flip flops or a pair of shorts for Christmas. I never did that. But I found on my iPhone, I found AirDrop. I found AirDrop.
Have you ever seen it? I don't use it much, but I have used it once or twice. And one thing I found out about AirDrop is when... Do you have an iPhone? Stacey, you've got an iPhone.
Now, I don't need your phone. I want mine. I've got something I want to give you from my phone to your phone. Now, we could do a couple different things. One thing we could do, I could text it to you. But what fun would that be when I have AirDrop?
Somebody shout, drop it. Because I found this thing on my phone. It says AirDrop. I found out that if our phones are close enough, and if we have a connection on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth... Come on, I'm about to breach this technology until somebody comes out of hiding.
If I've got something on my device, and you need it on your device. If I can get close enough to your device with my device. What's on my device can jump on your device. If I've got a connection.
If I come out of the cave. If I get close to the one who created me. Close to the one who called me. If I stop running and return to the place of miles. I got the drop.
God said, I'm calling you closer. I'm calling you back. This day is for reconnection. I didn't bring you here so you could sit under a broom bush and die. This is the drop zone.
Who is it for? Who is it for? Who is it for? Who is it for? Who is it for Gaston? Who is it for UC? Who is it for Blakeney? Who is it for? You're under the covers. You didn't even come to church. God had to get this message to you through an app.
But he's about to drop something in your spirit to strengthen you. My brother said they put out red flags. They put out red flags in remote locations to let me know that this is the drop zone.
They put out a red flag and we fly down close. See, that's the thing about God. He can't shout it to you. He has to get down to that 300-foot level real close where you can't hide how you really feel.
Maybe we should do today what Elijah had to do to return to the calling and return to the rain and return to the blessing of God. Look, it doesn't require a change in feelings. It's a change in focus.
You got it? I'm preaching to y'all in the back. I'm preaching to people who are too tired to stand up and say amen. This is your mail. This is your package. This is your supply. God's trying to drop it.
God told Elijah, verse 15 is so beautiful, he said, Go back the way you came. Change your position to receive the provision that is already waiting in the place where you belong.
Because I'm seated in heavenly places with Christ. I said, I'm seated in a divine position, far above rulers, far above principalities. Who am I preaching to? I'm looking in the camera. I need to know where to drop this.
So go back the way you came. Change your position. Go back to the place of your opposition. That's where your opportunity is. Did you hear me? Your greatest opportunity is in the place of your greatest opposition.
If it were not hard, it would not be worth fighting for. If it were not hard, it would not be worth surviving for. Go back. Go back. Go back to the place of your responsibility.
God told Elijah, I've already got Elisha, son of Shaphat. He's your successor. He's waiting for your mantle. You weren't supposed to do this alone to begin with.
And the reason that I let you run out of strength is so that you would be in a place of surrender and dependence. You were not supposed to do this alone. So I had to let you run all the way to the cave, all the way to the disappointment so you could get this drop.
Have you been fighting lately? Have you been fighting yourself? Stand up and raise your red flag if this message was for you. If you don't need it, sit there and receive it. But if you need it, raise your red flag.
Until I realized that the same God who had birds dropping food for Elijah at the Kerith Ravine. The same God who had supply of oil and food for Elijah at the widow's house in Sidon.
The same God who had provision waiting for Elijah in the form of wood on Mount Carmel and fire from heaven. That same God. This is what I got. The same place where the enemy is fighting you the most is the same place where God's supply will be the greatest.
Lift your hands. This is the drop zone. Lift your hands. This is the drop zone. You are not going to get it until you admit how much you need it.
Father, I thank you for the word you gave me today. I believe that it is the power of God for the salvation of those who believe. I believe that you want to change our blueprint of what a blessing looks like.
To see that it is not always in the places of our greatest joy and the feelings of elation. But sometimes when we are exhausted and have had enough, that your provision is released.
Lift those hands until your arms hurt. Lift those hands until your shoulders are sore. Lift those hands until your arms hurt. And the Ere complex conditions only. To seal the damage of the dead bureaucracy.