Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20071021.htm

BIOGRAPHIES OF BIBLE SAINTS
II. Elijah - Trusting God In A Faithless Generation
A. Growing In Inner Stability Amid An Insecure Generation
(1 Kings 16:29-17:24)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Due to its departure from God and His ways, our world experiences tremendous unrest and insecurity (as follows):

(1) The October 15, 2007 issue of USA TODAY ran an article titled, "Banks pool billions to stem credit crisis" by Kathy Chu and Greg Farrell. Large banks like Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America were leading other banks to create a fund "that's likely to back $75 billion to $100 billion in mortgage and other securities to try to prevent the credit crisis from damaging the broader economy . . . "

Reporters claim the crisis arose when buyers wanted to own a home regardless what kind of loan they obtained, and when lenders were just as greedy for a fast profit in loaning out money using risky mortgages. Now all that avarice has come to threaten our economy!

(2) The same newspaper ran an article on how the rise in gold prices is fueling tragic deaths in South African gold mines. Pirate miners are working abandoned mine shafts deep in the earth to pull out gold in dangerous conditions that both kill them and make nearby shafts mined by legal miners unsafe! The underworld transports the illegally mined gold to Switzerland where it ends up on the open market, and that in turn fuels even more illegal mining and deaths!

(3) As I drove to the Church to prepare this sermon, I heard a caller on Brad Davis' radio show, "The Talk of Connecticut" on am 610 complain how the State of Connecticut uses $60,000 a year of tax payer money to support each prisoner on death row. Due to the long appeals process and a reluctance to execute anyone via the ideologies of the lawyers involved, the caller wanted to know why it costs the State as much to support a convict on death as it does to raise a law-abiding family of four on the outside!

Brad's reply was, "Welcome to the State of Connecticut!"

In abandoning God's Biblical directives for a speedy, fair trial and execution of those who are guilty, high costs with its resulting unrest on the part of tax payers plagues the State's death row program!



So, in view of the unrest and insecurity that has risen in our world today due to man's departure from God, HOW may WE live in SECURITY and JOY in our FAITH in the LORD?!"



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "With the great INSECURITY that exists in our world due to its departure from God and His righteousness, HOW can the believer in Christ stay STABLE and JOYFUL in his WALK with the Lord?!"
  1. When Elijah began his prophetic ministry in 1 Kings 17:1, Israel experienced tragic insecurity in having turned from God:
    1. Israel's king Ahab married Jezebel, princess of Ethbaal, king of Sidon, and they both worshipped her father's god, Baal, 1 Kings 16:29-33.
    2. So strong was Israel's disregard for God in that era that Hiel at a tragically high price rebuilt Jericho in defiance of God's curse, 16:34:
      1. After Jericho's fall, Joshua had put a divine curse on anyone who rebuilt the city: his firstborn son would die if he laid the foundation and his youngest son would die if he set up the gates, Joshua 6:26.
      2. So, either in unbelieving defiance of the curse or in ignorance, in Ahab's evil reign, one of his subjects, Hiel of Bethel, rebuilt Jericho at the loss of his oldest and youngest sons, 1 Kings 16:34!
  2. In SHARP CONTRAST to Israel's apostasy and loss of blessing, Elijah and the widow of Zarephath knew God's BLESSING:
    1. To expose the futility of Ahab's pagan Baal worship, God's prophet Elijah prayed that it might not rain for 3 1/2 years, and told king Ahab it would not rain until he said so, James 5:17; 1 Kings 17:1:
      1. Elijah prayed for a severe drought (James 5:17) and then told Ahab that it would not rain until God said so by his word, 1 Kings 17:1.
      2. This announcement directly challenged Ahab's Baal beliefs:
        1. The Canaanite form of Baalism Ahab adopted from Jezebel held that Baal, god of thunder, lightening and storms, gave rain and fertility in his endless struggle against Mot, the god of death and "adversity", Merrill F. Unger, Arch. and the O. T., 1973, p. 172.
        2. So, for Elijah to tell Ahab that there would be no rain or even dew until he as God's prophet said so was to challenge Ahab's Baal god and theology with Scripture's God and theology!
    2. For faithfulness in standing for God and His true theology, the Lord developed Elijah's faith in Him with resulting great blessing, leading to stability and blessing for him and those who heeded him, 17:2-24:
      1. God grew Elijah's faith for blessing and stability, 1 Kings 17:2-6:
        1. He led Elijah to hide from Ahab by the Brook Cherith, 17:3.
        2. There, for 180 days, God as the Creator in vast superiority to Baal twice-a-day used ravens to bring Elijah bread and meat against the raven's natural tendencies to neglect its own young and to prefer rodents, insects and dead flesh instead, 1 Kings 17:4b, 6; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 523-524; Comp. Ency. , 1973 ed., v. XVII, p. 97; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to 1 Kings 18:1
        3. This supernatural supply of food taught Elijah to trust God would provide for his need for water once the natural water supply of the brook was gone due to the drought, all to build his faith that God would supply water when the brook dried up!
      2. God further blessed and developed Elijah's faith and similarly ministered to the widow of Zarephath and her son, 17:7-24:
        1. After the brook dried up, God told Elijah to go to Zarephath to stay with a widow there who would feed him, 1 Kings 17:7-9.
        2. This was a greater test of Elijah's faith: Zarephath was close to Sidon, the home of Jezebel, 1 Kings 17:9a; 16:31b; Elijah was thus called to trust God would protect him in Jezebel's territory!
        3. Yet, knowing God had faithfully, supernaturally fed him via ravens at the brook, Elijah in faith went to Zarephath, 17:10a.
        4. There in Zarephath, he directed the widow to feed him first in faith that God would afterward supernaturally supply food for her and her son all during the famine, 1 Kings 17:10b-14. As she obeyed, God kept resupplying their meal and oil, 17:15-16.
        5. Building their faith even more, God allowed the widow's son to die, 17:17. Trusting God's initial word to supply food for all 3 until the drought ceased (17:13-14), meaning God planned for the child to live at least until the drought ended, Elijah trusted God to resurrect the boy in faith as history's first resurrection, a massive critique on Baalism that held Baal was the god of life versus death, 1 Kings 17:18-23; Ibid., Unger. The widow thus stated her faith that Elijah was a man of God, and that the word he spoke was God's truth, 1 Kings 17:24!
Application: (1) May we trust in Christ as Savior from sin to have eternal life, John 3:16. (2) Then, opposite the world's insecurity in its apostasy, may we (a) HEED God's leading on WHAT to DO in life and service, and (b) trust Him to PROVIDE all we need to FULFILL that calling (as He directed Elijah and the widow of Zarephath) (c) that we might be blessed even in a troubled era!

Lesson: For their TRUST in God, He SUPPLIED all they needed and BUILT the faith of Elijah and the widow of Zarephath in blessing amid the anxious, painful lack of the pagan generation around them!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

After our morning service last week, a Church member said he enjoyed my reports on God's work in my life in the sermon illustrations as they encourage him in his walk. So, here are some testimonies of God's involvement this past week that relate to this message:

(1) I was wondering last Sunday morning what God would have me expound this Sunday since we were then finishing 1 Corinthians. Well, Sunday evening, my wife asked about a need she saw in our Church. As I began to reply, I noticed my explanation fit Elijah's life, and recalled I had once considered doing a study on Elijah, so I told her, "This means God wants me to start a study on Elijah next week!"

(2) The next day, Monday, I went to the Torrington cancer center for treatment regarding my non cancerous hemachromatosis, and one of our Church members came up to me! She was afraid to see me there, and asked what was wrong! She was absent due to her illness the Sundays I had told the Church about it, so I explained it to her! Her relief that my condition was easily treatable in view of her health needs left me feeling very humbled to say the least!

Later, as I was being prepped, she was assigned to a chair across from me, and she chuckled when our eyes met! Then, the nurse who gave the phlebotomy asked what I did for a living, and, when I told her, she revealed her pastor was Pastor Prause of Millerton, New York -- you recall we once had him as a Good Friday speaker! At that point, I felt spoiled: God had sent along His people to signal He would be with me in my treatments so I could do His will in the pastorate like He once sent the ravens to feed Elijah and indicate He would meet his water needs when the brook dried so that he could fulfill his ministry! I marveled that such blessing could exist in our troubled world today!

(3) The Church copy machine would not work on Tuesday, so I called the repair service, expecting its technician to tell me that our old machine would finally no longer work! Yet, the problem was just a torn seal! He replaced it, and now you can hold a copy of this sermon!

(4) Regardless of last week's market volatility, the funds God is currently leading me and my wife to use in our retirement portfolio still rose, and that portfolio has done very well this year! Again, God has indicated He will meet our livelihood needs as He did Elijah's!

So, like Elijah, may we TRUST God and DO His will to see Him BLESS in the MIDST of an APOSTATE, TROUBLED era!