Sermon: Never Run Dry

Transcription

1 Sermon: Never Run Dry Never Run Dry 1 Kings 17:1-16 Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives the God I serve there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word! 2 Then the Lord said to Elijah, 3 Go to the east and hide by Kerith Brook, near where it enters the Jordan River. 4 Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to bring you food. 5 So Elijah did as the Lord told him and camped beside Kerith Brook, east of the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook. 7 But after a while the brook dried up, for there was no

2 rainfall anywhere in the land. 8 Then the Lord said to Elijah, 9 Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you. 10 So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, Would you please bring me a little water in a cup? 11 As she was going to get it, he called to her, Bring me a bite of bread, too. 12 But she said, I swear by the Lord your God that I don t have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die. 13 But Elijah said to her, Don t be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you ve said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what s left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again! 15 So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her family continued to eat for many days. 16 There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah. I. Introduction In the chapters leading up to 1 Kings 17, we learn that the Israelites have been living in some very troubled times. Even though God had specifically warned King Solomon against idolatry, he allowed his heart to be swayed by his foreign

3 wives, and had begun to worship their gods. He even constructed altars to some of these gods, so that his wives could make sacrifices to them, and this was detestable to God. Because of his idolatry, God promised him that Israel would become divided, with part of the kingdom taken away from his descendants. When Solomon s son, Rehoboam, become king he committed further evil acts and began to harshly persecute his own people. This led to a revolt, as the northern tribes of Israel rebelled against the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and made Jeroboam their new king. God s chosen people were divided in two (the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah) just as God had promised, and were never again rejoined. But division was just the beginning of their problems, because both kingdoms were ruled by wicked men. Rehoboam continued to reign in the southern kingdom of Judah until his death, but before he died he led the people into even greater levels of idolatrous worship. Rehoboam s son, Abijah, continued in his father s footsteps and led the people to turn their backs on God. But because of King David s faithfulness, God continued to allow his family to rule the southern kingdom. Finally, after Abijah died, his son Asa took over and changed things around. Asa followed God with a pure heart. He banished foreign idols and temple prostitutes and led the people to worship God. Even though he didn t fully rid Judah of pagan idols in his lifetime, he enjoyed a long reign as king, and the Bible says that he remained faithful to the Lord throughout his life. This brought relative prosperity and peace to the southern kingdom. The story of the northern kingdom is much more bleak. After the revolt, Jeroboam became king of Israel. But he was afraid that when the people went south to make sacrifices at the temple, they would pledge their loyalty to the kings from David s line. Out of fear, he constructed golden idols at both the northern and southern edges of his territory and advised

4 the people that it was too much trouble to make the pilgrimage south to the temple. He convinced them instead to worship and make sacrifices to the false gods he had built for them. Jeroboam appointed priests, who were not from the tribe of Levi, to oversee the pagan worship. And he committed the greatest evil when he began to worship and make sacrifices to the idols himself soon after. Following Jeroboam s apostasy, God sent a prophet to tell him that another king would rise up and kill his entire family line as a consequence for his evil actions. From this point on, the northern kingdom of Israel spiraled down hill. They had one terrible king after another. Jeroboam s son Nadab became king after him, and continued to follow in his father s footsteps. God s prophecy was fulfilled when Baasha assassinated Nadab and then killed all of Jeroboam s relatives. Then Baasha and all the kings who succeeded him in the northern kingdom of Israel continued to turn their backs on God, and we are told that each one became more evil than their predecessors. II. Our Situation Hasn t Changed Two main observations jump out at me from the background of 1 Kings. First, anyone who thinks the Bible is boring must be reading a different version than I am. The whole story of scripture is one of intrigue, excitement, victory, defeat, and above all the love of God for his rebellious people. When I read the Bible as a Christian, I find myself right in the middle of the narrative, as another of God s rebellious children, rescued by his magnificent grace, through Jesus Christ, and promised a return to the Father s household and a glorious inheritance. Each one of us is invited to see ourselves as a vital part of the story of God and his people, and when we do the scriptures come alive for us, as they show us how great our need is for Jesus, and how good and powerful

5 is our God. It makes me wonder why so many of us look at reading the Bible as a chore, instead of an adventure. A second observation is that the story of 1 Kings seems awfully similar to the ones we read in our newspapers and watch on television today. We are constantly inundated with news of war and famine and evil of every kind, often perpetrated by wicked leaders against their own people. In our own country, any illusions we might have had that we are a Christian nation have been torn down, as we have witnessed increased violence in schools, extensive racism, the burning of churches, rampant hedonism, and legislation that opposes the teaching of scripture. Even within the walls of our churches there is strong disagreement about what it means to live out the biblical commandments to love God and love others, and what a faithful witness to the good news of Jesus Christ really looks like. This leads to distrust and misunderstandings between and among denominations, clergy, and laity. So that, even in our places of worship, we often find tension with our brothers and sisters in Christ. I don t know about all of you, but I come from a long line of worriers. So, when things start going all crazy in the news, in our country, and in the church, I could find it very easy to get worked up and start to worry about my family s future and the future of the church. Do you ever find yourself wrestling with uncertainty about the future? Do you ever find yourself unsettled, because you just don t know what to expect next? Do you sit on the edge of your seat, wondering what awful news or event is going to happen next? I think most of us wrestle at some point with questions about the future. And many of us struggle to trust God fully, when things around us seem to be falling apart. How should we respond to a society that seems more and more opposed to God? How can we move forward confidently in our mission, when there

6 is infighting in the church? What are we to do, when the world seems like it is completely out of control? What will become of us and our families? III. God Provides for His People The prophet Elijah knew a thing or two about what it means to live during uncertain times, in a culture that had turned its back on God. When he stepped onto the scene in 1 Kings, chapter 16, things had gotten just about as bad as they could get for Israel. They were really and truly falling apart. Ahab had ascended the throne in the northern kingdom, and the Bible tells us that he was more vile than all the evil kings who had come before him. The scripture describes his heart corruption in this way in verse 31: And as though it were not enough to follow the sinful example of Jeroboam, he married Jezebel, the daughter of King Ethbaal of the Sidonians, and he began to bow down in worship of Baal. Now, probably most of you recognize the name Baal. This is one of the most despised of the false gods in the Old Testament, and the same idol the Israelites had turned to over and over again throughout their history. This time, it so angered God that he called up Elijah, and told him to go to king Ahab with a warning and a promise of misfortune. Baal was a god of the harvest, and prayers to him were thought to bring rains to water the crops. So Elijah was instructed to tell Ahab that God would cause a long drought to occur, where neither rain nor dew would fall, to demonstrate how powerless Baal was, and how great God is. As you can imagine, this sort of message didn t sit well with the king or Elijah s neighbors. So, after delivering his message, 1 Kings 17 says that God sent him into hiding. Now, I don t want us to miss what is going on here. It would be so easy to just skip over verse 2 and get on with the story, but

7 I think we need to stop and reflect on something before moving on. Consider this: Elijah was in a hostile land, carrying a counter-cultural message that challenged the authority of the ruling powers and promised adversity to those around him, as a penalty for their sins. Does this sound familiar to anyone? It should, because the church has been delivering a similar message for two thousand years. Elijah s life was in danger, because he was challenging the status quo and could easily have been killed for doing so. If God s message to the prevailing culture was shocking enough that an Old Testament prophet had to go into hiding, should we be all that surprised when we meet with opposition to God s message of repentance and belief in our culture today? Yet we are surprised and even frustrated, when the world rejects the good news, and acts in ways that are contrary to the truth revealed in scripture. Maybe a better question to ask is this: why aren t we encountering more serious opposition than we are? Is it because our culture is simply ignoring the message, or is it more likely because we are failing to deliver God s message as he intended it, where it is most needed? Elijah faithfully carried God s message to Ahab, and then went into hiding. As a consequence, his future became very uncertain, very quickly. He was surrounded by the enemies of God, who were searching everywhere for him, and a long drought was about to destroy the land and its crops, leading to famine. Elijah was homeless, he didn t have a job, there was no 401K to fall back on, and his future was looking pretty bleak. He could have given up in this situation. He could have simply called it quits and turned in his staff. But he chose instead to trust in God, for better or worse. The rest of the story is pretty fascinating. Elijah did as God had commanded him, and went to hide beside a brook near the Jordan River, where he had a constant source of water. Then

8 God commanded ravens to bring him food every morning and evening, so that all of Elijah s needs were met. But we all know that, when there isn t any rain for a lengthy period of time, rivers and brooks eventually dry up. Now, I might have gotten a little bit annoyed if God had led me out into the wilderness to hide in an oasis, only to have that oasis dry up. In fact, I might be inclined to start worrying long before the last trickle of water stopped running. I might even be tempted to accuse God of putting me in a dire situation, only to later abandon me. But we don t have any indication that Elijah experienced doubt or worry or anger when his situation changed. Instead, when the water dried up, he waited to hear from the Lord, and then he acted quickly to do what he was commanded. He set off to an unfamiliar town to find an unspecified widow, because God told him that she would feed him there. We know the rest of the story. Elijah found the widow, but she reported to him that she had only a little flour and oil left to make bread, then she and her son would starve, without any hope for help. Elijah asked her to trust God and make him some bread first, and when she did, God worked a miracle, so that her flour and oil never ran out, and she was able to feed herself, her son, and Elijah until the famine ended. At any point throughout this long ordeal, Elijah could have decided that his circumstances were simply too much to bear. He could have looked for human solutions to his problems. Or he could have refused to go where God commanded him to go or do what God commanded him to do. But he chose, instead, to trust in the Lord to provide him with everything he needed and to direct his path. And all along the way, God proved to Elijah and to us that he is faithful and can be trusted. IV. Application

9 So, what are we to take away from this story, friends? Why does it matter to us today, when we are so far removed in time and space from the northern kingdom of Israel and its problems? Though our circumstances have changed, we are still living in uncertain times, surrounded by culture that is hostile to the good news of Jesus Christ that calls all sinners to repentance and belief. And like Elijah, we are each invited to respond to our current situation in two ways. The first invitation is to bear witness to the glory of God, his truth, and what he has done for us through Jesus, even in the face of adversity. Now, bearing witness doesn t mean screaming in the faces of our neighbors, pointing our fingers, and condemning a world far away from God for not acting like Christians. It doesn t mean causing unnecessary offense or acting offended. But it does mean loving our neighbors enough to share with them the good news that God offers forgiveness and freedom to anyone who receives his grace and places their trust in Jesus. It means loving others enough that we challenge the status quo, even when it results in persecution. It means allowing God to transform us by his Spirit, so that we become his image bearers to the world. Bearing witness means taking up our cross daily and losing our lives, so that we might truly live. And the second invitation is to put our full trust and confidence in God alone to meet all of our needs, and then continue to trust him with our lives, even when things look bleak. When things get shaky around us, when our future seems uncertain, the temptation is to adopt a scarcity mentality. We want to protect and hold on to what we have out of fear that, at the end of the day, there won t be enough for tomorrow. We try to control of every aspect of our lives, as though we can manage it all on our own. Even when we want to trust God, many of us find it difficult to surrender certain areas of our lives to him fully. Do you struggle to give God complete control over any of these areas? Your work? Your

10 relationships? Your finances? Your family (Moms, this means your children)? If you are struggling with uncertainty, worry, or fear this morning over any of these things, then I have good news for you, because God offers you freedom from fear, when you surrender your control to him. Friends, we were not created to get by under our own power, and as Christians, we must learn to live in the power of God s Spirit, cultivating a deep trust in God to carry us through times of famine and times of plenty alike. But how do we do this? How do we answer the invitation to bear witness to the good news and trust God to supply all of our needs? What steps can we take to develop a deep and abiding confidence in God? 1. It begins with a personal relationship with Jesus. Trust begins with relationship. It isn t enough to know about Jesus, we have to really know him, if we ever hope to turn our burden s over to him. You may have been attending church your whole life and tried to follow every command of scripture to the letter, but if you have never personally asked Jesus to take his rightful place as King in your life, then you ll never experience the peace he has to offer. A person cannot bear witness to something he or she has not seen personally, and a person cannot trust someone he or she does not know. But the Bible promises us that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, he will save you from your sin and receive you into his family as a daughter or son, who knows and is known by God, and who can trust your heavenly Father to provide everything you need in this life and the next. 2. Second, we must become people who hunger and thirst for the Word. In Psalm 119 David said, I rise before dawn and cry for help; I have put my hope in your word. My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I

11 may meditate on your promises. Hear my voice in accordance with your love; preserve my life, Lord, according to your laws. The Word of God, in whom we put our hope, is Jesus Christ, and the written word of scripture points us to him. Remember how we said it isn t possible to trust someone we don t know? Once we have received God s forgiveness, through faith, we come to know Jesus more intimately by reading and meditating on God s word. I was saddened to read the results of a recent Pew research study, which found that only 45 percent of those who regularly attend church read the Bible more than once a week, and 1 in 5 said they never read the Bible at all. How can we ever hope to develop confidence in God, if we never listen to what he has to say? We must do better than this, if we hope to give a faithful witness and develop a deep trust in Him. 3. Third, we must ask God to give us a kingdom perspective. We have talked about this quite a bit recently, so let me just touch on it briefly. When we pray and ask God to show us things from his perspective, we have an opportunity to evaluate our circumstances differently. Through God s eyes we can see people and situations for what they are, and gain confidence that God s promises are true, and that we will receive eternal blessings that far outweigh our momentary suffering, if we will just continue to trust in him. 4. Finally, we must surrender control our everyday circumstances, and let God occupy the throne in our lives. There is no way around this. Half-hearted measures simply won t do. If we want to develop the deep and abiding faith in God that will help us to respond to our present circumstances with a faithful witness and trust him fully to supply our needs, we must give him control of everything in our lives. And we must learn to live in the power of the Spirit, who alone can transform our hearts into fully devoted followers of Jesus. There is freedom in surrender, but he will not force us to

12 make that choice. What do you think our families would look like if we were each to begin living as though our every need could only be supplied by God? What if we were to become truly dependent upon him, like a child depends on his or her parents? What about our church, our city, or our country? What if we began to listen for and trust God completely in every situation, instead of trusting in our own knowledge and abilities to carry us through? We are living in a broken world. This fact has become more obvious lately, but it has always been true. And there has only ever been one solution for our brokenness. When we turn to God and trust him fully to provide everything we need, I believe he will always answer that prayer by giving us of himself. So that, whatever challenges we face today or in the future, we will never need to fear what tomorrow brings, because God is with us. V. Closing Prayer Will you pray with me? Heavenly Father, thank you for loving us so much that you sent your Son Jesus to die for us on a cross, so that we might be set free from the guilt of sin and its power over us. We thank you that, through Christ s resurrection, you have purchased for us freedom from the fear of death, so that we can stand firmly in the face of any opposition and proclaim with confidence the good news of salvation. Father, would you please send your Spirit upon us gathered here? Help us to surrender our lives more fully to you. Transform our hearts, so that we might become radically depend upon you for everything we have and everything we are. We ask all of this in Jesus name. Amen.