Participants: Pr. Doug Batchelor
Series Code: EG
Program Code: EG021348A
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00:14 We're doing a series right now on the subject of Elijah.
00:18 And where we pick up our story right now, 00:23 Elijah has just had this climatic experience 00:27 on top of Mount Carmel 00:28 where there was this incredible showdown 00:31 between himself 00:32 and these 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah. 00:37 And they've all been executed. 00:39 And at this point our story, go to 2 Kings, 00:43 I'm sorry, 1 Kings chapter... 00:48 Well, I guess we'll be starting with chapter 19 00:51 with last few versus of chapter 18. 00:55 So go to verse 41. 00:59 And after they took the prophets down 01:01 to the brook Kishon and they were executed there. 01:04 It says in verse 41, "Elijah said to Ahab, the king, 01:08 'Go up, eat and drink, 01:10 for there is the sound of abundance of rain.'" 01:13 Now part of the reason he's saying this 01:15 is because they had been storing 01:17 every little morsel of food 01:18 and trying to stretch it as far as they could 01:20 because there had been no rain and there was a famine. 01:23 Elijah's basically saying, "You can go eat and drink now, 01:27 you don't need to scrounge and store all your food 01:30 because rain is coming. 01:33 And there is gonna be an abundance of rain. 01:35 Well, when he said this 01:36 there was not a cloud in the sky, 01:38 there had not been a cloud in the sky 01:39 for three and half years. 01:40 There had not even been any dew on the ground. 01:43 So this took faith. 01:45 But Ahab believes him because he had just said 01:48 fire was gonna come down from heaven and it did. 01:51 And so it tells us that Ahab went up to eat and drink 01:55 and Elijah went to the top of Mount Carmel. 01:57 It's interesting. 01:59 Ahab goes to eat, Elijah goes to pray. 02:03 That's the difference between the church and the state 02:06 I guess, but... 02:09 Yeah, he sends out for pizza, I mean, 02:11 I don't know if I would be able to eat that day. 02:13 You think about it, 02:14 if you saw fire come down from God out of heaven, 02:17 if all of a sudden all the false prophets. 02:19 If I were Ahab, that would be time to fast, 02:21 and pray, and humble yourself and say, 02:23 "Wow, I've been misleading the nation all these years." 02:26 But it doesn't bother him, he goes to eat, 02:29 and Elijah goes to the top of Carmel. 02:32 "And he bows down to the ground, 02:33 and he puts his face between his knees, 02:37 and he prays, and he says to his servant, 02:40 'Go up now and look towards the sea.' 02:42 And he went and he looked, 02:43 and he said, 'There is nothing.' 02:45 "Now it may be before this whole famine business began 02:48 that Elijah had an apprentice. 02:49 It was typical for the prophets to have an apprentice 02:52 that they would train into be their replacement. 02:54 And could be when he was hiding by the brook, 02:58 and during the time the famine began 03:00 he left him go. 03:01 But now that there's been this great demonstration 03:04 in God's favor, he figured it was safe again, 03:06 his servant joins up with him. 03:09 "And he says, 'Go and look and see if you see anything.' 03:13 And he comes back, he says, 'There is nothing.' 03:15 And seven times he said, 'Go again.' 03:19 And it came to pass the seventh time."' 03:22 Have you noticed how many times in the Bible 03:24 the blessing comes the seventh time. 03:27 It was on the seventh day 03:29 they marched around the city seven times, 03:30 they blew the trumpet 03:32 and the walls of the enemy fell, Jericho. 03:35 It's after he goes down in the Jordan River 03:38 and he washes seven times that Naaman the leper comes up 03:41 and he's cleansed. 03:42 And you could probably think of your own examples 03:45 that I might be missing of how the blessing came 03:47 the seventh time. 03:49 "And the seventh time he says, 'Go again.'" 03:51 He keeps praying and says, "Is there anything?" 03:53 And he prays again, "Is there anything?" 03:55 And he prays again. 03:56 You know, it teaches us something about 03:58 persistence and tenacity in prayer. 04:01 Perhaps you remember the story in the Bible 04:04 where Jesus tells in Luke 18 about a certain widow. 04:08 And she comes to the judge and she says, 04:11 "Avenge me, I'm being taken advantage of." 04:13 And the judge says, "Look, you have no money, 04:14 you're poor, you can't bribe me. 04:16 I've got other important cases." 04:18 He doesn't say that, 04:19 but that's the way he treats her. 04:21 And she keeps coming, and she keeps coming, 04:23 and she keeps coming. 04:24 Finally the judge says to himself, 04:26 "Even though I don't regard God or man, 04:29 I'm gonna deal with this widow and give her what she needs 04:32 because otherwise she's gonna wear me out." 04:35 And then the Lord says, and this in Luke 18:7, 04:41 "Hear what the unjust judge says 04:43 shall not God avenge His own elect 04:45 who cry out day and night to Him, 04:47 though He bears long with them?" 04:50 The Bible says, 04:51 "Here is the patience of the saints." 04:53 Sometimes you got to pray for something 04:55 that's worthwhile more than one time. 04:57 You might be praying for a loved one that is lost, 05:00 you don't give up. 05:01 You keep praying and then you raise your periscope 05:03 and say, "Is there anything yet?" 05:05 And get down, you pray again. "Is there anything yet?" 05:07 And eventually you'll come up and you'll see that 05:10 there is a sign that God is doing something. 05:13 So eventually the servant comes back and he says, 05:15 "You know, I do see a cloud rising out of the sea 05:20 about the size of a man's hand." 05:22 In a way I think that translates 05:23 is just like the size of a man's hand 05:26 with a concave part down. 05:29 And it's just a little sign out of the sea. 05:32 He says, "I think I see something." 05:33 That's all Elijah needed, he needed that evidence. 05:37 Now I don't wanna take it too far, 05:38 but I think it's interesting that 05:42 here he stood on Mount Carmel 05:43 and he prayed and fire came down 05:44 and now he's praying for the rain, 05:46 and he kneels upon his knees, 05:49 and he humbles himself before the Lord. 05:52 The rain in the Bible, the latter rain is a symbol 05:55 for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. 05:57 We're told in scripture that we're to be praying 06:00 for the latter rain. 06:02 That means you may not pray once 06:04 and you may not pray only twice, 06:06 you may need to continue to pray. 06:08 There is nothing really more important 06:09 that we should ask for. 06:11 In fact when Jesus talks about prayer 06:15 in the Gospel of Luke, 06:16 He said, "If you have a son 06:18 and he asks for a loaf of bread, 06:20 would you give him a stone? 06:21 If he asks for an egg or fish, will you give him a serpent? 06:27 Or if he asked for an egg, will you give him a scorpion?" 06:29 He uses three illustrations in Luke. 06:32 And this is how he closes. 06:33 "If you, then being evil, 06:35 know how to give good gifts unto your children, 06:38 how much more will your Father in heaven 06:40 give the Holy Spirit to them that ask." 06:43 The one specific thing that Jesus says 06:45 we should ask for is the Holy Spirit. 06:47 Can you think of anything more important 06:49 that we could ask for? 06:50 If God gives you every earthly blessing, 06:54 if you've got money in the bank and you've got health 06:56 and all of your friends like you, 06:59 and you have all the comforts and conveniences, 07:01 but you do not have God's Spirit, 07:04 then how do you really gain any ground? 07:06 But if you lose every earthly blessing and comfort, 07:09 but you are filled with the Spirit of God, 07:12 then you have everything. 07:13 You know, on Mount Carmel that day there was a king, 07:16 and there were a lot of prophets and a lot of people, 07:18 but the one the closest to God had nothing 07:21 but he was full of God and that's Elijah. 07:24 In the last days the Lord wants an army of people 07:26 that are full of God. 07:28 I hope you wanna be one of those people. 07:31 So he knelt on his knees just quickly. 07:35 Daniel went to his upper room and he knelt on his knees 07:38 when he prayed. 07:40 "When Jesus withdrew from them about a stone's throw, 07:43 he knelt down and he prayed." 07:46 Acts 9:40, "Peter, put them all out, 07:50 and he knelt down and he prayed 07:51 when Dorcas was raised." 07:54 Solomon dedicating the temple, "Knelt this is the king, 07:57 knelt upon his knees before God 08:00 and spread out his hands to heaven." 08:03 And then later God says to Elijah, 08:05 "I have 7,000 knees 08:06 that have not yet bowed to Baal." 08:09 There's something about kneeling when you pray, 08:12 especially in formal worship, it doesn't mean 08:14 you can't pray when you're sitting, 08:15 we do that when we eat, 08:16 you can pray when you're standing. 08:18 There's examples of that in the Bible. 08:20 But let's not get to the place where we forget, 08:22 you actually say something with your posture 08:24 when you worship God. 08:26 And I just read you... 08:28 Everybody from Daniel to Jesus and the Apostle Peter, 08:31 they still knelt when they prayed. 08:33 Let's remember that we worship an awesome God. 08:36 And at some point during every worship service, 08:39 it's becoming less and less common 08:42 in evangelical churches, 08:44 but at some point during every worship service 08:46 you should get on your knees before God if you're able. 08:49 You know, if you get old and your knees hurt, 08:52 can't get back up God understands that. 08:54 But if you're able, 08:56 you say something with your posture. 08:58 Sometimes I'll go to introduce myself 09:00 to someone I meet and they're sitting down 09:01 and they start to get up and it's a sign of respect, 09:03 and I say, "Don't get up." 09:05 Especially if they're older, it's too much work. 09:08 But, you know, people still do that as respect. 09:11 When we worship God, we should get on our knees. 09:14 In our homes, we kneel and we pray to God. 09:17 In our family when I go downstairs, 09:20 I turn around my office chair 09:22 and I kneel right there and pray. 09:24 And I think God... 09:29 I think that God is more inclined 09:32 to answer the prayers of those that understand 09:34 how mighty He is that reverence His name. 09:37 Elijah, you would think 09:39 you're pretty proud of yourself when you talk 09:41 and fire comes down from heaven, 09:43 when he was praying for the rain 09:44 he got on his knees. 09:46 "If my people that are called by my name 09:48 will humble themselves and pray." 09:50 What does it mean to humble yourself and pray? 09:54 So that's part of that. I won't take that too far. 09:57 And don't forget his persistence in prayer. 10:00 Zechariah 10:1, 10:02 "Ask of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain, 10:05 and the Lord will make flashing clouds 10:07 thunder and lightning, 10:08 He will give them showers of rain, 10:10 grass in the field for everyone." 10:14 And so we should be asking persistently for this rain. 10:18 Now after he prays like this, 10:21 it says in the mean time, in 1 Kings 18:45, 10:26 "The sky became black with clouds." 10:28 Started with a small cloud, the sign is of a man's hand, 10:31 that's how the second coming of Jesus will begin, 10:34 a little sign that will then grow bigger and bigger, 10:37 until soon the heavens are in developed 10:39 with this blackness and flashing clouds, 10:42 thunder and lightning are rolling. 10:45 "And he tells Ahab, he says, 10:48 'You better head for cover, there's an abundance of rain.' 10:52 And there was a heavy rain so that Ahab rode away 10:55 and he went to Jezreel." 10:56 About 9 or 10 miles away from Mount Carmel, 10:59 he is riding back towards the palace. 11:01 He had one at Samaria and one at Jezreel. 11:04 And that time it says, 11:06 "The hand of the Lord came upon Elijah, 11:10 and he girded up his loins, and he ran ahead of Ahab 11:14 to the entrance of Jezreel." 11:15 Now why did he do this? 11:16 First of all, the king, he's in his chariot, 11:20 he's probably got the thing wide open, 11:22 throttle all the way down as they say. 11:24 And the horses he's trying to... 11:26 You know, it never makes any sense. 11:27 I used to ride a motorcycle, you get caught in the rain, 11:29 and somehow you want to get out of the rain 11:30 so you go faster, but you know what happens, 11:32 you go fast in the rain, you just get wetter. 11:34 It doesn't really help. 11:35 But anyways... 11:38 he's going as fast as he can. 11:39 And the Bible says that, "Elijah, the prophet 11:42 girds up his loins, he ties up his robe, 11:45 and he begins to run before the king." 11:47 Now why did he do that? 11:48 And the spirit of the Lord came upon him 11:50 so that he was able to run with a supernatural strength 11:54 and not get tired and somehow keep up with the horses. 11:58 As the scripture in the Bible it says, 12:00 "If you can't keep up with the footmen, 12:02 how will you contend with horses?" 12:04 But Elijah is running before the king. 12:07 Why does that happen? Couple of reasons. 12:08 Well, several probably. 12:11 You know, the king of Israel is a position 12:15 that had been chosen by God, not necessarily Ahab, 12:19 but it was God that divided the kingdom 12:21 between the southern and the northern kingdom. 12:23 God wants us to respect those that rule. 12:26 The Bible's very clear about that. 12:28 Ahab had just been terribly humiliated, 12:31 all of his prophets were killed. 12:33 And now God is wanting to show Ahab, 12:36 "You can participate in supporting this revival, 12:41 we are gonna recognize you as king." 12:43 Elijah runs before the king, 12:45 as messengers would normally do. 12:47 Ahab doesn't have... 12:49 You remember Absalom prepared a chariot 12:50 and 50 men to run before him. 12:52 Kings often had servants that ran before him. 12:55 Now there's no servants running before Ahab, 12:56 they're all starving, 12:58 the people now are making their way back 13:00 towards the cities of Samaria and Jezreel 13:02 following this great experience on Mount Carmel. 13:05 And as they make their way back they see Elijah 13:08 running down the road 13:09 leading Ahab's chariot through this storm. 13:13 You know, the Bible also tells us that 13:14 one of the jobs of the prophet 13:18 was to go the way before the king. 13:20 Perhaps, you remember in Isaiah 40:3 13:24 and this is what John the Baptist quoted, 13:26 "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 13:29 'Prepare the way of the Lord, 13:31 make straight in the desert a highway for our God.'" 13:35 In the way that a servant ran before the King, 13:38 John the Baptist came to prepare the way 13:40 before Jesus, the King of kings. 13:43 John the Baptist came in the spirit and the power 13:45 of what Old Testament prophet. 13:48 Elijah, right? 13:50 And so here you have Elijah running before the king 13:54 as the rain is coming. 13:55 John the Baptist came and ran before Jesus 13:58 to prepare the way 13:59 and then the showers came, right? 14:02 And so it's also I think a type of that. 14:04 So he runs before the king, the king goes inside, 14:07 he begins to tell Jezebel everything that happened. 14:09 And Elijah bunkers down at the gate. 14:11 There is often some shelter at the gate 14:13 where the guards would hang out. 14:15 And now go back to 1 Kings 19, 14:18 we start with verse 1. 14:19 1 Kings 19. 14:22 Jezebel did not go to the showdown 14:25 on Mount Carmel. 14:27 She did not like the idea 14:28 that there was still a prophet of God alive. 14:30 She'd been killing all the prophets of God, 14:32 trying to instate Baal worship in the kingdom. 14:35 She was the greatest advocate of Baal worship. 14:38 She was one killing the prophets. 14:40 So she didn't go. 14:41 Ahab comes back, they had no internet, 14:43 she didn't know what happened out there. 14:45 He comes back, and she can tell 14:47 by the look on his face. 14:48 He had just had an encounter with God. 14:51 I have a young friend. 14:53 Oh, he's not that young anymore, 14:54 but when he was a young man, 14:57 he got chased by a bear for about quarter of a mile. 15:00 He was running down the hill, he told his parents 15:03 they were taking all the switchbacks 15:04 down to their place by the river. 15:06 He said, "I'll bet you, I can run faster 15:09 than you can drive," 15:10 all these switchbacks just going straight down, 15:12 they said, "Well, try it." 15:13 He was like 14, 15 years old, he gets out, 15:16 he starts to run down the road 15:17 and soon he hears this noise behind him, 15:18 and a bear had seen him running through the woods 15:20 took off after him. 15:21 Well, that just made him run faster 15:24 so he runs faster and faster and a lot happened, 15:26 he stopped at one point, the bear stopped, 15:27 he threw rocks at it, he ran again, 15:28 the bear chased him, it's an interesting story. 15:32 He comes bolting in... 15:34 He finally leaves the bear behind, 15:35 he comes bolting into his grandfather's house 15:37 and he tells the grandfather about this experience, 15:39 so I talked to his grandfather Jack, and I said, 15:43 "He said that he was chased by a bear." 15:45 I said, "Do you think he's really chased by a bear?" 15:47 He said, "I saw the look on his face, 15:49 he was chased by a bear." 15:53 Said, "If you saw what I saw, 15:55 I know he could not act that expression on his face, 15:59 he was chased by a bear." 16:01 When Ahab comes into the palace, he's like, 16:04 "You'll never let me tell you what happened at work today." 16:08 And he tells about all this and the fire coming down 16:10 and the prophets of Baal dancing around 16:11 and nothing happened. 16:12 But Elijah prays and the fire comes down, 16:14 and he took all the prophets of Baal 16:16 and he killed them all. 16:17 And Jezebel's not liking what she hears. 16:20 Ahab thought she would say, 16:21 "Yeah, I guess it's true, God is Jehovah." 16:24 But she doesn't care about the evidence. 16:27 You know, it's amazing that 16:29 when a person makes up their mind, 16:30 they want to believe what they want to believe. 16:32 Evidence doesn't matter anymore. 16:35 Even after all of the evidence that God provided 16:38 that He was real and Baal was false, 16:40 when Jezebel hears that instead of saying, 16:42 "Well, I need to humble myself and worship Jehovah, 16:44 He's the real God." 16:45 She sends a messenger to Elijah and threatens his life 16:50 because she is so enraged 16:52 that all the work that she has done 16:54 to establish Baal worship 16:55 and to kill the prophets of Jehovah 16:57 has been turned over in one day 17:00 by this incredible demonstration. 17:03 And she sends this message to Jezebel, verse 2. 17:05 Sends a message to Elijah saying, "So let the gods..." 17:09 Notice, she worship gods. 17:11 She didn't say Jehovah, God. 17:13 "So let the gods do to me and more also, with an oath, 17:16 if I don't make your life like the life of one of them 17:18 by tomorrow at this time." 17:21 Now how would you react? 17:24 Elijah had a long day. 17:25 He is, you know, first of all he travels down, he gets Ahab, 17:30 they gather the nation together, 17:31 they dance all day long, there's a sacrifice, 17:34 a fire comes down, he prays, the rain comes, 17:35 and then he has to run 10 miles supernaturally 17:38 before Ahab, finally he get tired. 17:41 And he starts to hunker down and sleep, 17:43 maybe he found a piece of bread to eat 17:45 and he spent, he's tired, he's hungry, 17:48 and he gets jolted awake by this messenger that says, 17:51 "You know Jezebel, she's the one that killed 17:52 all the other prophets. 17:54 You're next by tomorrow." 17:56 And he panics. 17:59 I mean, here's this man who stood up 18:01 to all of these other people, all of these false prophets, 18:05 in one day he was fearless. 18:08 Where have you ever seen so much backbone? 18:11 And the message of one woman scares him so much, 18:15 he runs for his life. 18:18 And I've often marveled at how women manage 18:21 to intimidate men. 18:25 Solomon is the wisest man in the world, 18:27 but through the influence of his wives 18:31 he puts false gods in the temple. 18:35 Samson is the strongest man in the world, 18:38 and he's got his wife badgering him 18:39 to know the riddle, and he gives in. 18:43 Peter, ready to die for Jesus, he pulls out a sword 18:46 and he's ready to lay down his life for Jesus, 18:48 a little while later a girl is making fun of him 18:50 and he says, "I don't know who Jesus is." 18:54 Women have some kind of strange power over men, 18:56 it's just. 19:00 Well, while you're applauding, let me tell you. 19:04 There is also that verse in the Bible that says, 19:06 "It's better to dwell in an attic 19:07 than with a contentious woman." 19:09 So rather than stay in Jezreel with Jezebel, 19:14 Elijah panics and it says, 19:17 "He arose and he runs for his life, 19:21 and he goes to Beersheba." 19:23 One minute he's running before the king, 19:25 and the next verse he's running from the queen. 19:29 If you play chess which piece has more power? 19:31 The King or the Queen? 19:34 I don't know what to make of that, 19:35 it just came to me. 19:38 So he goes, he think that I'm in the northern kingdom, 19:40 maybe if I go to the southern kingdom, 19:42 I'll be safe. 19:43 And so he's got a hard time. 19:45 He runs, his servants trying to keep up with him. 19:46 Elijah is hard to keep up with his running. 19:49 And he probably could win a marathon. 19:52 Goes down to Beersheba, which is way south. 19:55 And then he realizes... 19:58 You know, who's ruling in Beersheba? 20:00 Jehoram and his wife Athaliah. 20:03 You know, who Athaliah is? 20:06 Jezebel's daughter. 20:08 Jezebel's daughter marries the son of Jehoshaphat. 20:12 And he thinks, "Well, I'm not gonna be safe 20:14 here either." 20:16 And so he's got to get up 20:17 and he's got to keep on running. 20:20 One minute he is running before God, before the King, 20:23 the next minute he is running intimidated from the enemy. 20:27 You know, it's amazing how quickly 20:29 even the mighty people of God... 20:31 Have you read in the Bible? 20:33 David, you get one vignette of David and there he is, 20:37 fighting with Goliath in the valley, 20:40 and in the next vignette 20:41 he is sacrificing his principles 20:43 from his rooftop, 20:45 and just goes all of a sudden from one scene of victory 20:49 to terrible scene of defeat. 20:51 Be careful when you are experiencing victory 20:57 because, "Let him who thinks he stands 20:59 take heed lest he fall," even the greatest. 21:04 Peter said, "Though all men forsake thee, 21:05 I'll never forsake thee." 21:07 Be careful. 21:09 It's like the mother whale told the baby whale, 21:12 when you go to the top and you start to blow, 21:13 you get harpooned, so you got to be careful. 21:18 Right, I don't know if he was being proud 21:20 but anyway he got scared and he ran. 21:23 And when he gets to Beersheba, 21:25 then he leaves his servant there, 21:28 and by the way that was 70 miles 21:31 and he himself went a day's journey 21:33 into the wilderness 21:34 and he came and he sat down under a broom tree, 21:37 a juniper tree. 21:40 It's a kind of a tree 21:41 that they used to cut broom cloth out of 21:44 and he prayed that he might die. 21:47 And he said it is enough, now Lord, take my life, 21:49 I'm no better than my fathers, what am I running from? 21:52 She's killed all the other prophets, 21:53 why am I any better? 21:54 Your people are always persecuting the prophets." 21:58 I thought if he really wanted to die, 21:59 he didn't need to leave Jezreel, right? 22:03 But don't you think that the same God 22:05 who had guided him step-by-step 22:07 all through this famine and helped him escape 22:11 and fed him through the famine, 22:12 would He have led Jezebel take him? 22:16 I don't think so. 22:18 So he became discouraged, which is a lesson 22:20 that even God's people get discouraged. 22:24 Take my life, I'm no better than my fathers. 22:27 Now, I want you to notice a few things. 22:29 You know, he is running before the king 22:31 and then he is running scared, 22:33 and it goes from fire on the mountain 22:36 to the mud in the valley of Jezreel 22:38 and he becomes discouraged, and then you find him 22:41 praying to die. 22:44 Did Jonah ever get discouraged? 22:47 Even after he survived the whale, 22:48 Jonah is out there above Nineveh, 22:50 and he is under a gourd tree, 22:53 kind of like Elijah is under the broom tree 22:56 and Jonah says, 23:00 "It would be good for me to die." 23:02 Even God's servants sometimes get discouraged 23:05 and just are ready to give up, but God was still with him. 23:10 And so he falls to sleep under this tree. 23:12 He's tired, he's thirsty, 23:14 he's hungry, and he just thinks, 23:17 "I will just die out here in the wilderness." 23:20 And all of a sudden he gets woken up 23:22 and it says this, 23:24 "Angel of the Lord comes to him 23:26 and says, 'Arise and eat.'" 23:29 And so I think this is interesting. 23:30 It says, there he lain, he slept under the broom tree, 23:33 suddenly, verse 5, 23:35 "The angel touches him and says, 'Arise and eat.'" 23:38 And he looked and thereby it said 23:40 he hears the angel's voice. 23:42 He wakes up and there is a cake baked on coals 23:46 and a jar of water. 23:48 So he ate and he drank. 23:49 Now, Elijah this is a guy who's fed miraculously by birds 23:52 and then he is fed miraculously by this widow 23:55 and so he is not surprised that God can feed His people 23:58 in the wilderness. 23:59 Angel wakes him and says, you need something to eat 24:01 and God a' la carte brings his prophet 24:04 some food in the wilderness. 24:07 You'll remember if you were here last message 24:10 that at the end of three and a half years 24:13 God miraculously feeds him in the wilderness. 24:16 You read in Revelation, it talks about God's church 24:18 fleeing into the wilderness where she is nourished 24:22 by the Lord for 1,260 days, 24:25 so you get a lot of the same imagery 24:27 from the story of Elijah that appears in Revelation. 24:29 If you want to understand Revelation, 24:31 it's good idea to know your Old Testament. 24:35 So he eats and he's so tired, he just falls back to sleep. 24:40 And the angel of the Lord came back the second time 24:44 and touched him. 24:45 It says, "Arise and eat 24:48 because the journey is too great for you." 24:51 The journey. 24:52 Now I'll talk about that journey in just a minute, 24:56 but I think it's interesting that the angel brings him 25:00 miraculous bread and says you must eat this bread 25:03 if you're going to make it through the wilderness 25:05 because the journey is too great for you. 25:08 You and I cannot survive our journey 25:10 through the wilderness without God's bread. 25:13 When Jesus went out into the wilderness 25:16 to be tempted of the devil, 25:18 how did Jesus fight every temptation? 25:21 Man doesn't live by bread alone, 25:23 but by every word. 25:24 That's exactly what Jesus said to the devil. 25:26 If we want to make it through the wilderness, 25:28 we need to have angel's food, right? 25:31 The Bible tells us that Christ is that bread 25:33 that came down from heaven. 25:34 He is the Word of God. 25:35 I say this all the time, I know, 25:37 but it's true that 25:38 the key to having a vital Christian life 25:40 is your personal relationship with Jesus, loving the Lord, 25:44 knowing the Lord through His Word 25:45 and good inspirational material. 25:48 So he eats this angel's food, 25:51 and it must have been really good. 25:53 It says, he went in the strength of that food 25:57 40 days and 40 nights. 26:00 He is not just walking one day. 26:03 He is walking 40 days and 40 nights. 26:06 Now, we're going to put a map up on the screen. 26:09 It says, he came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 26:11 Just I don't want you to be confused, 26:13 Mount Sinai, Mount Horeb are the same mountain. 26:17 Here I have a map. Hopefully you can see that. 26:19 I just borrowed this from Google Earth, 26:21 I hope that's okay. 26:22 Up at the top where the red star is, 26:25 that's where Jezreel is, 26:27 so he gets the death threat from Jezebel 26:30 up here at the top. 26:32 He then runs to Beersheba, 26:34 that's where the orange star is, 26:36 not far from the Dead Sea. 26:38 And there he leaves his servant and he goes by himself 26:42 and he flees into the wilderness, 26:43 a day's journey, we don't know where that was, 26:45 but somewhere off in the wilderness 26:48 and the angel appears to him, 26:49 he eats this miraculous bread and it says, 26:51 he goes from the strength of that food 26:52 40 days and 40 nights. 26:54 He ends up at Mount Sinai. 26:57 Now you know, what I think happened? 26:59 Children of Israel, when they came out of Egypt, 27:01 they started at Mount Sinai and then they go 40 years 27:04 and then they go into the promised land. 27:06 Elijah is making the journey of Israel in reverse. 27:12 I think it doesn't take 40 days and 40 nights 27:14 to get to Mount Sinai. 27:15 By the way, there is a couple of different locations. 27:17 Some believe Mount Sinai is actually 27:19 in the Sinai Peninsula, the Bible says it's in Arabia. 27:23 It's more likely that it's where the yellow star is 27:26 and as opposed to St. Catherine's Monastery 27:29 in the Sinai Peninsula 27:30 but it's still about 350 mile journey 27:36 but you can make that in, 27:38 a man on foot can make that in a week. 27:41 He goes 40 days and 40 nights. 27:43 He is retracing, I believe, 27:46 the journeys of the children of Israel 27:48 and God is reminding him, look at what I did, 27:50 look at how I gave them the bread from heaven, 27:52 he goes to that spot, and he says 27:53 look at how I gave them water and he goes to Marah 27:56 where the waters were made sweet that were bitter 27:57 and all along the way the Holy Spirit is guiding him 28:01 and bringing back to his mind 28:03 how God had led His people through the wilderness, 28:05 and then he goes to Mount Sinai and he finds himself 28:07 up on that mountain, the top still scorched 28:11 from the day when the fire of God 28:12 came down on the mountain. 28:14 He can still see the remnants of the camp of Israel 28:17 scattered around the base of the mountain 28:22 and he went into a cave. 28:24 Now I like this story. 28:28 "He went into a cave 28:30 and he spent the night in the place 28:32 and behold, the Word of the Lord came to him 28:35 and he said to him, 'What are doing here, Elijah?'" 28:39 And he begins to rehearse to the Lord. 28:41 He says, "Lord, didn't you see what happened? 28:42 I've been very zealous for the Lord God of host 28:45 and for the children of Israel. 28:46 They've forsaken your covenant, torn down your altars, 28:48 killed your prophets with the sword, 28:50 I alone am left 28:52 and now they seek to take my life." 28:55 God said, "Go stand on the mountain 28:57 before the Lord." 28:58 God probably leads him to the very spot 29:00 where Moses stood on that mountain 29:02 and received the Ten Commandments. 29:05 Do you find Moses and Elijah standing together 29:07 on another mountain in the New Testament? 29:10 They stood on the same mountain in the Old Testament. 29:15 "Go and stand on the mountain before the Lord 29:18 and behold, the Lord passed by and a great strong wind 29:23 tore into the mountain and broke the rocks in pieces 29:26 before the Lord, 29:27 and the Lord was not in the wind." 29:29 Now this is not just a gust of wind that comes by, 29:31 this is like, I mean it must be, you know, 29:33 kind of an F5 tornado. 29:35 It's not over the ocean so it's not a typhoon 29:38 or a hurricane, it's a tornado 29:40 that sometimes goes through these deserts 29:43 and it starts to throw rocks around, 29:46 and somehow he is protected from it all 29:47 but it says God wasn't in the wind. 29:51 Then after the wind, an earthquake, 29:53 everything on the mountain starts to shake, 29:54 and things are rolling down the hill 29:55 and he can barely keep his stand, 29:59 but it says the Lord was not in the earthquake. 30:03 And after the earthquake a fire, 30:05 a desert brush fire goes through. 30:07 There has been a famine and everything is dry, 30:09 but the Lord was not in the fire, 30:13 and then a still small voice. 30:16 You know, it's interesting that when Moses was on the mountain, 30:18 did the mountain quake? 30:20 Was there fire on the mountain? 30:22 Probably wind as well when God was speaking. 30:26 It says but God isn't in those things. 30:29 It says God speaks in a still small voice. 30:33 Sometimes people come to church 30:34 and they want to see something exciting. 30:40 They want to see wind and fire. 30:42 When the Holy Spirit was poured out, 30:44 were there tongues of fire on the apostles? 30:47 Was there a mighty wind? 30:49 When Jesus died on the cross, was there an earthquake? 30:51 There was. 30:53 But you know how God usually speaks to us? 30:55 A still small voice. 30:57 If we don't have too much background noise, 30:59 we can hear it. 31:02 So he heard it. 31:03 He wrapped his face in his mantle and he went out. 31:06 His face is wrapped in his mantle 31:07 because of the dust from the wind 31:08 and the smoke from the fire 31:09 and he stands at the entrance of the cave. 31:11 Evidently he was in the cave when these things passed by, 31:14 and suddenly a voice came to him and it said, 31:17 this still small voice, 31:18 "What are you doing here, Elijah." 31:21 You noticed that up until now God said to Elijah, 31:24 I want you to go, show you something to Ahab. 31:25 I want you to go stay by the creek. 31:27 I want you to go stay with the widow at Zarephath. 31:29 I want you to go back to Ahab and God never said, 31:32 I want you to run for your life. 31:34 And God had been directing him all along the way 31:37 and all of a sudden he finds himself way down 31:39 in the middle of the desert and God said now, 31:42 "Did I tell you to abandon my people?" 31:45 "Oh, but they're so bad, 31:46 Lord, you don't know what they're doing. 31:48 Their church is a mess. 31:50 I'm going to go out in the desert by myself." 31:53 A very important point, I don't want to rush past. 31:56 Do you know people? I know you do. 31:59 They don't go to church anymore 32:00 because the church is in such a bad state. 32:03 They say, I'm just going to go out here in a cave 32:04 by myself and worship God. 32:08 Can you bail a boat when you're in the water 32:10 or do you need to be in the boat? 32:12 Can you clean a house if you're not in the house? 32:16 If the church needs revival, then where do we need to be? 32:20 Need to be in the church. 32:21 Does a church need revival? 32:23 And there are problems. Yes, absolutely. 32:24 Probably as much now there ever has been. 32:27 God's people are getting mixed up with Baal worship 32:30 and we need to pray for an outpouring of the spirit. 32:32 We need to humble ourselves and pray and seek his face 32:34 and turn from our wicked ways, 32:37 and then he will hear from heaven. 32:41 But you don't do that by running off by yourself. 32:45 When God's people did not have faith, 32:47 when they first came out of the wilderness, 32:48 when they came to the borders of the promised land, 32:51 and they lost faith that they can make it 32:53 into the promised land. 32:56 God didn't say to them, Joshua and Caleb, 32:59 you guys had faith, you go in by yourselves. 33:01 When the children of Israel had to wander for 40 years, 33:04 Joshua and Caleb wandered with them. 33:08 God wants His people to stay together, doesn't He? 33:11 Now the day may come where it's impossible for you 33:16 to stay part of the body of Christ. 33:19 It may become illegal for us to gather together 33:21 publicly at some point, 33:23 and we may have to gather in small companies 33:25 out in the wilderness at that time 33:28 when this whole scenario 33:29 about the mark of the beast is instituted, 33:32 but as long as you're free to preach 33:35 and to practice your convictions in the church, 33:38 you'll do a lot more good in the church 33:40 in spite of the problems. 33:42 God wants us to be part of the answer. 33:44 God says sometimes to those 33:46 that are hiding up by themselves, 33:48 "What doest thou here?" 33:51 And you may have heard God ask you that, you know, 33:54 sometimes people are raised in Christian homes 33:57 and they drift away a little bit. 33:58 These young people find themselves 33:59 at a rock concert where things are going crazy 34:02 and a little voice says to him, "What are you doing here? 34:05 What doest thou here?" 34:08 And if you're a Christian, sometimes you'll find yourself 34:12 in the wrong environment. 34:14 Maybe you've made some bad choices 34:17 and you'll hear that little voice say, 34:18 "What in the world are you doing here? 34:20 Is this where a Christian belongs?" 34:23 So you got to listen to that still small voice 34:25 and He will still guide you. 34:27 So then the Lord says, all right, look 34:30 I'm not done with My revival in Israel. 34:32 Here's what I want you to do. 34:35 He says go return, verse 15, 34:37 "Go, return and on your way to the wilderness of Damascus, 34:41 he was to go the back way in, when you arrive in Damascus, 34:45 anoint Hazael as king over Syria, 34:48 also you'll anoint Jehu, the son of Nimshi, 34:51 king over Israel..." 34:52 Thus he's gonna replace Ahab and his sons. 34:55 "And Elisha, the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, 34:58 you shall anoint as prophet in your place." 35:00 In other words, 35:01 "Elijah, I'm going to take you to myself. 35:03 I want you to anoint an apprentice 35:05 that you can train that will replace you." 35:10 And that's exactly what happened. 35:12 Hazael became the king of Syria. 35:14 Elisha was later the one who sent his servant 35:17 to anoint Jehu who became king of Israel. 35:19 Jehu brought about the greatest revival 35:22 in the sense that he destroyed Baal worships. 35:24 See, Jezebel stayed on the throne. 35:26 Jehu is the one who took care of Jezebel. 35:29 Elijah was told by God, "I've got someone 35:32 who's gonna take care of Jezebel." 35:33 And I don't know if you remember 35:34 the story of Jehu, I preached on it a while ago. 35:37 He pretended to have a feast for Baal. 35:39 He said, "Anybody that worships Baal, 35:40 let's all go to the temple of Baal. 35:42 Nobody is to be missing." 35:44 All the Baal worshippers went into the temple of Baal 35:46 and he told the soldiers, 35:47 "Exterminate everybody in the temple." 35:49 And Jehu eradicated Baal worship from Israel 35:53 the hard way. 35:55 God gave him a chance to turn voluntarily 35:57 during the time of Elijah. 35:58 Jehu said, 35:59 "No, we're just gonna snuff it out." 36:02 So more happens. 36:03 And I just want to get Elijah to heaven before we're done. 36:07 More happens and you know, if you read the end of 2 Kings, 36:11 Elijah sits around and he tells Ahab about his faith 36:14 because of what Ahab have does to Naboth 36:16 in the vineyard. 36:17 And then if you go to chapter 1 of 2 Kings, 36:20 jump to chapter 1 of 2 Kings, 36:22 here, Elijah tells the son of Ahab 36:25 that he's gonna perish 36:26 because he's worshipping Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron. 36:29 And Jump with me to chapter 2 of 2 Kings. 36:33 2 Kings 2, "And it came to pass, 36:37 when the Lord was about to take up Elijah to heaven 36:40 by a whirlwind, 36:41 that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal." 36:44 Now Elijah is going through the wilderness 36:46 and he casts his mantle on the shoulders, 36:49 he calls his replacement, he anoints Elisha 36:53 who is to be his replacement. 36:55 And Elisha begins to faithfully follow him. 36:58 He leaves all of his family and his earthly wealth. 37:00 So he's got this apprentice servant named Elisha. 37:03 Their names are confusing. 37:05 Elijah means my God is Jehovah. 37:08 Elisha means my God is Savior. 37:11 Very similar names 37:12 but it's easy to confuse the two. 37:15 And Elijah says, "Stay here. The Lord is sent me to Bethel." 37:19 He says, "As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, 37:20 I will not leave you." 37:22 So they go to Bethel together. 37:24 "And the sons of the prophets were at Bethel, 37:26 they come out to Elisha, 37:28 and they say, 'Have you heard, do you know 37:30 the Lord will take away your master 37:32 from over you today?' 37:33 He says, 'Yes, I know. Keep silent.'" 37:35 They have these schools of prophets 37:37 that would preach in the northern kingdom. 37:39 Southern kingdom had the Levites, 37:41 northern kingdom have the schools of the prophets. 37:43 God told Elijah 37:45 that he would miraculously take him to heaven. 37:48 But before he ascends to heaven, 37:50 he goes and he visits with his disciples 37:52 to strengthen their faith, to teach them, 37:54 to encourage them. 37:56 Isn't that kind of what Jesus did before 37:58 He ascended to heaven? 37:59 He went and met here and there with the apostles 38:02 and the disciples to encourage them. 38:06 And then he says to Elisha... 38:08 Or the servants of the prophet say to Elisha, 38:12 "Have you heard that he's gonna take away Elijah 38:14 from being over you." 38:16 He says, "I've heard it. Hold your peace. 38:17 I want to serve him. Don't tell me about it." 38:20 And then Elijah says, "Now we need to go to..." 38:24 First he goes from Gilgal to Bethel, 38:27 and then he goes from Bethel to Jericho. 38:30 Sons of the prophet say the same thing, 38:31 "Have you heard the word?" 38:33 He says, "I heard it, hold your peace." 38:35 And then the Lord calls Elisha and says, 38:36 "We must go from Jericho to Jordan." 38:40 And the sons of the prophets at the school 38:41 that was at Jordan, 38:43 they say, "Have you heard the news." 38:45 You know, all these sons of the prophets, 38:47 there are lot of prophesying going on. 38:48 They've all know that Elisha is not gonna die 38:51 the death of the average man 38:52 but God was going to do for Elijah 38:55 what he did for Enoch. 38:57 And they knew about that. 38:59 He says, "I know, hold your peace. 39:00 I'm happy to serve him." 39:03 Elisha was called the one 39:05 who poured water on the hands of Elijah. 39:08 He went from being the wealthy son of this farmer 39:12 to serving a poor prophet and he was happy to do it. 39:17 And so he says, 39:18 "Wherever you go, I'm gonna follow you." 39:21 And Elijah says to Elisha, 39:23 "God has sent me now to Jordan." 39:25 You know, Jordan means descending. 39:27 The work Jordan is like a type of death in the Bible. 39:31 And we need to be following our Jesus wherever He goes. 39:35 The word Gilgal means circle. 39:37 Sometimes it seems like 39:38 the Lord is leading you in circles, 39:40 you follow Him. 39:41 The word Bethel means house of God. 39:45 When the Lord leads you to the house of God, 39:47 you follow. 39:48 The word Jericho means fragrance. 39:51 Sometimes God leads us in fragrant places. 39:54 You follow Him. 39:55 And the word Jordan means descending. 39:58 And in the Bible, it's a symbol of death. 39:59 It's a symbol of baptism. 40:01 It's where Jesus was baptized and Naaman was washed. 40:04 It's the lowest river in the world 40:05 and it means like death burial and resurrection. 40:08 And sometimes the Lord leads us through the Jordan. 40:10 Have you ever read about that in the Bible? 40:13 Read all the times where it talks about the Jordan. 40:16 Through Jordan stormy bellows and go through Jordan, 40:18 thou leadeth me. 40:20 It's talking about through difficult times, 40:22 self surrender. 40:24 He says, "I'll follow you even to Jordan." 40:27 So as they go together, it says here in verse 7, 40:29 2 Kings 2:7, 40:33 "And fifty men of the sons of the prophets 40:36 went, and stood facing them at a distance 40:38 and the two of them stood by the Jordan. 40:41 And Elijah took his mantle, and he rolls it up 40:44 and he strikes the waters with it, 40:46 and it divides this way and that way 40:48 so the two of them crossed over on dry ground." 40:51 Do you notice that Elijah is repeating 40:53 the history of Israel in his life? 40:55 He goes through the wilderness where Israel went. 40:57 He goes to Mount Sinai where Israel went. 40:59 And now he miraculously crosses the Jordan 41:02 like Israel did. 41:03 You remember when God parted the Jordan 41:05 when they came in to promised land? 41:08 Now because the Jordan represents death, 41:11 what made it possible for them to cross over on dry ground? 41:16 Elijah took his mantle. What is a mantle? 41:19 It's just another word for robe. 41:21 He takes his robe and he strikes the water. 41:24 Now I don't know if he rolled it up. 41:26 If any of you were in the military, 41:29 you know, sometimes, you ever had a rat tail fight? 41:32 You know what that is 41:34 where you make a rat tail out of a towel, 41:36 you make a whip, yeah. 41:38 And when I was in military school, 41:41 you got to be real careful around the showers. 41:44 And you know, sometimes 41:45 even you got to get your boys' attention 41:46 if you're a father and it works. 41:48 It's just like bob. 41:50 And I just in my mind, I picture Elijah 41:52 rolling up his mantle and dramatically going... 41:56 And the water is parted like that. 41:58 But what's really impressive to me, 42:02 his robe parts the Jordan. 42:05 So they go across on dry ground 42:08 and they come up clean on the other side. 42:10 That robe represents the robe of Christ. 42:13 What makes it possible for us to cross death 42:16 and come up clean on the other side? 42:19 Only the righteousness of Christ. 42:22 So they cross over and the sons of the prophets 42:24 were watching from a distance, the waters part. 42:27 They go over, the water pulls back up again. 42:30 And they go walking off into the desert together, 42:32 Elijah and Elisha, the two of them. 42:35 And as they're walking, Elijah says to Elisha, verse 9, 42:42 "Ask what I might do for you, 42:43 before I'm taken away from you." 42:48 Now before Jesus ascended to heaven, 42:49 did He say to the apostles, "Ask, up till now, 42:52 you've asked nothing in my name. 42:54 Ask that your joy might be full. 42:56 Ask what I might do for you." 42:58 And Elisha, he doesn't asks small, 43:00 he says, 43:01 "Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me." 43:05 Why did he asked for double portion? 43:08 Who in the Bible got a double portion? 43:11 I see two groups. 43:13 The first born son will get a double portion. 43:16 Do you ever read about Elijah's wife 43:18 or Elijah's children? 43:20 He had no wife and children. 43:21 That would be tough to be Elijah's wife. 43:23 I mean, he was always going here and there. 43:25 And he stayed with a widow for a year and half, you know. 43:27 That wouldn't look right. 43:29 Elijah had no wife. He had no children. 43:32 Elisha was adopted like his son. 43:34 Elisha left his family and his inheritance 43:36 to follow Elijah. 43:37 He said, "If you're going, 43:39 I want your inheritance like a first born." 43:42 And the first born gets a double portion. 43:44 All you've got is a Holy Spirit but I want a double portion. 43:47 You know who else got a double portion? 43:50 The Bible says that Elkanah had two wives. 43:52 One named Hannah, the mother of Samuel. 43:55 The other named Peninnah. 43:56 But because he loved Hannah, he gave her a double portion. 44:00 He said, "If you love me and if you adopted me, 44:03 I want a double portion." 44:05 Does Jesus love us? Yes. 44:07 Has He adopted us to be... We become His children. 44:11 He says, "You've asked the hard thing." 44:14 And this is the criteria. 44:15 He says, verse 10, "Nevertheless," 44:17 Elijah says to Elisha, 44:19 "if you see me when I am taken from you, 44:22 it will be so for you, 44:24 but if you do not see me, it will not be so." 44:27 So it happened in verse 11. 44:30 "As they continued and talked," 44:32 they didn't know when it would happen 44:34 but as they walked and talked, it could have been anytime. 44:38 You may not know when the spirit will fall 44:40 or Elijah will rise. 44:42 We may not know the day or the hour 44:43 when Jesus will come. 44:45 But he said, "In such an hour you think not suddenly 44:48 it's gonna happen." 44:50 Holy Spirit, when it fell, do you know what happened? 44:53 Came to pass on the day of Pentecost, 44:55 and suddenly there was a sound from heaven 44:57 of a mighty rushing wind. 45:00 The Holy Spirit may come suddenly, 45:01 Jesus may come suddenly. 45:04 Suddenly, but you notice, 45:05 they were walking and talking together. 45:07 They had a relationship. 45:09 If you want to receive that spirit 45:11 when God pours it out, we need a relationship now 45:14 where we are walking with the Lord, right? 45:18 "A chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, 45:21 and separated the two of them, 45:23 and Elijah went up by a whirlwind..." 45:25 This is vortex of fire, glory comes in like a tornado, 45:30 he's caught up in this wind and angels are singing 45:36 and the heavens part and Elijah is going up 45:39 and Elisha is kind of pushed away by it all, 45:42 he falls to the ground like Paul when he sees Jesus. 45:46 And as Elijah is going up, I think he tells the angels, 45:51 "Hold on, just a moment." 45:53 The angels are probably surprised by all this. 45:55 "Wait a second here, you know, we send a heavenly limousine 45:58 to pick you up and he's awake?" 46:01 And he takes off his mantle 46:03 and he tosses it down to Elisha 46:06 because now Elisha is gonna be the prophet in his place. 46:10 So it gives him his uniform so to speak. 46:14 "And the chariot of fire with the horses 46:15 that separated the two of them 46:17 and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 46:21 And Elisha saw it." Now you catch that? 46:22 Elisha saw it. 46:24 What did he say what have to happen 46:25 if he was gonna get a double portion of the spirit? 46:28 He said, "If you see it," see what? 46:30 "If you see me lifted up." 46:32 Christ said, "If I am lifted up, 46:34 I will draw all men unto me." 46:36 How are we gonna see that? 46:38 Now if you knew that in order for you 46:41 to get a double portion of Elijah's spirit, 46:44 you have to see 46:45 when he's caught away to heaven. 46:47 And Elijah has a habit of disappearing. 46:50 How would you fix your eyes on him? 46:54 Would you lock your eyes on him and just you try not to blink. 46:57 You blink one at a time to rest your eyes, right? 46:59 I'm not, yeah, yeah. Aha-aha. Yeah. 47:03 You're walking through this, you're tripping over things, 47:05 says you don't want to take your eyes off of Elijah. 47:08 Wouldn't you to fix your eyes on him, 47:10 if you knew that was the criteria? 47:13 If you knew in order to have your wishes 47:15 answered by a genie, 47:17 you had to keep your eyes on the bottle, 47:18 would you keep your eyes on the bottle? 47:21 Trying to make this some way you can relate to. 47:26 I mean, you rub the bottle, genie says, 47:28 "Ask what you want." 47:31 Elijah says to Elisha, "Ask what you want." 47:33 What does he ask for? The Holy Spirit. 47:36 When God said to Solomon, "What do you want?" 47:38 What did Solomon asked for? 47:40 Wisdom, but really what he's asking for 47:42 is the Holy Spirit 47:44 'cause that's one of the gifts of the Spirit. 47:45 What's the most important thing we could pray for? 47:49 The Holy Spirit. 47:51 He fixed his eyes on him. 47:52 If we want to have the Holy Spirit 47:53 when Jesus pours it out, 47:54 we need to fix our eyes on Jesus. 47:56 Don't let Him out of your sight, 47:57 follow Him wherever He goes like Elisha followed Elijah. 48:01 I'm almost done, friends. 48:04 The Bible tells us, 48:06 "He saw it and he cried out and he said," I'm in verse 12. 48:10 "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel 48:12 and its horsemen! 48:13 You're the power of the Israel, not the army, 48:16 and he saw him no more. 48:17 And he took hold of his own clothes 48:20 and he tore them into two pieces." 48:23 All of our righteousness is like filthy rags. 48:25 "And he took up the mantle of Elijah 48:27 that had fallen from him." 48:29 See, I told you it fell from him. 48:31 In order for it to fall he had to be going up, right? 48:34 Notice what's happening. 48:36 What does clothing represent? Character. 48:38 What does he do to his own? Tears it. 48:41 What does he do with Elijah's? Takes it up. 48:43 When we come to Jesus, what do we do? 48:45 I have no righteousness, nothing in my hand I bring. 48:48 We tear our own like Bartimaeus threw aside his garment 48:51 when he came to Jesus 48:53 and we take up the mantle of Elijah. 48:55 What did Christ leave behind for us? 48:58 His robe of righteousness. 49:00 And there's power in that robe 49:01 not only to cover us but to sanctify us. 49:05 "And then he takes it up 49:08 and he goes back to the Jordan River. 49:11 And he takes the mantle of Elijah 49:13 that had fallen from him, and he strikes the water, 49:16 and he says, 49:17 'Where is the Lord God of Elijah?'" 49:19 Now that doesn't mean he said, "I don't believe in you." 49:22 He's saying, "I want to see the answer now. 49:24 You promised that I would have a double portion 49:25 of Your Spirit. 49:27 Now I want to see this answer." 49:29 And he does exactly what Elijah did 49:31 and does the same answer come? 49:33 You know what Jesus said to the disciples? 49:36 "These miracles that I have done, 49:37 greater things than these will you do 49:38 because I go to the Father." 49:40 Jesus ascended to heaven 49:42 and He sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. 49:45 Did the disciples heal the sick? 49:47 Did they preach the gospel? Did they raise the dead? 49:50 Everything that Jesus did they did 49:52 because they watched Him, they modeled His life. 49:56 Christ hasn't withdrawn His promise, did you know that? 49:59 He wants His church to have that power today. 50:01 We need to be praying for the baptism 50:03 of the Holy Spirit. 50:05 And the key is to do what Elisha did, 50:07 to keep our eyes on Him. 50:09 Now you notice in the first part of our story 50:11 when the fire comes down on the mountain, 50:13 the people humbled themselves and God sends the rain. 50:17 "If my people that are called by my name 50:20 will humble themselves and pray and seek my face 50:23 and turn from their wicked way." 50:25 So it's not just all grace, grace, friends. 50:27 God gives us grace to turn. 50:29 "Turn from their wicked ways, 50:32 then I will hear from heaven, 50:34 I will forgive their sin." 50:36 They will see His face and He will forgive their sin. 50:40 And in the same way, 50:42 "He now meets with all the sons of the prophets 50:44 and He ascends to heaven 50:45 and He sends the Spirit on Elisha. 50:48 The Jordon parts, Elisha comes back 50:50 and the sons of the prophets said, 50:52 'Surely, the spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.'" 50:59 By the way, you know that song, "Swing low sweet chariot"? 51:03 I looked over Jordan and what did I see, 51:05 coming to carry me home? 51:07 A band full of angels coming after me. 51:08 He's talking about the sons of the prophets 51:10 that looked over the Jordon 51:12 and maybe in the distance they saw 51:13 this pillar of light catching up Elijah. 51:17 But they saw Elisha, 51:19 "When the sons of the prophets," 51:20 I'm at verse 15. 51:22 "Who were at Jericho saw him, they said, 51:23 'The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.'" 51:28 The spirit of Elijah rest on John the Baptist. 51:33 "Behold, I send you Elijah 51:35 before the great and dreadful day of the Lord." 51:37 The spirit of Elijah needs to rest on people today. 51:41 God needs an army of Elijahs and Elishas in the last days. 51:45 It's really the Spirit of Jesus that He sends. 51:48 So how do we get that rain? 51:51 We need to humble ourselves before the Lord. 51:53 We need to fix our eyes on Jesus. 51:55 We need to be willing to turn from our wicked ways. 51:59 I want to be filled with God's Spirit, 52:01 friends, don't you? 52:02 Yes. 52:03 You know, it could be falling on everybody around us 52:05 and miss us and we'll never know it. 52:08 And we've got to keep our eyes fixed on Him. 52:11 You know, I love the story of Elijah 52:13 because it's really a story of ancient Israel 52:15 and it's a story of modern Israel. 52:16 It's a story of God's church today, 52:19 it's a story of each one of us. 52:21 If Elijah, man just like us, 52:23 the Bible says Elijah was a man 52:25 subject to the same passions that you and I wrestle with. 52:28 But he stood up for God and God stood up for him. 52:31 He had his ups and downs, he got discouraged 52:34 but his life ended in victory. 52:35 He went to heaven in glory. 52:37 How many of you want to go up when Jesus comes down? 52:39 Amen. 52:40 You want to be ready when He comes. 52:42 We need the Holy Spirit 52:44 filling our lives as it did Elijah. 52:46 If He did that for Elijah 52:48 and He did it for John the Baptist, 52:49 He can do for us today. 53:07 Have you ever heard the expression before, 53:10 "They eat like a bird?" 53:11 Talking about somebody that has a miniscule appetite. 53:14 Well, you might want to think twice next time 53:16 you use that expression. 53:17 For example, take the humming bird. 53:20 In order for it to maintain its incredible metabolism, 53:23 it has to eat about 50% of its body weight everyday. 53:27 To put that in perspective, 53:29 if a 100 pound woman was to eat like a humming bird, 53:32 she would have to eat 50 pounds of sugar a day 53:35 just to maintain her body weight. 53:37 Imagine that. 53:38 Maybe you don't want to imagine that. 53:41 But perhaps you want to consider this another way, 53:43 the humming bird typically consumes 53:45 between four to seven calories a day. 53:47 On the other hand, a human about 3,500 calories a day. 53:51 But if you were to eat like a bird, 53:53 a humming bird, 53:54 you'd have to eat over 150,000 calories a day. 53:59 That's like a man 170 pounds 54:02 that would be eating 3,000 Oreo cookies. 54:05 Under normal conditions, 54:07 a humming bird needs to eat every five or ten minutes. 54:10 But there's actually one time during the year 54:12 the humming bird will eat its entire body weight 54:14 every day. 54:16 You see, once a year they make these migrations, 54:19 500 miles across the Gulf of Mexico, 54:21 from Texas to the Yucatan Peninsula. 54:25 In order to do that, 54:27 the humming bird feasts on nectar 54:29 and gorges themselves on this nectar 54:31 for about a week doubling their body weight. 54:34 That's the only way they can store enough calories 54:36 to help them with their 70 wing beats per second 54:40 or roughly four million wing beats on that journey. 54:44 You know, in the same way, friends, 54:45 as we near the end of time, 54:47 we need to be feasting and gorging ourselves 54:49 on the nectar of God's word. 54:51 We've got to be able to have that strength 54:53 to get us through the times of trouble that are ahead. 54:55 So when it comes to the Bible and your personal devotions, 54:58 if you're gonna eat like a bird, 55:00 eat like a humming bird. 55:26 Amazing Facts changed lives. 55:35 I couldn't understand just buying any kind of drugs 55:38 just to do for myself 55:39 because it just made sense to invest it in something else 55:43 and then I can make all the money back 55:44 and have weed that I could smoke for free. 55:48 I was having a lot of fun, 55:51 at least at first. 55:54 I was making more money than anybody that I knew. 55:57 I've got, you know, 55:59 pounds and pounds of weed in the closet, 56:01 I've got a beautiful fully furnished apartment, 56:04 the chandelier hanging in my living room. 56:06 I've got a luxury car, all leather interior, 56:09 I got the hottest girlfriend. 56:12 I have every single thing 56:13 that this world tells me that I need. 56:17 And that's when I realized how empty I really was. 56:23 Eventually, smoking weed didn't do it anymore. 56:26 I started going to doing a lot of acid, 56:30 LSD and ecstasy. 56:32 Of course, other hard drugs came to the picture. 56:36 I found out that you can't run away from yourself. 56:40 No matter where you go, there you are. 56:41 It was very difficult to reconcile a faith in God 56:45 and then this lifestyle that I was choosing to live. 56:48 And at this point I had made that choice 56:50 to lead that lifestyle but I couldn't reverse it. 56:53 Even though I wanted to stop or at least slow down, 56:57 I had no power. 57:00 I said, "God, do whatever it is, 57:01 you got to do to change me." 57:03 I get arrested for DUI. 57:06 I've been to jail many times before 57:07 but I used to think that the reason that I went to jail 57:10 is because God was sick of me, that God hated me. 57:14 There I am in jail 57:16 and I'm starting to see the fact that God loves me 57:19 to know the emptiness of this world, 57:21 to know that this life really stinks. 57:27 But there is hope. 57:29 And the hope that I found can only be seen 57:34 or known in Christ Jesus. 57:44 Together we have spread the gospel 57:46 much farther than ever before. 57:49 Thank you for your support. 57:57 For life changing Christian resources, 57:59 visit afbookstore.com. |
Revised 2017-11-09