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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Steven Conway

The Elijah Dilemma

Loving Father, we are grateful for life and health and strength and we pray that the Holy Spirit may continue to be here in this place with us.

We ask that Jesus might reveal himself to us and in the process help us to see ourselves more fully also.

We will be careful to give you the praise, the honor, and the glory for anything good that comes from us in Jesus name.

When I say that I'm blessed to be here, truly I am for so many different reasons.

And I wish that my wife were here with me today.

We experienced an unexpected death in the family.

So unfortunately, you have not seen the best of the Conway clan.

Because certainly when you've seen her, you will have seen the best of me.

Well, today I want to speak with you about the Elijah dilemma and I'm going to talk to you briefly about Elijah.

How many of you are familiar with the prophet Elijah?

All right, you've heard of him before, right?

Elijah was a prophet of Jehovah who seemingly comes out of nowhere And he predicted that there would be no dew or rain, but according to his word.

Elijah is then divinely guided into the wilderness where ravens feed him.

When what was apparently the last water source, the Kareth Brook, dries up, he is again divinely guided to the home of a widow of Zarephath.

Elijah tells this woman to make her last provisions for him, and miraculously, her oil and meal do not fail for the rest of the drought.

Elijah raises a widow's son back to life after a terrible sickness had befallen him.

Elijah returns from his time in the wilderness during this drought to defeat the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel in the sight of all of Israel.

Elijah, the Bible tells us, was a man subject to like passions as we are.

Yet this Elijah prayed and it rained after 3 and a half years of drought.

This same Elijah ran before Ahab's horses Let me say that again He ran before Ahab's horses leading them to the gates of Jezreel Elijah was translated.

But when we speak of the Elijah message, there is 1 passage in particular in scripture that sheds light on what we generally focus on.

It's found in 1 Kings chapter 18 verses 17 and 18.

The Bible says there in 1 Kings chapter 18 beginning with verse 17.

And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said unto him, art thou he that troubleth Israel?

And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou has followed Balaam.

Whenever we talk about the Elijah message or even Elijah's experience we generally point to these passages and We say that Elijah's ministry focused on turning people back to the commandments of God Is that true?

His was a ministry of Reformation a Ministry of what?

But I would suggest to you today that the Elijah message is also inclusive of Elijah's experience.

It is extremely difficult for us to separate the man from the message.

And so I want you to look in 1 Kings chapter 19 because Elijah's experience did not end on Mount Carmel.

But in 1 Kings chapter 19, the Bible says in verse 1, And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal, how he had slain all the prophets with the sword.

Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah saying So let the gods do to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of 1 of them by tomorrow about this time.

And when he saw that, verse 3, He arose and went for his life and came to Beersheba which belongs to Judah and left his servant there.

But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a juniper tree and he requested for himself that he might die and said it is enough now.

Oh Lord take away my life for I am NOT better than my father's.

It is always interesting to me how when we speak of Bible characters we always or we often refer to the glorious parts of their lives.

Everybody wants to be like Elijah on Mount Carmel.

Everyone wants to stand for God in the midst of apostasy and be able to call down fire from heaven.

Or perhaps we speak of Elijah as he is taken up by those chariots.

Who doesn't want to go to heaven without seeing death?

However, Elijah did not develop the character that was necessary for his ultimate translation without his dramatic failure.

Elijah, dear friends, abandoned his post.

Elijah wrestled with extreme depression so that he desired to die.

Now, we don't talk about Elijah in these terms often, but I think we need to.

How is it dear friends that Elijah was able to stand on Mount Carmel and he's able to do all these wonderful things and then he abandons his post at Jezebel's message.

I mean, how many of you would choose to go live out in the middle of nowhere and wait on some birds to come and feed you Elijah was prepared for resistance.

He was prepared to go without He was prepared to endure but Elijah was not prepared for apparent disappointment and failure.

This, dear friends, is the 1 thing that challenged the experience of Elijah, his apparent disappointment and failure.

This is from Prophets and Kings, page 155, just to emphasize the fact that Elijah's problem was not a faith problem.

It was not, I said Prophets and Kings 155 didn't I?

It was not because of any outward evidence that the showers were about to fall that Elijah could so confidently bid Ahab prepare for rain.

The prophet saw no clouds in the heavens.

He simply spoke the word that the Spirit of the Lord had moved him to speak in response to his own strong faith.

Elijah says prepare for rain even though there are no outward evidences of rain.

Elijah possessed the faith that was necessary.

He possessed the faith that was needed when it came to material or the material blessings of rain and fire.

Elijah needed this same faith in waiting for the spiritual rain and the spiritual fires of revival to fall.

Have you ever noticed that it's easier for you and I to deal with having faith about material things than it is for us to have faith about God's ability to work on the human heart.

It's easier for us to pray and believe that God is going to make a way for my tuition to be paid.

He's going to make a way for my rent to be paid.

He's going to make a way for me to be able to go through all of the courses of study that are required.

It's easy for us to pray about material things, but it is not as easy for us to pray and believe that God can convert my mother or my father.

It's not as easy for me to pray and believe that God can change not only the mind, but the heart and the lifestyle of individuals who I long can experience God's so great salvation.

Because of this difference, the difference between material blessings and something as necessary as revival.

Revival and spiritual renewal are far more elusive, Far more elusive than the material things we ask for.

I want to submit to you today, my friends, that the faith we exercise in waiting on material blessings prepares you and I to persevere with faith for the spiritual blessings or those things which deal with the human heart.

If you've ever waited on God for something material and he has come through, it is evidence that God can also come through and change not only the lives of those who are within your spheres of influence, but God can change your heart as well.

Even though Elijah turned his back on God and on his calling, God did not turn his back on Elijah.

Elijah turned his back on God and on his calling.

Let me go a step further because I believe the Bible does.

God preserved Elijah while Elijah was running from him.

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The Elijah Dilemma

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