Michigan Camp Meeting 2018: As a Witness, Matthew 24:14

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Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

Doug Batchelor

Part 5 - Crossing the Jordan

I heard about a man who dreamed he was walking through the desert and he heard a voice and it said, pick up some of the pebbles.

When he woke up, he thought, well, that was the most vivid dream I've ever had.

He had reached down in the dream and he had picked up some pebbles in obedience to the voice and then he thought to feel his pocket.

He said, sure enough, there's something in his pocket.

But they weren't pebbles, they were jewels.

And the man was so happy, he had obeyed the voice and picked some up.

But he was sad he had not picked up more.

That's something how it is with studying the Word of God.

And we're going to be so thankful when Jesus comes for the words of life that we've hidden in our hearts and the souls that we have brought to Christ.

But we'll probably be sad also that we had not done more with the time that we have.

I'm very thankful for the time the bachelors have been able to share with you and we've enjoyed visiting with some old friends, not that they're like old in years or anything, but longtime friends and making some new ones.

But we're going to conclude our study tonight talking about the days of Elijah and there's much more I could say.

And there's so many types of Christ in the story of Elijah as was in our scripture reading today.

There's probably, well I don't know how to say that.

Turn in your Bibles to the first book of Kings chapter 19.

We're going to pick up where we left off.

Now, in our last study, the fire of God had come down.

He prayed the water of God had come down.

Unless you are born of the water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.

We showed how the children of Israel were baptized in the sea and in the cloud.

Indeed, even our world I did not mention this this morning.

Our world was washed in water back in the days of Noah.

Peter said, 2 Peter chapter 3, when the Lord comes, it will be washed in fire and then God makes a new earth.

Even the world is made new after it is born of the water and the fire.

We need the water baptism and we need the spirit baptism.

And it's so important if we're gonna do the work of God and live the life that we receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Even Jesus did not venture into his ministry until he had been anointed by the Spirit.

And that of course is what the word Messiah and Christ Christos means, the anointed.

So Ahab, he rides through the storm, Elijah runs before him, he comes to the fortress of Jezreel.

You think Ahab would have enough hospitality to say, let me get you a room for the night.

And Ahab went and told Jezebel everything that had happened.

You wonder, how did Jezebel feel about all of her prophets being killed?

She was pretty happy to kill all of Jehovah's prophets, but now Ahab comes back and says, you know, as you did, it's been done to you.

It's Like the song, The Mighty Fortress, where that verse says, 1 little word will fell him.

The word of God can bring down the devil in his forces.

She is fuming and stomping and she sends a messenger to Elijah.

So let the gods do so to me and more also if I do not make your life as a life of 1 of them by tomorrow about this time.

Sends a very precise threatening message that I'm going to kill you.

And Elijah does something that is a little bit of a letdown.

Every other time so far in the study of Elijah from the first time he appeared, it says, the word of the Lord said, come, The word of the Lord said, come, the word of the Lord said, go, and he does what the word of the Lord says.

Now Elijah runs when he's not told to run.

And when he saw that, he arose and he ran for his life.

You ever heard that expression, run for your life?

He ran for his life and he went to Beersheba which belongs to Judah.

He's heading south and he left his servant there But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness.

He went down, crossed the Jordan, over into the wilderness.

And he came and he sat down under a juniper or a broom tree and he prayed he might die.

You know, it's amazing to me how quickly sometimes you can go from the mountaintop where you are praying and the fire and the rain are coming down.

And you just experience the power of God and the authority of God and the faith and the confidence of God.

And after he gets a threatening message, he runs for his life and he's hiding under a broom tree out in the wilderness praying he might die.

You know, sometimes the mountain experiences are followed by valleys.

You ever discover that mountains and valleys follow each other?

Life is sometimes a series of ups and downs.

They got a good king and they're riding high and then they get confident and then they get a bad king and they go down and they're overcome and it seems like it's a roller coaster, something like our lives.

David at the zenith of his power and success and victories, he takes a walk on his roof and from his roof he spies Bathsheba.

Jesus is up on the mountain and he appears, Moses and Elijah appear to him.

Glory, the voice of God, clouds of angels.

And he comes down and there's a man with a demon-possessed boy in the valley.

You got to be careful when you're on the mountain.

Someone said if you don't want to be struck by lightning, kneel as far as you can.

I'm thinking, well, if you really wanted to die, why are you running from Jezebel?

You should have just stayed there, right?

Sometimes we pray things we don't really mean.

You know, a lot of times we get discouraged and we're just plain tired and hungry.

Karen and I always try to schedule our arguments for when we're tired and hungry.

So many of the things that we argue about, I don't just mean us, I mean you too, if you had a good night's sleep and a decent meal, it changes your whole perspective.

So under the broom tree, out in the desert, he's praying for death.

As he slept under the broom tree, suddenly an angel touches him and says, arise and eat.

Then he looks and there by his head was a cake baked on coals in a jar of water.

And so he ate and he drank and he was still so tired, he fell right back to sleep.

And the angel of the Lord came back the second time and touched him.

An angel's gentle, you know, he touches him.

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Part 5 - Crossing the Jordan

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