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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

Elijah

David Wright

01 Standing Alone in the Gap

Most heroes in the world unfortunately look better from a distance than they do up close.

As when you often get closer, they tend to disappoint.

I'm talking about that person that's full of quiet, spoken wisdom.

They always seem to bring a new perspective, an added depth to whatever decision you are making.

Perhaps it's their integrity or their generosity or their determination.

Perhaps it's because they never trumpet their own achievements but leave them unannounced for others to discover.

God first, family second, everything else third.

I'm not sure who might come to mind for you, but for me I already spoiled it, didn't I?

Here's some of the earlier pictures I could find.

I probably could have scrounged around, but most of them were at my parents' house.

These were a few that were on my computer.

On the side there is when I was in Pohnpei and they flew 9, 000 miles to come see me and I got a haircut from dad that I desperately needed.

Then in these pictures, let's see, we have the birth of Lauren, our first child.

We have a Tainted GC session together, doing a quartet with a few people you may recognize there.

The top picture there is, or top left picture, is at my ordination some time ago.

Dad also taught me to enjoy and love travel and the outdoors and hiking and backpacking.

Here they are with my family not too long ago and this is when I was younger.

The smaller 1 there is my little brother Stephen.

I remember going with dad at that age but I didn't have that picture to share.

Snow skiing and many other adventures with dad.

I can also say my dad is a Renaissance man.

There's very little, if anything, that he cannot do or that he doesn't take on.

He can rebuild wrecked cars, make his own clothes, woodworking, house remodeling, he's a theologian.

It really doesn't matter what question you have, you are remiss if you don't check with Dad first because even if you've thought of seemingly everything, he might add in 1 little thing or 1 question that you say, oh yeah, maybe I should do a little more research.

Sadly, humble heroes are getting dangerously thin anymore.

Is his love and connection with Jesus and the impact that has had on everything else.

Exit my dad, oh here we are working on couple porches on 2 different houses.

I'm actually wearing my dad's gown when I graduated with my doctorate.

And then he even helped me some with James's pine box.

A man with humble beginnings, as we will see, who seems to emerge out of nowhere but makes a significant contribution to God's plan for his people and becomes 1 of Israel's most famous heroes.

And again where was his greatness rooted?

But in the love of his God, his jealousy for the glory of God.

But before we look at the life of Elijah, and that says part 1 there, we're gonna be looking at his life for many sermons.

I thought I might just cram it all in to 1 and have you here till 5.30, but I've decided to make it a series.

So this is the first part of this series.

But before we look at the life of Elijah, I think we need to look at the context of Elijah, which is significant.

I'm gonna leave this on the screen for a while.

I know that's very small on the right hand side.

But for well over 100 years, the Israelites lived under the reign of 3 kings, and we know them well.

We have Saul, we have David, and we have Solomon.

And that was the beginning of the monarchy.

So we have that anchored in our minds pretty well, don't we?

But if you read your Bible beyond that, if you're like me, you can get rather confused.

Well, at the end of Solomon's life, There was a civil war that broke out.

And then you had what there is on the map.

You had the kingdom of Israel or the northern kingdom in the blue.

And you'll see on the left side of the chart is Israel and all of those kings and monarchs and so on.

And then you have the kingdom of Judah or the southern kingdom which is in orange or on the right side of the chart here.

And it's in the southern kingdom that we find the city of Jerusalem.

The part that's confusing to me when I read the passages is that they are co-ruling at the same time and sometimes they're even telling you this 1 reigned during that one's reign and that 1 reigned during this one's reign and I just can get very confused.

And so I put them up on the chart and where we're going to land for this series is right there in the middle, Ahab and Jezebel.

And so that can maybe give you a little bit of an anchor point, if you will, in all of this.

Israel, or the northern kingdom, had 19 monarchs.

And that's the part of where we'll find our story of Ahab and Jezebel in the middle.

Judah, the southern kingdom, had 17 monarchs.

8 of these followed the Lord to some degree, 9 however were wicked.

As far as the timeline, Israel ended with the Assyrian invasion in 722 BC and Judah ended with the Babylonian invasion in 586 BC.

And I realize that's kind of small there on the screen, but at least perhaps that will give us some kind of a context, some kind of a framework, what happened?

Well, we had the Exodus, and God delivered his people, and he brought them out of bondage and he worked and he labored and he labored and he worked.

And through various prophets and through various men, he brought them into the promised land.

And now we've come to the point where there's been civil war where everybody has been broken up in these 2 camps, if you will.

And we see major backsliding of God's people.

And again and again, God sent many prophets to both Israel and Judah in an attempt to bring his people back, to bring them to repentance.

I can only imagine the heart of God after all he's invested and this is what he now has to show for his remnant people.

You're welcome to follow along in your Bible.

Eventually we're gonna land in chapter 17.

But in 1 Kings 13 verse 33 it says, Jeroboam, the first ruler of Israel, and we're just going to stick to that side for this morning.

Jeroboam made priests of the high places from among all the people.

Any who would he ordained to be priests of the high places.

So you may be asking, what are the high places?

And other places, it talks about the high places and the Asherah poles.

Well, the high places, it comes from the root word of the ridge of the back of an animal, it'd be the back or ridge of a mountain, it was a high place.

We like to hike on Saturday afternoons to high places, something with a view, with an overlook, and it's a spiritual setting for maybe you and I, and it was for them too, except they twisted it and it became a place of idol worship.

And you might sit there and think, well, idol worship, well, what was the attraction to idol worship?

Well, when you start to intermarry with people that are not part of God's people, it can happen this same way today.

They say, we like to do things this way, or I always remember that in our culture we did it that way, and they start to draw the hearts of their men or their spouse away from the Lord and they start introducing more and more of this idolatry and let me tell you, it wasn't just bowing down to stone or wood or something else, but they got a little more creative than that.

We could say the devil got a little more creative than that.

Oftentimes, this worship involved sexual experiences that were part of the worship service.

And these would take place at these high places.

To appease the gods, they had to go through different rituals and practices.

And this was alluring, this was exciting, this was new, this was different.

02 When the Brook Dries Up

Well this morning I simply want to ask the question, have you ever been forgotten?

I know in my family, if you weren't where you were supposed to be, when you were supposed to be there, at the time you were supposed to be there, you might get left.

It's a little different than being forgotten, but the experience is similar.

My parents would come to church, oftentimes in 2 cars, Dad would go extra early, and Mom would come along later with us kids.

And so after church, it often would exist that somebody would think that they were with the other parent, and maybe that happened to you at 1 point in time.

As long as you're aware you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there.

I was talking to my brother just this week about a time that he recalls when someone was forgotten.

They were on an orchestra trip from Southern Adventist University.

They were driving down on their annual tour through Florida and as they came through on 75 into Florida they stopped at the, what does it call, Welcome Center.

And while they're pulled in there at the Welcome Center everybody gets off and takes their turn in the restroom and does whatever they need to do and then they board back on the bus and they think that everyone is back on the bus and they proceed to pull out and away they go.

Continuing down to Florida the destination for that day was FLA, which stands for Forest Lake Academy.

And so it wasn't until they were at FLA and they were unpacking their things that they started to put 2 and 2 together, we're missing somebody.

He played the trumpet and in the orchestra you only have 3 trumpeters, so each 1 is critically important.

And John Foster got left way up there at the Welcome Center when he was supposed to be down here at Forest Lake Academy.

Well this is in the late 90s, maybe there was a few cell phones, but it wasn't a prominent thing, certainly not for college students.

And so he was there left wondering, well, the bus is obviously not here, I'm obviously not on it, what to do now?

I imagine he said a few prayers, I don't know.

And lo and behold, who should show up at that very same welcome center, but another, I don't know if it was a van or another bus, some 30 years have gone by, but another Adventist academy pulled up to that same rest stop and they just happened to be heading south, otherwise they'd be on the other side of the interstate, right?

And he explained himself and who he was with and where he was supposed to be And they were able to somehow get in contact, I don't know if they used a pay phone or what, with somebody there at FLA, and they said, we have John, we're bringing him down.

Of course, they couldn't contact the bus because they were en route, but when they got there, somebody came and found the group from Southern Adventist University, and they said, don't worry, John is on his way.

To which everyone said, whew, can you imagine being in charge on that trip?

And what does it feel like in those moments?

They went all that way and nobody asked about me?

And maybe you've been forgotten in the way that you see, I don't know what his experience was, but you see the car pulling away.

And maybe you're running after the car, you're waving your hands.

My wife did this to me just the other day as I recall.

I was trying to get her attention, she's backing out of the driveway, there's something I wanna tell her, and I run and she stops for just a minute and so I slow down to walk up to the car and then she proceeds to back up again And I have to start running again and I say no no no no wait and she said oh, I know just kidding To be forgotten We've been studying the days of Elijah in this series and today's piece.

There's a lot of fascinating parallels between the days of Elijah and the days in which we are living now.

And on this piece, we're not really looking at those parallels, we will get to those parallels.

But I'm always fascinated at the individuals in, whether it's modern history or current history or back in Bible times, not just the great things that these men did by God's grace, but the things that were part of who that man was in his upbringing, part of the challenges they had along the way, part of the things that made the man.

And so that's really the part that we're gonna be looking at today when the brook dries up.

And so as a way of review, I put this genealogy on the screen last time.

I'm not gonna go over all of it again, but it's sad to me that in the course of just 100 years, that's a long time but it's really not a long time, in just a hundred years the monarchy went from its height to Solomon and all the splendor of the the kingdom and all these kings and queens coming to sit at his feet to learn from Solomon.

And just a hundred years later we find ourselves where we are in this story with wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel and things have deteriorated worse and worse and worse and worse and last time we went over how this king was worse than any king before him until there was this king which was worse than any king before him until and it just down down down it goes.

1st Kings 13 33 says Jeroboam made priests of the high places from among all the people any who would he ordained to be priests of these high places just grabbing whoever he thought and all the immoral acts that went with this Baal worship and we talked about that some last time and in just the course of a hundred years I found myself thinking how long has our church been around?

But could it be that we have lost some of our identity?

We're told in Prophets and Kings, this seductive form of idolatry exerted the baleful influence until well nigh all Israel were following after Baal.

These degrading pleasures of sensual worship.

And then we look last time as well in James chapter 5, verse 17.

And we'll probably keep coming back to this because there's several pieces of this verse that I like.

But it says, Elijah was a man with a nature like ours.

And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the land for 3 years and 6 months.

Elijah, the man that we often think He is so far up here, he's an untouchable individual.

James reminds us, no, he had a nature like us.

And he prayed earnestly for the glory of God.

In fact, I put that on the screen last time too, Testimonies for the Church, volume 3, 263.

Elijah's faithful soul was grieved, his indignation was aroused, and he was jealous for the glory of God.

And so he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed that God would do something for his people, for God's people, for this remnant and God granted his desire.

And so let's look, it's only a few verses that we covered.

In fact I think last time we only covered 1 verse but we're gonna go a few more today we're in 1st Kings chapter 17 and we'll begin in verse 1 there and Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead which really is in the middle of nowhere, said to Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word.

And Spirit of Prophecy helps us understand that he just walked through with sheer confidence through all the guards and through all the pomp and circumstance directly before the king and he surprises everybody and he just says without any introduction as the Lord God of Israel lives before him whom I stand there shall not be do nor rain these years except at my word.

But I also find interesting verse 2, then the word of the Lord came to him saying, get away from here and turn eastward and hide by the brook cherished which flows into the Jordan.

Now that's a piece I would have liked to have known before I went charging in before the CEO or the king or whomever with this bold declaration I'd like to know my escape plan but I'm amazed that Elijah doesn't know what the next step will be he just knows he's going to deliver this message and then the Lord speaks to him and he says, okay, good job, thank you for what you've done, now hide, and I'll show you where.

To which we have to ask the question, does God ever command us to hide?

Does God ever call his disciples to retreat?

I found myself thinking about that this week.

I remember David in his old age, he wanted to go out and fight, but Adonijah would not let him go.

He said, no, no, no, No, you have to stay back.

There was a time that Paul wanted to go into a Greek city that wanted to tear him limb from limb, but his friends made him leave and said, Paul, we need you.

I remember when Jesus said to his disciples, if they persecute you in this city, what did he say?

Get in their face and preach all the louder?

Shake the dust off your feet and flee to another city, another place.

And here Elijah is fearlessly brave, and now God tells him, good work.

Find a secluded spot and stay there rather than find.

I'll show you a secluded spot and you will stay there.

And continuing on, verse 4 we read, and it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I've commanded the ravens to feed you there.

He doesn't question, he doesn't say are you sure, It just says he went and did according to the word of the Lord for he went and stayed by the brook Cherish which flowed into the Jordan And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

You go here, I'll provide for your needs, and just hang out for a while.

Now we don't know for sure but it was thought that this might be a picture of the area where Elijah was.

Scholars call this place today Wadi el-Yabis, which is about 30 miles east of Samaria.

And if it wasn't a place exactly like this, it probably looked to a place similar like this, that Elijah was cut off, he was removed, he was isolated, he was protected.

And granted, when everybody wants to come find me and do bad things to me, protection is a good thing.

And I imagine for the first, I don't know, many days, maybe even weeks, he was very glad for the protection and provision of God.

But how much time would have to pass before he'd be thinking, okay, Lord, now what?

03 Willing to Give Up Everything

Well this morning I want to start with this question what are your priorities?

If you were to take the top 5 and I've listed some of these and maybe you have a priority that's not on here I'm sure we could find individuals that their top priority is some you know random thing and there's everything under the sun, I suppose, but if we were to say, for some, they might say, well, number 1 priority is me.

It's my life, it's my health, it's my livelihood.

And maybe Second on the list, well, my work and what I do for a living.

Of course, relationships aren't far behind.

Those ones that are closest to me, my family.

I might let God come in there around number 4, and if there's time, I might do a little bit for the church or mission, and that might be somebody's priority list.

Whether it's known and on paper, or if it's just lived out, that could be their list.

Others like to say things to just get out of the list altogether, they say things like, well for me, everything's a priority.

If everything's a priority, then nothing is a priority.

Some might say, you know, my life is important, but relationships are very important.

And then I go to work, and I do that whole thing, and then I try and be a good person and I try and live for God and and I try and help out in my church when I can.

Others might say well life and relationships and then then it's God I even put God before my work And that would be good and then if there's time maybe the church or mission or something of that nature But what should the list be?

I Believe he deserves to be at the top of every list.

Secondly, I would say relationships and family and you say, oh hold on, you're a pastor, it's supposed to be the church.

I've known way too many pastors that church is number 2 and family is 3, and I don't like to hang out with their family, do you?

They're dysfunctional, their kids are a mess.

Meaning they need a little more dad in their life.

So I would say God first, relationships and family, I think it's a biblical idea as for me and my house.

And when we do that, we can better serve the church and be part of mission.

I think our life and our health is certainly important.

Well, if I'm not healthy, how well can I work?

And so I propose that that's perhaps a better list of the priorities, but the real uncomfortable truth is on any given day, this list might get scrambled.

I don't want it to get scrambled, and neither do you, but some days it just gets scrambled.

Well my family is so important, their priority.

Like Billy just said, too often our more natural tendency is to rearrange the list.

We're going through a series I'm calling The Days of Elijah.

I believe we're living in the days of Elijah.

And in part 3, we're looking at this idea, willing to give up everything.

It's a lot easier said than done, to give up everything, and to have God truly be at the top of the list.

But today I want to look at this piece of the story.

We're still in 1 Kings chapter 17, where we have an example of that.

And as we go through in chapter 17 and I'll open my Bible there as well, quick review and I think most of us know the story of Elijah pretty well but first it starts out just straight out of the gate with a bold message that Elijah has from the Lord because Elijah is jealous for the glory of God.

And he says, as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives before whom I serve or stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years except at my word.

Then last week we saw almost immediately there begins this season of isolation for Elijah as Elijah stayed alone by the brook Cherish for many months, trusting in the provision and timing of the Lord.

Here is the patience of the saints, if you will, as he waits and waits and waits.

And then finally at the end of that message last week, he gets the call to go.

As the brook dries up, God has not forgotten about his prophet, about his servant, about his man, and he says, Elijah, it's time to go.

To which they probably was relieved to hear, and he says, okay, where are we going?

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Elijah

01 Standing Alone in the Gap

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