And if the rest of you would take your Bibles turn if you would to first Kings, first Kings chapter 17. First Kings 17, We'll continue our series here on Elijah. I've heard, I don't know how many people particularly on the news over the past couple of weeks say, oh, we will be so glad to put 2020 behind us. We'll be so glad to put '20 to. Well, in this 2020 is over.

I'll be so much better. I I don't I don't know. The Lord doesn't tell us where 2021 is going to be so much better than 2020. Maybe we'll put this virus and all that mess behind us. Lord willing.

But life is life is full of trouble. The Bible says, the sparks fly upward out of a fire. So, life is full of trouble. We live in a sinful world. We live in a a sinful society and more and more so turning its back on God it would seem and that brings trouble.

Sin has consequences. God does bring judgement. Now, I'm not one to stand up here and to say every time something happened in this world. Well, that was God bringing judgement for this because I don't know. But I do know God does bring judgement.

I do know sin does have consequences and I know that we all have to deal sometimes with the consequences not only of our sin but of the sin of this world in which we live. And here in we find the story of Elijah. Elijah was a prophet in a wicked land. Northern Israel after Israel, after Solomon, Israel split, north and South, the kings of the North were all wicked people. Immediately, they made idols, erected idols, and altars in Bethel in the South and Dan in the North.

So, the people would not go worship God in the temple in Jerusalem in the South and so immediately, the northern tribes got started off on the wrong foot in idolatry. They were trying to mix the worship of the true God with idolatry. Do those two mix? The answer is no. They don't mix.

What happens? What happens is this, God says, I'm the only God. And I will not share my glory with what? With another. And you can't ride the fence there.

You're either worshiping the true God or you're not. Northern Israel fell off the fence on the wrong side very quickly. Went into idolatry and it only got worse from there. By the time of Elijah, a man named Ahab was now king in Northern Israel. Ahab had married a Sidonian princess, the daughter of a Sidonian king who was also a Sidonian priest to the false god Baal in Sidon.

A false god of the Canaanites. And he led Israel into Baal worship. Completely abandoning God altogether. And that's where we pick up our story in first Kings chapter one. The first Kings 17 verse one.

And Elijah the Tishbite who was of the inhabitants of Gilead said unto Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel live it before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years but according to my word And the word of the Lord came unto him saying, get thee hence and turn the eastward. Hide thyself by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan, and it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there. So he went, did according unto the word of the Lord for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith that is before Jordan and the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening and he drank of the brook and it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Lord, thank you for your word today.

Thank you Lord for the example of Elijah and for all that you did in his life that you've recorded for us. Lord, to encourage us that you take care of your servants and Lord to challenge us to serve you faithfully and to trust you more and more each day. Lord, I pray that you would use us as you used Elijah to be a light and a testimony in the world and in the times which we live. For Lord, we know if we serve you faithfully, Lord, you have promised to take care of your own and you will. Lord, help us to trust you more with that and help us Lord to take up the commission that you have given us to be salt and light in these days.

We pray in Jesus name, amen. Elijah, God's chosen servant, a nobody, as we mentioned last week, a nobody in the eyes of the world, came from an insignificant town in on the wrong side of the river but God used him mightily. He was a man of like passions as we, that is a man of like concerns and frailties as the rest of us. But this man stood boldly before Ahab and gave him God's message. It is not going to rain again until I say so.

He stood boldly before Ahab. Why was this God's message? As we mentioned, the king Ahab had turned the people from the worship in in any respect of the true God to the false god Baal. He had done very wickedly was worse than all of the kings before him. And not only was Ahab at fault, but the people of Israel were complicit also.

As are the people of America today. We like to blame our leaders, don't we? We like, we like to blame our leaders. We like to talk about how bad they are and boy, how can this be and how can that be and I don't think we'll vote for them and Moe, look what's going to happen if and by the way, you need to vote. I do believe being salt and light in in a place where you can vote, I think includes voting.

But I think you need to represent Christ with your vote. Because we're first of all what? Christians. And I think we need to make sure we know who we're voting for. Because God's going to hold us accountable for that.

The people of today in America in so many ways have turned away from the God that we once claimed to serve. We cannot blame our leaders for it. If we suffer, we suffer as a group. Because as a people, as a culture, we have allowed God to be stripped from our public society and out of homes and out of our lives and hearts. Praise God you that are here this morning.

You haven't allowed him to be ripped out of your heart. But we need to be the light testimony we need to be because there are few today in comparison to days that are past. As Elijah went before Ahab, I had this thought. If I were Elijah, I might would wonder what is going to happen to me. Elijah knew what the message he had to give was.

He knew that it was not going to be well received. He also knew that the judgment that God was bringing was also likely to impact who? Himself. Would Ahab kill him? Could have?

Would Ahab imprison him? Could have. Would he suffer famine and hunger with others in Israel? Could have. I don't think God told him ahead of time.

Doesn't appear that he did. He just told him, you go and give this message and that's what he did. Trusting that God would take care of the what? We take care of the rest. We take care of him.

Elijah because of his trust in God followed through with his task no matter what would result personally for him. Reminds me of Esther in the book of Esther. Mordecai came to her, sent message to her. The law has been passed. For the execution of of all of your people.

You need to do something. You need to go talk to the king. Well, if I go talk to the king, he could have me executed. If I haven't been summoned, if I just go on my own, but she she decided to go. She asked Mordecai to pray and the people to fast and her words were this, if I perish, I perish.

If I perish, I perish and so she went. I like the words of the three Hebrew young men who wouldn't bow before Nebuchadnezzar's image. Threatened with death, staring at the mouth of the fiery furnace on one hand and Nebuchadnezzar on the other. This is what they had to say in Daniel chapter three. Oh Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and he will deliver us out of thine hand, oh king, but if not, be it known unto thee, oh king, that we will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. They demonstrated a courageous faith and trust in their God. And an unwillingness to compromise with the world. But they didn't assume God's will. They trusted in God's will.

They said, he can deliver us. We don't know that he will deliver us but what we do know this this king, we're not, we're not compromising. We're not bowing to your image. We're not doing it in the plane. We're not doing it before your presence because there's only one one, only one God and we won't bow before yours and they trusted in the Lord.

We see from the following verses, however, that God indeed was there for Elijah and he took care of him. As he promised also to take care of his disciples. We just read this verse and sang this verse. Jesus speaking to his disciples and I believe also us to us says this, but seek you first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. The things that you require, the things that you must have, that you need.

God says, I will be there. Jesus said, I will take care of you. You won't go wanting. You'll have what you need but you need to put me what? You need to put me first.

You need to serve me first. You need to trust me. You need to seek my will. If you'll do that, I'll take care of you. Hebrews thirteen five says this, let your conversation or conduct be without covetousness, greed, and be content with such things as you have.

For he has said, I will never leave thee nor what? Forsake. Forsake thee. God says, follow me. Trust me.

Be content. With the way that I lead and the things I provide, because the most important thing of all to know is this, I will never leave you. I will not forsake you. I will always be there. For those who know me and serve me.

Now, don't get me wrong. Sometimes, God's children also bear the burden of God's wrath upon the ungodly. Not all Israel had abandoned their faith. We find out later, there were sadly seven, was it 700 or 7,000? I forget.

In Israel that had not bowed the knee to who? To Baal. So, he was not the only one who stayed true to God and yet, these true believers also were going to suffer hardship along with Israel. Now, facing drought and thereby lack of food and water. Noah, God came to Noah and he said, I'm going to destroy the world.

I'm going to save you and your family but here's what you have to do. You need to build a boat. Took him one hundred years to build it and during that time, he was ridiculed. He was mocked. He was scoffed at.

It wasn't an easy time. I don't believe for Noah. But God sustained him. Israel had to put the blood on the doorpost of their homes during the tenth plague or else or else their firstborn would have still died with the firstborn of Egypt. Exiles like Joseph and Daniel, Ezekiel, and John suffered in captivity, did they not?

Some were delivered miraculously from the hand of their persecutors. Others, as reminded in Hebrews 11, were slain by them. But in every case, God was with them. They did not face those trials alone. And for the Christian, death is not at all the end.

It is just the beginning. God was always there to supply grace and strength to those who serve him. I'll mention that I'm going a few more details here in a few minutes but if you drove in this morning and you know what my Mazda looks like, it's not out there this morning. I drove another car. Our white car, we had a white Grand Marquis that we've had for several years that was twenty five years old.

Finally, I took it to the mechanic and he said, you can't drive this thing anymore, the front end is going to fall out. You're going to have to fix it. Well, how much is it? What's $2.00? I didn't want to put $2.00 in a twenty five year old car.

The Lord provided us with another car And it's twelve years newer. In a lot better shape. And a lot less miles. When we moved here, Kate needed a job and didn't really want to go back into nursing full time again. A few of you know what that's like and she went to Belton Hearing Aids out of personal need.

And while she was there, someone said, hey, we got a job opening. Would you be interested? So thirteen years, fourteen years, she's worked at Belton and it's been so much better time management wise than the nursing. She's been able to be home with the kids and it's been a great blessing. I left I left the ministry as a youth pastor up in Georgia.

Looked for a church. God directed us this way. Been here fifteen years now. The Lord has been good. He has taken good care of us.

We we don't we're not rich by some people's standards or having money come out our eyeballs but but we are well taken care of. Not only in the respect of finances but in respect to a church family and many many blessings thereby. You know, God supplies and he takes care of those who are willing to trust in him. There was a man back in the late eighteen hundreds. His name was George Mueller.

He was an evangelist and director of an orphanage in Bristol, England. Over the course of his life, he cared for 10,000 orphans in England. He established 117 schools in England. He never made requests for financial support in all of those times. Many times, he received unsolicited food and donations hours before they needed to feed the children.

One example was well documented. He sat down with the children. They gave thanks for breakfast when there was no breakfast. But by time they got done praying, somebody knocked on the door and it was baker with bread, enough for everybody and following the baker in the door came the milkman whose cart broke down outside on the street and had to do something with his milk and so they had bread and they had milk and the Lord supplied and there are many, many, many, many stories about George Mueller that are likened unto that one and how God provided because he answered the Lord's call to serve the Lord in that particular ministry. Philippians four nineteen says, but my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory.

By Christ Jesus. He shall supply your need as well. Say, well, that was just George Mueller. No. That was just Elijah.

No. That that can also be us. I mean, God may not have called us to start an orphanage and God may not call us to to not know where our next meal is coming from so to speak. But we all have needs and if we'll put God first, he will supply them because he has an unending supply and he can take care of you. He usually doesn't provide it all at once, does he?

No, very few people went, what was it when I was a kid, the publishers clearinghouse sweepstakes. They still have that today? I don't know. I haven't haven't got in on that in a long time. For some reason, why I was a kid, we never won.

We always send it in. We never won. I don't understand it. But God usually doesn't provide that way. He usually provides one day at a time, one week at a time, one month at a time.

Doesn't provide all we need at once. He doesn't provide often far more than you need. But the one who made it all can take care of his children and service to him. You just need to trust him like Elijah. Do as he says.

And even though we may suffer a bit in this wicked world and we will and even though we may suffer even more for our faith, God is faithful and will be there for us. Reward those who are faithful to him. Matthew five eleven and twelve, Jesus said to his disciples, blessed are you. When men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad.

For great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they, the prophets which were before you. Those in Jesus, they looked back at the prophets. These great heroes that stood for the Lord and God was with him and Jesus said, God will be with you too. If you suffer for me, you will receive rewards for it.

I will be there. I will not forget you. God does not forget his own. And God rewards those who serve him. Did Noah die in the flood?

No. He survived in the what? In the ark. Did did the firstborn of Israel die in the tenth plague? No.

They lived because of the blood of the lamb on the doorpost. God sustained and exalted Joseph and Daniel in captivity. Joseph became the second highest ruler in Egypt and Daniel became a great leader and counselor to the king in Babylon. In this case, God sent ravens. God sent ravens.

Miraculously to bring Elijah food and sustained him from the waters of the brook. God can sustain us through many different means though he does not choose to provide for all of us the same way. God provides in different ways to different people at different times. That's okay. He provided for Adam and Eve in the garden Sadly, they sinned against him and lost that.

He provided somehow for no one or for no one, his family on the ark. He provided for Israel in the desert with manna from heaven, quail, and water from the rock. Later, he provided for them with a land flowing with what? Milk and honey. He provided for David in the wilderness on the run from Saul and he provided for Paul via his ability to make tents.

And the support that he received from those to whom he ministered. Paul said, in Philippians four, but I rejoice in the Lord greatly. That now at last, your care of me hath flourished again. Wherein you were also careful but you lacked opportunity. He's thanking the church at Philippi for helping to provide for him in his ministry.

But he continues, not that I speak in respect of want. For I have learned and whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. I know how to be both how to be abased and I I know how to abound and everywhere and in all things, I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound in suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Paul says, I may struggle at times for food and for strength.

But God God is with me and he will strengthen me. He will take care of me. He will help me through it. I'm not alone. God knows our frame.

He knows what we can handle. He says, he'll not give us more than we can handle but will make in a way of escape that we will be able to bear it. You can be assured God takes care of his servants. So, don't ever be afraid to serve the Lord. There's no better position you can ever be in in life than serving who?

Than serving the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. Even when the brook dries up because often times, the brook does dry up. You see, the Lord provides you with this job. He provides you with this investment. He provides you with this car that seems to last for twenty five years.

It keeps on going and going like the Energizer Buddy but eventually, all a lot often, the brook does dry up. You lose your job and you have to find another one. The car breaks down, your investments fail, you got health bills, you got medical bills you got to pay, and the brook dries up. What do you do? You get on your knees and you talk to who?

You talk to the one who provided the water in the brook and the food with the ravens in the first place. And you trust him. And somebody has said when God closes the door, look for a window. I'm not sure that it's it it makes it sound like when God closes the door that the the window is somehow lesser than the door. I say, maybe better said, when God closes the door, look for another door.

Matter of fact, the next one maybe more wonderful in many ways than the one before. God has done that for us so many times. He takes care of his own. The brook did dry up. For Elijah, do you think God was caught by surprise?

Oh no, the brook dried up. I don't think God was caught by surprise. Who was it that really stopped the rain? Was it Elijah? No, it was God.

God stopped the rain and God knows when you stop the rain, guess what eventually happens? The brook dries up. God wasn't caught by surprise. God's not caught by surprise of the things that happen is for God know that there was going to be a virus that got loose on the other side of the world and we had to deal with it here. Yeah.

He knew. It, does he know when the stock market's going to crash and finances are going yeah, he knew. Did he knew? Did he know you were going to lose your job or that you're going to have to buy a new car, that you were going to have a surgeries and have to pay those medical bills, did all of that catch God by surprise? The answer is no.

None of it did. May have caught us by surprise. But nothing catches God by surprise. He already had a plan for Elijah. The same is true of you.

He hasn't forgotten you. Just trust him and look for the next door or window. So, how did God provide for Elijah after the brook dried up? Well, look if you would. Back in first Kings chapter 17 and verse nine.

Verse eight, the word of the Lord came unto him that's Elijah saying, arise, get thee to Zarephath and belongeth to Sidon and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. A widow woman. Moving on. So, he arose and went to Zarephath and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering sticks and he called to her and said, fetch me, I pray thee a little water in a vessel that I may drink.

She was going and as she was going to fetch it, he called her and said, hey, bring me, I pray thee a morsel of bread in thine hand and she said, as the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil and a cruise and behold, I'm gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son that we may eat it and die. And Elijah said unto her, fear not. Go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first and bring it unto me and after make for thee and thy son. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, the barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail until the day the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth and she went and did according to the saying of Elijah and she and he and her house did eat many days and the barrel of meal wasted not neither did the cruise of oil fail according to the word of the Lord which he spake by Elijah. So, how did God provide for Elijah?

He said, Elijah, the brook dried up. Now, let's go. Now, get up, get off, get up, you know, we got places to go. Go to Sidon and there's a widow lady there and I've commanded that she provide for you and I'm sure he scratched his head. A widow lady?

That that doesn't sound like. It doesn't make a lot of sense. Through the most unlikeliest of means, God sustained and provided not only for Elijah but also for the Sidonian widow. Now, consider, it was a Baal worshiping Sidonian princess who was at the heart of the problem in Israel. Her name was Jezebel who had married Ahab and yet God sent Elijah to a woman in Sidon, a Canaanite to provide his sustenance.

It was not to a person of means that Elijah went and it was to a widow and in those days in particular, widows had no means or little means of providing for themselves or their loved ones. Yet, to a widow, he went. Yet, the widow inside was God's choice to provide for Elijah. Not only for his sake but also for hers. You know, when times get bad and the brook dries up, you think, oh no, this is happening.

That's happened. I don't know what I'm going to do. You know something? It's not all about you. And it's not all about me.

You know, there may be some reason that some difficulty happens in my life. Not only so God can show himself mighty to me but so God can show himself mighty in somebody else's life as well and sometimes God has to give us a little push. To get us where he needs us to be to minister to others. You see, it wasn't all about it. Yes, God did provide about to provide for Elijah but it wasn't all about him.

It was also about this dear lady. You see, this dear lady, this widow lady with this son was just as important to God as who? Elijah and he needed Elijah to go there to provide a testimony in Sidon and provide food for a widow and in so doing, God also provided food for Elijah. In so doing, God supplies his mercy, displays his mercy and grace toward this Canaanite widow who immediately demonstrates a growing faith in the God of Israel. She said, as the Lord God of Israel live it, that's kind of an odd thing to come out of the mouth of a Canaanite woman.

There must have already been a testimony in her life before Elijah ever got there. There was already an interest in a growing faith in her life before Elijah ever got there but Elijah didn't know that. He just know that that's where God want. That's where God sent him. And he went.

She had a growing faith in the God of Israel. Faith which God knew of and already honored. She provided Elijah with the last supply she had. Demonstrating trust in Elijah and more importantly in his God to provide for her and her son. What faith?

Last meal. Who'd she give her last meal to? Elijah. And God So, God did provide. Each and every day just enough for that day Just like he'll do for us.

But you need to trust him. You need to do as Matthew six thirty three, you need to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. To serve him, to lay up treasures where? In heaven and not only on earth. And he says, I'll take care of you.

I have often met Christians. Who don't seem to be very well taken care of. Who don't seem to be able to make ends meet. But I have also observed that those Christians most of the time those people that at least name the name of Christ who don't seem to be taken care of are not putting God what? Are not putting God first.

You say, oh God's not doing this for me and God's not doing that for me and oh I can't get this and I can't and I don't know why that's happening. Well, if you try putting God what? First, like he says, you might find out that when you put God first, he will always take care of you and just because you're a Christian, sad to say, doesn't mean you always put God first, does it? It doesn't. But if you seek first the kingdom of God, if you'll learn to trust him, if you'll give to God first, he will give to you.

If you'll give to his service and ministry, your money, your time, your decision making. Put God first, he will never let you down. It may be day by day but if you put him first, he will always come through. And we often times think of money when we think about giving but it's more than just money. It's your time.

It's your love and concern for others. It's your faithfulness to church and to the Lord. It's the decisions that you make. I remember when Jeremy, I first met Jeremy. This has been fourteen years ago now and Jeremy graduated from Bob Jones University and one of the things that Doctor Bob encouraged us to do was to find a small church that needed help and rather than just looking for a job to also look for a church and a ministry that needed help.

Well, guess what? We were a small church and we needed help and Jeremy found us and and he visited for a while and then he and Sarah got married and they moved down here and and they've been a blessing to our church and they've been here for fourteen years minus one year that they experimented up in Indiana but anyway, we won't talk about that. But the Lord brought him back. And if you put God first, God's going to what? God's going to take care of First, in your finances, first, in your time, first, in your decision making.

The issue was not one of heritage but it was one of faith. The vast majority of people in Israel had abandoned their faith and so God sent Elijah to a woman in Sidon with a growing faith. Jezebel, the Sidonian was rejected because she rejected God. The widow laid a widow lady in Sidon was accepted and cared for because she put her what? She put her faith and trust in God.

Sad to say, Israel suffered because they had turned from their God. So too, there are places in the world today which have experienced great revival while we haven't here in The United States. What's the difference? Faith and repentance. Faith and repentance.

While the world and places, are accepting the gospel and seeing the hand of God mighty. We are seeing or will see judgment if we stay the course we are on. Heritage and history are not assurance of future blessing. Faith and repentance in God, they are. Second Chronicles seven fourteen, if my people which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and heal their land.

No matter what you think, even though I believe you ought to vote, voting in this coming election is not going to fix all of America's ills. Only one who can do that. Most importantly, he is interested in your ills. Will you put him first? Will you trust him?

If you will, God takes care of those who serve him. And have you ever trusted in him? To save you from your sin. If you haven't done that, then you don't have a place in heaven until you do. But you can.

He will not only care for your needs here but he will forgive all of your sins and give you the gift of what? Everlasting life. If you will humble yourself and trust him with your soul and eternity. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for the example of Elijah.

Of his faith and how you provided for him by various means and Lord, how you used him to provide for others and Lord, I pray that we would help us to take our eyes off of ourselves, Look for opportunities in difficult times to be a blessing to others who come across our path. Lord, I pray that we would put you first. They would trust you wholeheartedly. Lord, the answer to the problems in our world today are not political. They are spiritual and Lord, I pray that that would start with us that we would trust you fully, that we would follow you wholeheartedly.

We would put you first and seek first the kingdom of God and Lord that you would show yourself mighty in our behalf. Lord, I know you will. We will put you first. Lord, we all know many of us know Christians who are struggling. And Lord, some of those are clearly not putting you first in their life.

Lord, help them to see. Help them to see. That you will provide for them and you will help them. If they will put you first and trust you more. Lord, we pray if there be one here that's never trusted Christ as savior that today would be their day of salvation and they would come as we sing this hymn of invitation today.

In Jesus name, we do pray. Amen.