And I'll see you next time.
Thank you.
.
Take your hymnals. We'll begin with our singing this morning.
Let's go to hymn number 215 to begin.
Hymn number 215.
Heaven came down
and glory filled my soul.
Hymn number 215.
Let's start together on that first.
Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful day.
A day I will never forget.
After I wandered in darkness away,
Jesus, my Savior, I beg.
Oh, what a tender, compassionate breath.
He made the heat of my heart.
Shout out to Him smiling with joy and telling,
He made all the darkness depart.
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.
When at the cross the Savior made me whole,
my sins were washed away and my life was turned to day.
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.
Lord of the Spirit with life from above,
into God's family divine,
justified for with your calories, love.
Oh, what ascending is mine.
Heaven's transaction so quickly was made
when as a sinner I came,
took the offer of grace in it properly,
saved me of grace in dear name.
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.
When at the cross the Savior made me whole,
my sins were washed away and my life was turned to day.
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.
Now I've got hope that will surely endure,
after the passing of time.
I have a future in heaven foreshore,
there in those mansions of life.
And it's because of that wonderful name,
when at the cross I believe,
rich and eternal and blessing,
supernal from His precious hand I receive.
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.
When at the cross the Savior made me whole,
my sins were washed away and my life was turned to day.
Heaven came down and glory filled my soul.
Amen. Great start to sing this morning.
I've asked for the band, if you would open us up in the word of prayer, please.
Thank you for bringing us here safely.
Please bless the service, please bless the worship,
and it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
Hymn number 102, He hideth my soul.
Hymn number 102, let's start together on that verse.
The wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord.
Hymn number 102, let's sing it out together.
One hundred and two.
A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord.
A wonderful Savior to me.
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
where rivers of pleasure I see.
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of His love,
and covers me there with His hand,
and covers me there with His hand.
A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord.
He taketh my burden away.
He holdeth me up, and I shall not be moved.
He giveth me strength as my day.
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of His love,
and covers me there with His hand,
and covers me there with His hand.
With numberless blessings each moment He crowns,
and building His fullness divine.
I sing in my rapture, O glory to God,
for such a Redeemer as mine.
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of His love,
and covers me there with His hand,
and covers me there with His hand.
When cold in His brightness transported I rise,
to meet Him in clouds of the sky.
His perfect salvation, His wonderful love,
I'll shout with the millions on high.
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
that shadows a dry, thirsty land.
He hideth my life in the depths of His love,
and covers me there with His hand,
and covers me there with His hand.
We're going to be starting a brand new book on this Wednesday.
And so you say, which book is it?
Well, you're not going to know unless you show up.
And this could be the book you've been waiting for.
This could be your favorite book that you've wanted to hear for so long.
So anyway, this Wednesday, starting a new book.
And then we've got so many times listed there below,
as well as salvations and baptisms.
And then across the page, thank you to everybody who participated
in the small town soul winning trip to Payson.
We had 12 soul winners and one salvation.
We got a Navajo reservation soul winning trip coming up,
which includes a visit to the famous, the world famous Monument Valley.
That's on Friday, August 26th to August 27th.
And then if you need info about that, there's more info.
Sign up over here.
Ask Brother Raymond.
He is the guy who is running these things.
And then on the back, of course, Tucson's four year anniversary
is coming up on September the 4th.
We've got a guest preacher down there in Tucson,
Deacon Oliver Gonzalez from Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento.
Let Brother Corbin know if you're planning on going.
But even if you don't let him go, you can obviously just,
let him know you can just show up, obviously.
But he's just trying to get a feel for how many people are coming.
Keep praying for the ladies that are expecting that they'll have
a safe and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
And then a few other upcoming things are listed there below.
And that is about it for announcements.
Let's sing our next song.
All right, we're going to sing Psalm 96.
You should find the answer there in your hymnal.
If you don't have one, please raise your hand.
And we'll sing out together Psalm 96.
We'll sing unto the Lord a new song.
Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song.
Sing unto the Lord all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord, bless His name.
Show forth His salvation from day to day.
Beware His glory among the heat.
His wonders above all people.
For the Lord is great and great to be praised.
He is to be feared above all gods.
Give unto the Lord all new patriots of people.
Give unto the Lord, glory and strength.
Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song.
Sing unto the Lord all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord, bless His name.
Show forth His salvation from day to day.
For all the gods of the nations are rivals.
For the Lord made the heavens.
Honor and majesty are before Him.
Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.
Give unto the Lord, all new patriots of people.
Give unto the Lord, glory and strength.
Give unto the Lord, the Lord who wants His name.
Bring an offering and come into His court.
Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Fear before Him all the earth.
Stay among the heathen that the Lord reigneth.
The world also shall be established.
That it shall not be moved.
And He shall judge those people righteously.
Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad.
Let the sea roar and the fullness air up.
Let the field be joyful and all that stare in.
Yet shall all the trees of the wood rejoice.
Before the Lord will he love it,
will he come and to judge the earth.
He shall judge the world with righteousness
and of people with concern.
Oh, sing unto the Lord a new song.
Sing unto the Lord, all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord, bless His name.
Show forth His salvation from day to day.
Amen. Good singing everybody. Let's go to hymnals now.
It's hymn number 145.
It is well with my soul.
Hymn number 145.
It begins when peace like a river attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll.
Let's sing it out together, 145.
When peace like a river
attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll.
Whatever my life,
thou hast taught me to say.
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Ladies, it is well.
It is well with my soul.
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should bucket,
though trials should come,
let this quest assure us control.
That Christ as we garden
might help us sustain,
and has shed His own blood for my soul.
It is well, it is well with my soul.
My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought,
my sin not in part,
but the whole is nailed to the cross,
and I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord of my soul.
It is well, it is well with my soul.
And, Lord, hates a day
when my faith shall be signed.
The clouds be rolled back as a storm.
The drums shall resound,
and the Lord shall descend.
Even so, it is well with my soul.
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Alright, this time we'll quickly pass our offering plates around.
As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to James chapter 5.
James chapter number 5, as we always do,
we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse number 1.
James chapter number 5.
Follow along silently with brother Dan as he reads James chapter 5,
starting in verse number 1.
James chapter 5, the Bible reads,
Go to now, you rich men.
Weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rest of them shall be a witness against you,
and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.
You have heaped treasure together for the last days.
Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields,
which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth,
and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
You have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton.
You have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
You have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you.
Be patient, therefore, brethren, under the coming of the Lord.
Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth,
and hath long patience for it until he receiveth the early and latter rain.
Be ye also patient, establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned.
Behold, the judge standeth before the door.
Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord
for an example of suffering affliction and of patience.
Behold, we count them happy which endure.
Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord,
that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy.
But above all things, my brethren, swear not,
neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath,
but let your yea be yea, and your nay be nay, lest ye fall into condemnation.
Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray.
Is any merry? Let him sing psalms.
Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church,
and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up,
and if ye have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are,
and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain,
and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.
And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him,
let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his ways
shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
Father Fidel, will you pray?
Father God, we want to start off by saying we love you.
Please fill Pastor Anderson with your Holy Spirit, Lord, today.
We thank you for the path to the cross, Lord, that leads us home
through Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, the name above all names.
It's in his beautiful name we pray. Amen.
Amen. In James chapter 5, the part of the chapter I want to focus on
is beginning in verse number 16 where the Bible reads,
Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
Elias, now Elias there is Elijah, that's just a New Testament spelling for that.
Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are,
and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain,
and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months,
and he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.
And I want to preach this morning about the character Elijah.
Now Elijah, the Bible says here, was a man subject to like passions as we are,
yet he was able to do amazing things.
God used him in a powerful way, and he's one of the most significant characters of the Old Testament.
He's mentioned in the New Testament 30 times, and so this normal man,
and that's what it means when it says he's subject to like passions as we are human,
yet did mighty powerful things for God.
And sometimes when we're reading the Bible,
we can lose sight of the fact that the people that we're reading about are human.
They are like us. We can be like them, for better or for worse.
The good examples, the bad examples, they are human.
Now go back if you would to 1 Kings chapter number 17,
and we're going to see the introduction of this character Elijah in the Old Testament scripture.
He kind of just pops up out of nowhere.
You're reading the book of 1 Kings, and it's like, who is this guy?
Because he just jumps into the story without a whole lot of introduction
about where he came from, his earlier life.
But I think it's that way intentionally,
because that's probably sort of how he came on the scene for King Ahab.
When he sees this guy, it's like, well, who is this guy?
Look at chapter 17 verse 1 of 1 Kings 17.
And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead,
you know, that's pretty much all the introduction he gets.
What's a Tishbite?
You know, who knows what that even is.
He's a Tishbite. He's of the inhabitants of Gilead.
This guy, okay, this isn't the high priest.
This isn't necessarily a guy from an important family or anything.
This guy says, as the Lord God of Israel liveth before whom I stand,
this is what he says to Ahab,
there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
Of course, we know from the New Testament that he is praying for it not to rain.
God has obviously revealed this to him.
God is leading him to do this.
He's a prophet of God.
The Spirit of the Lord is communicating with him very clearly,
because look at the next verse in verse 2.
And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,
Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Keirith,
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 shows up, and he makes this pronouncement to King Ahab
that basically it's not going to rain for three years unless I say it's going to rain.
It's going to rain in those three years' time.
When he says this, people probably aren't taking it very seriously
until it just never rains.
And then after six months go by, after a year goes by,
after two years go by, after three years,
now all of a sudden, wait a minute,
who is that guy who preached that and he's just gone?
And they can't find him anywhere because God has hidden him.
God is telling him to go flee and hide himself by the brook Keirith
that's before Jordan and that the ravens are going to feed him and so forth.
So he preaches this one time and then he just disappears.
And God's got him out in the wilderness and so forth.
Now, here's the thing.
When you see a man of God, you know, hiding or fleeing,
you know, you stop and wonder for a second,
you know, I thought we as preachers were supposed to be bold
and preach publicly and stand up for what's right no matter what the cost
and be willing to be faithful even unto death.
What we need to understand in the Bible is that it is actually appropriate
in the Bible to flee or hide oneself when persecution comes, okay?
Now, I've often said though that, you know,
we would never just go underground or something
and just live our lives underground and just hiding
and have some underground church for years and years and years
because our whole point of being on this earth is to preach publicly,
to preach the Gospel, to go soul winning, to reach people.
So if we're just hiding out, what's even the point of even being a Christian
if you're just hiding out, you're not letting your light shine.
Don't hide it under a bushel.
But what we do see that is appropriate though is just getting out of dodge
that we're temporarily saving your skin to live to preach another day.
That's what we do see as being appropriate.
So for example, you know, Jesus said if they persecute you in the city,
flee into another.
You see the Apostle Paul being let down in a basket outside of the wall of the city
in the middle of the night because there's a warrant for his arrest.
So it's like, hey, let's get him out of town.
Let's get him across state lines.
Let's get him out of the country.
That is completely appropriate.
Jesus flat out said, when they persecute you in the city, flee into another.
There's no point in just sitting around, getting arrested for the sake of getting arrested.
It's always better if you can get out of there and minister somewhere else.
So what we need to understand is that, yes, he is hiding himself,
but it's because, A, it's just for a short temporary time to save his skin and get out of the country,
and B, it's because of the fact that God is specifically telling him to do that in this situation.
There are certain general principles that apply,
but then sometimes God will just specifically tell people to do something that's abnormal
or out of the ordinary.
And this is one of those situations that's a little bit out of the ordinary
where he's telling him to go hide, and it's temporary.
But in general, we as Christians are not to put God's Word under a bushel.
We're to let it shine.
We're not to be underground, undercover, secret.
And you say, well, to be a missionary in this country over here, you have to be underground.
You've got to be secret.
Well, then I'm just not going to go there.
What about all the other countries where it's legal to preach the Gospel,
where people are dying and going to hell every day?
Why do you want to get all cloak and dagger and go to North Korea or something
when all of these countries are just wide open to the Gospel that have not been evangelized?
You know, why don't you start there?
Why don't you work on South Korea for a while, you know, and evangelize South Korea?
You'll probably get a lot more people saved than your secret spy mission to North Korea
that's going to end up getting you tortured and put on TV with the gun to your head and everything else.
Anyway, I digress.
But the point is that Elijah is specifically told to go into the wilderness and to flee,
to get out of there, and God's going to have him go somewhere else in the long run.
But God brings him into the wilderness and commands the ravens to feed him there.
Now remember, he's a man of like passions as we are.
What does that mean?
What does passions refer to?
It refers to feelings.
So he feels the same things that we feel.
He could get tired, hungry, thirsty, frustrated, angry, lonely, sad.
Those are passions.
And he was a man of like passions as we are.
So stop and think about it.
How would you feel if this were you?
You're being told, go out and live in the wilderness and I'm going to command the ravens to feed you there.
And yet Elijah is obedient.
He does as he's told and he's fed by the ravens.
Now stop and think about the raven for a minute.
You say, oy vey, that's an unclean beast.
What in the world?
Why is he eating from the mouth of ravens?
But here's what you have to understand is that the raven, although it's an unclean beast,
it's perfectly fine to touch or interact with the raven while it is alive.
And if you study the Bible and if you read Leviticus, chapter number 11,
which is the key dietary chapter in the book of Leviticus,
or Deuteronomy, chapter number 14, which is a reiteration of those things,
you'll see that it says over and over again, don't touch them when they're dead.
Don't touch the carcass thereof.
The carcass of it is unclean.
Don't eat it.
It's not food unto you.
Stop and think about this for a minute.
What about a horse?
You know, according to the Bible's dietary laws, the horse is not a clean beast either.
You don't eat horse meat in the nation of Israel.
But yet, is it okay to touch a horse?
Is it okay to ride a horse?
Is it okay to be around horses or keep horses?
Absolutely.
And so we need to understand that the Jews have taken God's kosher laws
and taken them way overboard to the point of ridiculousness
and Jesus Christ rebuked that attitude while he was on this earth.
You know, for example, they'd come up with a law that said,
well, you have to wash your hands before you eat bread every single time.
And if you come from the market, you have to wash your hands
and you can't eat anything without washing your hands.
And they were very strict about this and they were imposing it as if it were a law of God.
But the problem is that they're teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men.
And they had extrapolated, well, if God says this is not clean,
then maybe we should get even cleaner and maybe we can get even a little cleaner than that
and then, you know, let's not even rub shoulders with somebody who rubs shoulders with somebody
who rubs shoulders with an unclean beast or something.
And they had taken these things overboard and they had become obsessed with the minutia
of these commandments and extrapolating them further than what God intended
and then they were forcing other people to follow their over-the-top strict views on these things.
And so we see that God does not have the same view as the Pharisees.
You know, where the Pharisees are saying, you know, how dare you eat without washing your hands.
Whereas God's saying, here, this raven's going to bring you food
and drop it on the ground for you and then you're going to eat it off the ground.
Okay, Elijah?
You see a little difference there, don't you?
You say, well, it's a one-time thing. It's abnormal.
But here's the thing.
Study the Old Testament law and figure out what's allowed and what's not.
It has nothing to do with what the Jews are practicing today.
All he's basically saying is don't eat the pork, don't eat raven, don't eat cats and dogs,
don't eat horses, don't touch their dead bodies.
If you touch a dead body of any animal, you have to wash up and be unclean.
If it's, you know, if you're butchering it or whatever, you know, if you do this, that or the other, you're unclean.
But they're all very reasonable laws.
Like, it wouldn't have been that hard to follow God's rules in the Old Testament.
But the Jewish laws are insanely hard to follow.
They can't eat anywhere.
They can't just walk into Chipotle and just, oh, I'll get beef instead of pork.
No, that doesn't work because the meat has to be prepared in a separate kitchen from the dairy
and the meat fork can never touch the dairy and the dairy fork.
It's all this crazy stuff that they've made up, my friend.
Okay.
And let me just apply this to our generation as well because, you know, we're not Jews.
We're not trying to be kosher like that.
But hold on a second.
Today, there are many people who've become overly obsessed with sanitation and cleanliness
to the point of ridiculousness where they're taking it overboard.
And this is neither prescribed by God nor is it even healthy.
Okay.
And today, in America, we've got a bunch of spoiled brats who everything just has to be perfect or they're not going to eat it.
It's because they're spoiled because they don't understand other people in other parts of the world are going hungry and struggling.
Their parents are going out and struggling and working hard to bring home food.
And they don't mind just wasting food or being super picky about what food they eat because they're a spoiled brat.
They have these first world problems of, you know, not getting the exact food that they wanted.
I wonder if Elijah is having his order taken by this raven every day.
Like this raven shows up and he's like, you know, what would you like today, Master Elijah?
You know, let me tell you about the fish of the day.
It's fresh, market fresh.
Let me tell you about some of the specials we've got going on with the filet mignon and, you know, we've got the lobster and what, you know.
What are you in the mood for today?
This raven is just bringing him whatever and just dropping it off.
And he eats it.
Because that's his food.
Because that's what God provided for him to eat.
And you know what?
We all need to be willing to eat whatever God provides for us to eat.
And not be spoiled and complaining and always having to have a certain food.
You know, if God provides something, we need to be thankful and eat what God has provided.
And not be super picky and spoiled about it.
You say, well, I'm just a picky eater.
That's just how I am.
Well, then change.
Here's how you change that.
You just get in the habit of just forcing yourself to eat things that you don't like.
And if you do that for a while, pretty soon your body's going to figure out, okay, this is how it's going to be.
This is how we roll now.
And your body will figure it out.
Your taste buds will figure it out.
Your brain will figure it out.
But you've got to take control of your body.
Like the Apostle Paul said, I keep under my body and bring it into subjection.
You can't just let the flesh make all the decisions for you.
No, the soul and the spirit and the mind need to grab hold of the reins of the flesh and say, no, we're doing what I want to do today, buddy.
We're not doing what you want to do.
Oh, you want to go out and do all this sin?
Oh, you want to be a glutton?
You want to be a drunk?
Nope, we're reading the Bible today.
We're praying now.
You have to take control of the flesh, my friend, and not just be one who's just carried about with every lust and desire that you physically crave.
You see, the ravens brought the food to Elijah in wine about it not being clean enough.
It's not unclean according to God's laws, just because the ravens have done it.
Because the raven, you know, yeah, don't touch it when it's dead, but it can apparently be a nice little delivery boy for your food.
And here's the thing about this.
You know, today people are so overly sanitary that, you know, just everything has to be just super duper clean.
But the problem with that is that our bodies are designed to handle a certain amount of germs and dirt.
And you've got to give your immune system something to do.
Okay, and I'm not saying to just go out there and just get super dirty and just lick the doorknob in a public place.
But I am saying that our immune systems do need something to do because in order to stay in practice, in order to be good at fighting germs,
they need to have an enemy to practice fighting or else they're going to go soft and they're not going to be able to fight.
All these little white blood cell soldiers are just going to be just getting, you know, sloppy and lazy because they haven't fought a virus in years.
You know, and here's the thing.
You know, I can understand why if there's some acute epidemic going on and it's like, okay, you know, we need to quarantine people and put on these masks and whatever.
But, you know, you don't want to just live your life that way because of the fact that you are going to ruin your immune system in the long run.
This guy that was a seemingly intelligent guy.
This guy was like a PhD scientist, and this is not on the internet.
This is in real life, okay.
He said to me, you know, I'm just going to keep wearing this mask for the rest of my life when I go out.
Because he said, ever since I've been wearing the mask, I haven't gotten a cold.
I didn't get the flu.
He said, I haven't gotten sick at all the last couple of years wearing the mask, so I'm just going to keep wearing it.
This is great.
And this guy was probably around 70 years old.
And I'm thinking to myself, yeah, real smart, buddy, because, yeah, isn't it great you don't have a cold, don't have a cold, don't have a cold, don't have a cold, don't have a cold.
You're going to get a cold when you're like 76 and you're just going to die.
You're just going to die because you just, your body's like, what is this?
And then you just die because you're just so overly sanitary.
And look, God provided for common sense sanitation in his Old Testament laws where he's saying, hey, you know, if you use the restroom, use it outside the camp and bury it.
You don't want to be living in your own dump.
That's common sense, you know.
Hey, you know, oh, that dead bird on the ground, don't touch it.
I mean, that's what we all tell our kids, right?
Don't touch that dead bird.
Don't play with that dead animal that you found.
Okay, stay away from it.
You know, and we teach them, you know, dead bodies are gross and they can get you dirty and unsanitary.
We teach them that after certain activities you should wash your hands and, you know, hey, when you go to the bathroom, wash your hands when you go to the bathroom.
And we teach them these things.
But, you know, this overly ridiculous sanitation is not supported by scripture.
And I believe that it's also bad for your immune system because, you know, part of the reasons why Europeans have had a good immune system is from having a lot of cattle.
And, you know, the people here that were indigenous to North America, they didn't have a lot of domesticated livestock.
So they weren't used to being around domesticated large mammals like the Europeans were.
So they came over here and literally by some estimates, and it's hard to know, by some estimates like 80 or 90% of the population of North America died just from germs and disease that were just brought over from Europe.
Because they had just not been exposed to it in so long and they hadn't been around animals like Europeans had been around animals.
And that dirtiness of being around a lot of livestock actually was building their immune system so that they came over with like an ironclad immune system.
Whereas the Native Americans, not so much.
And so you say, well, you know, what does this have to do with the Bible?
What it has to do with the Bible is that, you know, if your parents are telling you you need to eat the food that's put in front of you,
maybe you can think about this Bible story how God stuck a guy out in the wilderness and is making him eat food that ravens bring him.
And he's supposed to do it and be thankful for what God provided.
You know, the song says where he leads me I will follow, but how about what he feeds me I will swallow.
Okay, whatever God provides is something to be thankful for.
And the Bible says that every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving for it's sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
You know, those of us who've lived out in the real world, we know that sometimes we don't have the luxury of always eating the cleanest possible thing.
You know, those of us that have worked in construction know sometimes there's no place to wash your hands. Am I right?
Who's ever been on a job site and there's no place to wash your hands because the water's turned off or maybe the water hasn't even been installed yet and you're on these job sites.
And, you know, I remember just looking at my hands sometimes and they were covered in dirt and just praying, Lord, bless this food to my body.
And I'm going to eat it with these hands, you know, and it is what it is because I have no way to wash my hands.
What else can you do at that point?
Or sometimes I'd have like a bottle of water and I'd wash it with water, okay?
But the point is, that's life. You're going to be in situations like that.
You know, I wonder when Paul Wittenberger was in jail in Botswana, he had to eat out of a communal trough with like 20 other people.
You know, we don't necessarily want to do that in our lives, but sometimes God puts us in those situations.
And you eat from the raven's mouth, you eat the communal slop, you eat on the job site, you do what you need to do.
And you know what? It could be a lot worse because I'd rather eat the communal slop than to just have no food.
You know what I mean? I'd rather just have something to eat and be thankful every day for my daily bread.
And you know, but yet today, you've got people today where it's like, oh, my sibling barely touched my food with their knuckle.
I can't eat it anymore.
Oh, it slipped off my plate onto the table. Throw it in the trash.
You know, somebody needs to teach this generation about the five-second rule, okay?
I mean, I can't, obviously, you know, I speak, you know, from liberty. This isn't from the Lord.
This is, you know, this is me speaking, but I believe that I also have the Spirit of God, okay?
When I was a kid, we said God made dirt and dirt don't hurt.
And let me tell you something, too.
I can read the Bible and I understand principles that the Bible says that, you know, things that are wet, if they get in touch with something that's unclean, they get unclean.
But things that are dry, they don't pick up the uncleanness like things that are wet do.
You know, I mean, think about it.
If I dropped some, if I dropped a ravioli on the ground, you know, okay, that's probably going in the trash.
But honestly, I wouldn't even put it in the trash.
I would rinse it off in the sink and eat it anyway because I'm the one paying for it, okay?
But I can see, okay, the ravioli fell on the ground, whatever.
But, you know, it's like you drop a corn chip on the ground that's as dry as a bone, pick it up and brush it off and eat it, you big baby.
And you know what?
I used to go out, when I was a kid, I'd ride dirt bikes with my dad and, I mean, we would take our helmets off at the end of the day and our faces were just covered in dirt.
And I guarantee you tons of that dirt went in my mouth.
And I wasn't just like, and just dying because I got a little dirt in my mouth.
You know, yeah, there are certain things that are filled with germs and whatever, but a little bit of dirt, being outside, something falling in the grass or whatever, it's just like get over it.
And the reason I'm preaching this is because we live in a generation of spoiled brats.
We live in a generation where we have all these first world problems where instead of just being thankful that our parents feed us a balanced diet and we're not going to get rickets and we're not going to get scurvy and we're not going to get all these diseases that go along with malnutrition, our parents are providing us with a healthy diet.
We need to just shut up and eat our food.
Oh, he touched it.
Your brother does not have leprosy.
Your sister does not have leprosy.
Eat it.
Get over it.
You know, it's like you break something in half for someone, it's like, well, you touched it now.
You're a Pharisee.
Okay?
Be like Christ and his disciples.
You know, they eat outside, they wash their hands when they can, and they don't worry about it.
And so what I see about Elijah here, he's a man subject to like passions as we are, obviously living outside, going in the wilderness, and eating the food brought by the ravens is an ordeal.
It is a challenge for him.
It is something that's difficult for him, humanly speaking.
But I wonder if this is why he's such a tough prophet, why he's known as this tough man of God.
You know, maybe God had him out there in the wilderness a little bit to toughen him up a little bit.
And he's an example of a man who did what he was told and he went with God's provision.
God led him some places that were maybe difficult, but he still did what he was told by the Lord.
Let's keep moving here.
He says, I've commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
And you don't see him complaining at all.
You don't see him saying, oh God, send a stork and statters.
It's just like, no.
Ravens are bringing it.
So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord, for he went and dwelt by the brook Keirith.
That is before Jordan.
It's just, you know, he did it.
He did what he was told.
He did what the Bible told him to do.
That's it.
One verse.
No arguing.
He just did it.
And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the
evening and he drank of the brook.
That's everything that a growing boy needs.
And so he doesn't need anything fancy.
He's getting the food groups that he needs right there.
OK?
He's getting the bread.
He's getting the flesh.
He's going to be OK.
And he's drinking water out of the brook.
It came to pass after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in
the land.
And the word of the Lord came unto him saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth
to Zidane and dwell there.
Behold, I've commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
So now he's being asked to do something else challenging that we as Christians would possibly
whine about in our lives is he's being asked to go to a foreign country.
You know, he's being asked to leave the country and flee into Zarephath.
And again, he's not going to be whined and dined by the elite of the land, but a poor
widow is going to take care of him when he's in Zarephath.
Now stop and think, what would it be like for you if you had to leave the United States
and go to Mexico or something?
And you have to go live in Mexico for a while.
Actually, that'd be kind of cool.
So, Canada.
That would be an ordeal, right?
That would be challenging.
I mean, what if you had to flee into Canada and be on the lam and you're on the run and
whatever.
You know, obviously, we all like our hometown.
We all like our home state, our home country.
It's always a special place in our heart.
But you know, throughout the Bible, sometimes people have had to leave and go somewhere
else that they didn't necessarily want to go.
It's just life, right?
And I know there are some people who've moved to go to a good church because they didn't
really like the churches that were in their area or there weren't really any good soul-winning
churches or any churches where they were really being fed well spiritually.
And so a lot of people have moved to another city in order to go to the church that they
wanted to go to.
They're seeking first the kingdom of God and it's important to them that the church be
the right church.
And you know, here's the thing about that is that that's a sacrifice that people have
made if they did that.
You know, I just put together that video about the road trip and some of the testimonies
were talking about how, hey, we had to drive hours to get here so we're moving closer.
Hey, when I was a kid, my parents moved across town to be closer to church because we were
driving like 40 minutes each way to church.
They moved us across town to go to that church specifically because it was important to them.
And I thank God that the things of God were important to my parents because now they're
important to me.
And so I'm thankful for that example that they set by making church a priority and not
just saying let's just go to the church that's closest, but that they were willing to drive
across town 40 minutes to get us to a good church and then move to make it convenient
because obviously long term it's pretty difficult to make those kind of drives long term.
And so a lot of times people have to go to a foreign country, they have to go to a foreign
state.
Some states in our country are so weird they kind of feel like a foreign country, right?
And so, you know, other states, other countries, other places, you know, you say well I just
really want to live in this certain place, but you know what?
God has a plan for our life and sometimes God will take us places that are not necessarily
our first choice, but we need to just be thankful for God's leading in our life, thankful that
we can serve him, thankful for what he gives us, and not be so picky about the food that
we eat, sanitation, where we live, who we're staying with.
Also here's another element that you could bring into this is that not only is he being
asked to go to a foreign country, but he's being asked to live there with a foreigner.
It's not like he's there with some other Israeli expat or whatever that he can stay with and
they're going to cook his food that he likes and they're going to speak in his language
and everything like that.
No, I mean he's going there to live with a person from that country.
A widow woman that's of Zarephath, if you would flip over to Luke chapter 4 because
this is brought up in the New Testament.
This is actually alluded to by Jesus himself.
We already saw James chapter 5 that talked about Elijah being a man of like passions
as we are, but Jesus pulled out Elijah as an example in Luke chapter 4 and very early
in Jesus' ministry, right, Luke chapter 4 is quite early because if you remember Jesus
just got baptized in chapter 3.
So this is the very beginning of his ministry in chapter 4 and he's already starting to
do some preaching that's alluding to the fact that the kingdom of God is going to be taken
from Israel and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof, that it's going
to go to the Gentiles.
He's already planting those seeds.
Folks, you don't have to get very far in the New Testament to find this.
In Matthew, John the Baptist is already saying, oh, think not to say within yourselves we
have Abraham to our father in Matthew 3.
Very early in the Gospels, the theme is always laid out, this is going to go to the Gentiles.
We're moving on to the Gentiles.
And so what does Jesus say here in Luke chapter 4?
He goes to preach in his hometown.
And when he preaches in his hometown, he says in verse 24, verily I say unto you, verse
24, no prophet is accepted in his own country because he doesn't get a warm reception when
he preaches in his hometown.
This is Jesus talking.
But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, again that's
Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was
throughout all the land.
But unto none of them was Elias sent save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman
that was a widow.
Notice what the Bible says.
This is Jesus talking.
He knows what he's talking about.
He is the Word of God incarnate.
And so if anybody can expound for us 1 Kings 17, it's Jesus.
And Jesus says, you know what?
There were lots of widow women in Israel that God could have easily sent Elijah to.
It's not that the only widow who's got a spare bedroom lives in a foreign country.
It's that God specifically sent Elijah to that foreign country to stay with that widow
woman to make a specific point.
And not only that, but Elijah was meant to be a blessing to that widow woman herself
because that widow woman without Elijah, we're going to see in the story in chapter 17, was
going to starve if Elijah hadn't shown up.
She's going to starve.
God is actually blessing her.
He picked her.
He chose her to receive the blessing of Elijah's presence, of having the privilege of caring
for Elijah and in the process being cared for herself.
Why did he do that?
If he just only cares about the Jews, if he just only cares about Israel, why did he skip
over all of these struggling, starving widows in Israel and send Elijah to Zarephath or
Sarephtah as it's spelled here?
Why did he do that?
Well that's what Jesus is getting at.
He says in verse 27, many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisias the prophet and none
of them was cleansed.
You know, Elijah didn't just go around healing all the lepers in Israel at the time.
None of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
So here God blessed Assyrian instead of blessing Israelites.
God blessed a woman of Zarephath.
Why?
Because God is the God of the whole earth and God so loved the world that he gave his
only begotten son.
He didn't just only love Israel.
He also loved the world.
And so the point is that Jesus is making the point, you know, prophet's not without honor
save in his own country and in his own house.
No prophet is accepted in his own country.
He's just saying that some of these prophets actually found more faith outside of Israel.
They found people who actually were more receptive to the word of God, sometimes outside of,
the boundaries of Israel and that's a foreshadowing of what's going to happen with the Gentiles.
But the reason I had you turn there, flip back to 1 Kings if you would, is to show you
that this woman is clearly a foreigner.
She's not an Israelite.
She's a woman of Zarephath.
And God specifically sent Elijah to go be with this woman in another country and when
Jesus preached about this and brought up Elijah and brought up Elisha, who's called
Elisias in the New Testament, when he brings up Elijah and Elisha, the Israelites get so
angry at that, that they actually attempt to kill Jesus right then and there in Luke
chapter 4.
They try to murder him right there at the beginning of his ministry because he preached
that.
Very similar to when the Apostle Paul in the book of Acts, he's preaching, preaching, preaching
and they're just kind of like, meh, meh, meh.
And then he says, alright, you're going to go preach the Gospel to the Gentiles.
They're like, WHAT?!
KILL HIM!
Same attitude in Luke 4.
Okay.
So therefore, how can we apply this?
You know, we applied the raven story of, hey, don't be such a baby about your food.
Eat what God provides.
Eat what your parents provide.
Okay.
That's what we learned from that.
Going places that you don't necessarily want to go, but if God wants you to go there, you
go.
You deal with it.
But also, how about maybe interacting with people that are different than you?
And not becoming prideful and arrogant that, why, I don't want to be around this person
because they're this nationality or this demographic or whatever, right?
Having this prideful, arrogant attitude saying, well, I don't want to be around poor people.
I don't want to go to these ghetto areas, soul winning.
I don't want to go to these derelict areas, soul winning.
But you know what?
God wants us to go preach the Gospel to every creature.
He specifically wants to preach the Gospel to the poor.
So don't complain about the fact that maybe you're going to interact with some rough people
or some low-income people or some immoral people or whatever.
You know, God has sent us into all the world to preach the Gospel to every creature.
And so here, Elijah, yeah, he's being asked to live in the wilderness.
He's being asked to eat food that's not necessarily fresh.
He's being asked to go and be with foreigners.
Don't get this attitude that says, oh, well, you know, I don't want to be around people
that are black or I don't want to be around people that are Hispanic or I don't want to
be around people that are Asian or, you know, or it can go the other way.
I don't want to be around white people or whatever, right, or I don't want to be around
this ethnicity or that ethnicity.
You know, that is a wicked attitude.
It's not biblical.
And you know what it is?
It's the pride of life.
You know, the Bible talks about the sins that we struggle with, the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
And you know, this arrogant attitude that says, I'm better because I'm white or I'm
better because I'm black or I'm better because I'm a Latino.
I'm better because I'm this, that, or the other.
You know, that's a wicked attitude.
And God wants to divide us along those lines instead of the real division, which is the
children of God versus the children of this world.
The real difference is Christian, non-Christian.
That's how we ought to look at it.
That's the tribe that I'm a part of.
Christianity.
Okay, I'm not worried about this ethnicity or that ethnicity.
And you know, if God wants me to minister among a certain group of people of another
nationality, amen.
You know, if we can go on a missions trip and preach the gospel unto Africans or Mexicans
or Asians, amen.
Because a soul is a soul is a soul.
It doesn't matter what color they are, it doesn't matter what their culture is.
And you know, some people's culture, I'll be honest with you, I'm a human being.
I'm a man of like passions like Elijah and you and everybody else.
You know, there are some cultures that I think are stupid.
You know what I mean?
There are certain accents that I hear and I'm just like, man, I don't like that accent.
I can't listen to this.
You know, I can't listen to that accent.
You know, there are certain food that I'm just like, why?
There are certain cultures that I just think are lame or whatever.
But you know what, that's just me humanly speaking, that's just the flesh talking though,
isn't it?
That's just the flesh talking.
At the end of the day, what's really important is right and wrong.
Heaven, hell, Christian, non-Christian, that's what matters.
It's not about someone's accent or food or clothes or whatever.
And we need to not get so caught up in the things of this world where we fixate on these
carnal things like, well, I don't want to go live with some, you know, like Canadian
woman in Canada.
It's like, where are you sending me, God?
What are we doing here?
It's like, you know, it's just be, and of course Elijah doesn't have that.
Elijah has a good attitude.
He's like, sure, he'll minister to this Canadian, he'll live in Canada, whatever.
And this place that he's being sent is a super wicked place, like Canada, okay?
He's being sent to a super wicked place because in Zarephath, this is literally like the heart
of Baal worship at this time, okay?
Because this is a city that belongs to Zidon, right, historically known as the Phoenicians.
But these people, biblically, are a heart of Baal worship.
This is pretty much almost Jezebel's hometown or backyard.
And so he's being asked to go there and yet he doesn't balk at this.
He does what God wants him to do and he's willing to minister to foreigners and not
have this elitist attitude that, you know, he's better than everybody else.
And you know, look at Jonah.
Jonah's another prophet in the Bible, but Jonah had the wrong attitude.
Jonah said to Nineveh and says, I don't want to minister in Nineveh.
I don't want to preach there.
But you don't see Elijah having that attitude.
You see Elijah being willing to go.
And so he goes there and he goes to Zarephath.
Look at verse 10.
When he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks.
And he called to her and said, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water and a vessel that
I may drink.
And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, you know, oh, by the way,
while you're getting, while you're up anyway, while you're getting that water, he says,
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, she's
like, don't come at me with let them eat cake because I don't have bread or cake, okay?
And she says, but a handful of meal in a barrel and a little oil in 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.
She's saying, I have this tiny amount of meal, tiny amount of oil, we're going to fry up
one last pancake, my son and I are splitting this, then we're going to die.
And Elijah said to her, fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little
cake first.
Now here's the thing, notice what she said, she's saying, we're going to basically just
take a handful of meal and oil, right?
So think about a handful, right?
So a handful of meal, that's all that's left, but a handful, we're going to mix it with
oil, you know, we're going to, we're going to make it for me and my son.
Let's say they could get like two pancakes out of this or something, you know, I don't
know how much a handful of meal is, but I'm assuming we get two standard American pancakes
out of it, right?
You know, he's not saying, give me all the food first.
He's not saying, give me both pancakes.
What is he saying?
He's saying, make me a little cake thereof first.
Give me a little bit, but give it to me first.
So I don't even think he's asking for a full pancake.
He's not even asking for a half.
He's probably not even asking for one third.
You know what he's, you know, he's probably asking for approximately probably like a tenth,
if you think about it, because he's asking for just a little miniature, little tiny amount.
And basically, if she has the faith to give that little bit, that little cake thereof,
that little miniature unto him, then God's going to provide her need.
And he said, because watch what he says, he says, make me a little cake thereof first,
and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for 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 that the Lord senteth 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.
And so, if you think about it, if she would have just said, no, we need this, we need
all of this, we have so little, we need all of it, they would have eaten their cake and
they would have died.
But yet, because she had the faith to obey the word of God, and basically seek first
the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, give the Lord the first fruits, give the Lord
of the firstlings, right, then she's able to have enough.
And guess what, that's the same thing in our lives.
The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 3, honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the
first fruits of all thine increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses
shall burst forth with new wine.
If you honor the Lord with the first fruits of your increase, if you give the tithe unto
the Lord, if you give ten percent unto the Lord, then what's he going to do?
He's going to meet your need.
Now I don't see where this woman became wealthy and is flying around in a jet and covered
in jewelry and everything like that, but God has promised to provide our needs.
And if we seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be
added unto us.
What are all the things?
The food and clothing that we need will be added unto us because we seek first the kingdom
of God.
And by the way, that's why we're in church on Sunday right now, because we're giving
God the first part of our week.
The first thing we do, it's a new week, what's the first thing we're going to do?
Worship the Lord.
First thing we're going to do, come to church.
Serve God, acknowledge the Lord, seek first the kingdom of God.
You see, the big work week starts tomorrow.
We get the Lord taken care of first, right?
We do right by God now first on Sunday, the Lord's day in the New Testament.
They met on Sunday, it's the Lord's day.
We do it on the first of the week and we get it done.
We're giving the God of our best.
This is the freest day for a lot of people, right?
We're giving him our best and we're acknowledging God.
And if you acknowledge God, he meets the rest of your needs.
If you don't acknowledge God, if you don't take care of that first fruit and, you know,
making sure that the man of God and the church and everything gets what they need to function,
then basically you just say, well, I just got to take care of myself.
Well, have fun taking care of yourself.
I'd rather have God take care of me than to just take care of myself.
I'd rather have God take care of me because you say, you say, well, yeah, but when God
takes care of you, you're eating out of some raven's mouth, you're drinking out of a brook,
you're going to some foreign country, you know, with a bunch of foreigners and, you
know.
But here's the thing about that is that you'd rather be eating from the raven's mouth than
to have no food, which is what a lot of the people in Israel had at that time, no food,
no water.
What about all those widows that Jesus brought up that were living in Israel?
They wished that they had Elijah showing up and they wouldn't have been complaining about
the fact that they have to eat pancakes every day because of the fact that pancakes are
a lot better than nothing.
And so we need to read this passage and adjust our viewpoint on this world where we expect
everything to be handed to us and we want everything to be perfect and understand that
God's will for our lives is a lot of times that we eat things that aren't our favorite,
that we hang around with people that are not our favorite people necessarily, that we end
up going places that we wouldn't have necessarily chosen, but it's because we're seeking first
the Kingdom of God.
We're putting God first.
Like the widow put God first and then she's taken care of, okay.
And by the way, God does not actually physically show up in Phoenix every week for you to go
visit him, but rather, you know, he's represented by his house.
You know, this woman, she basically blesses Elijah.
That's a way for her to serve God because she's serving the man of God.
Well, here's the thing.
When you come to church, that's how you, by going to God's house, actually acknowledge
God.
You know, there's so many reasons why, and I'm going to close on this thought, there's
so many reasons why we need to go to church.
And I suspect that some people, especially people who've been saved for a long time,
they might start to think like, we don't really need church, or I can get by on less church.
What's going to happen if I miss church a few times?
You know, I've saved the Bible my whole life, right?
What's going to happen?
But you know, there are a lot of reasons why even those of us who've been saved a long
time need to be in church, okay?
And you know, one of those reasons is because of the fact that when we get out of church,
our mentality changes little by little, and we might not even notice it.
So you say, well, when Pastor Anderson preaches, I already know like 99% of what he's saying.
I already know like 90% of what he's saying.
I've been in church my whole life.
Yeah, but here's the thing.
You need to just hear it again anyway.
It's good to just be refreshed on things that you already know.
Because you want to have a spiritual mentality.
Because if we're just out in this world, we can get a worldly mentality.
Coming to church is kind of like a reset, like, okay, it's like, let's refocus on the
things of God for a minute here.
Let's redirect to the things of God.
And of course, number two, we need to go to church because we learn a lot more than we
think.
Sometimes you feel like, oh, I already know a lot of this, but I bet you learn something
new in most sermons.
You might not notice that you're learning, but you're always learning more than you think.
But number three, you don't just come here to church to take something out of it.
You also come here to put something in.
You know, Elijah is taking something from the widow, but he's also putting something
in.
She's taking from him, but she's also putting something in.
It's a mutual relationship here with the widow and Elijah.
They're both blessing each other.
They're both helping each other.
They both need each other.
Well, at church, we bless each other and we all need each other too.
And so you're coming also to encourage other people, to be a blessing to other people.
But not only that, you're coming to worship the Lord.
So you say, well, why do I need to sing the songs?
I don't like to sing.
I don't really get anything out of it.
Okay, well, what does God get out of it?
You know, God commands us to praise him.
And so maybe, maybe when we sing in church, we're also doing it for him.
We're worshiping him.
We're acknowledging him.
And by the way, the Bible says speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs.
Maybe the fact that you're singing loud encourages the people around you.
Because when you walk into a church and everybody's singing loud, it's really a nice atmosphere.
And it really helps you get your head in the right place for being ready to receive the
Word of God.
But you know, one of the biggest reasons of all why I think it's important to go to church
is just because I think that just by going to church, you're just showing God, you know
what?
I showed up.
I showed up today, God.
I went to church.
And you know what?
When God sees you going to church, God's going to bless that.
But when he sees you busy with everything else, when he sees you not making it a priority,
not interested, bored, not caring, well, you know, he might not take as much of an interest
in your life either.
And I want God doing stuff in my life.
And so I want to go into my work week knowing that on Sunday morning, I was in church.
And that's a good place to start the week, isn't it?
Because then it's like, okay, I've given a nod unto the Lord.
Even if I went to church, look, if I, let's say I lived in a town where the church was
so lame that I truly got nothing out of the sermon.
I mean, it was just that lame.
I would still walk out of there saying, hey, I'm glad I went to church because at least
God isn't up in heaven seeing me skipping church.
At least God's up in heaven looking down on me and saw that my butt was in church, okay?
And that's the way I want God to see me is that I went to church.
That I acknowledged him.
That I honored him with my substance and with the firstfruits of all my increase.
That I made him the priority.
That I sought first the kingdom of God and his righteousness so that Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, everything else could be added unto me as I go through my
week.
And I'm not saying God's necessarily always going to give you the filet mignon, but I
will say this, nobody who is following the Lord is going to starve to death unless it's
by their own choice.
As David said, I've been young, he said I've been young, now I'm old, I've never seen the
righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.
The Bible says my God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by
Christ Jesus.
There are people who starve to death in this world, don't get me wrong, but they're not
born again children of God that are putting God first in their life and serving God.
Sorry, but that's true.
And so we need to make sure that we serve God so that our life doesn't crash and burn.
And we need to be willing to eat what he puts in front of us, go where he wants to go, and
be around the people he wants us to be around.
And you know, some people have this attitude that says, well, just, just, you know, the
people, the people, I just don't like the people at church.
Then go to a different church, right?
I mean, if you don't like the people at our church, go find a church where you do like
the people.
But here's what I suspect, I suspect that when you go to another church, you're going
to be like, yeah, the people of Faithful Word were pretty cool.
Because it's just true, okay?
But I'm saying, like, I guarantee you, you're going to go to some other church, and then
you're going to be like, yeah, it was pretty cool at Faithful Word.
But if you go to some other church and you just say, well, I like the people over here
at this other Baptist church a lot better, then go with God, Godspeed.
But you know, I get tired of hearing people, you know, complain about church people because
I'm thinking to myself, like, what about people at the grocery store?
Like, what about the people at the post office?
What about the people at the DMV?
Are they just, are they, they're just so much better than church people?
Think about it.
What about the people at school?
Oh, the people at school are so much better than church.
Is that really true, though?
Because I find that the people at church are the best people.
Sorry, but that's what I find to be the case.
And so, you know, I'd rather, I bet that widow woman was pretty cool.
And you know what, I bet she was way cooler than the widows all throughout Israel.
I'm not kidding.
If God's like, hey, go all the way to this widow, you're going to go all the way, I bet
she was pretty cool.
So you know what you're going to find is that you're better off being with the people that
God provides and being buddies with people that God provides, even if they are black
or Hispanic or Asian or Indian or white or whatever group of people.
You know, you're just better off being around God's people.
And you know, are there, is there drama with people at church?
Absolutely.
But is there drama at school?
All day long.
Is there drama in the grocery store?
Anybody who's worked at the grocery store knows there's a lot of drama that goes on.
We don't know because we just do the self-checkout.
But I'm telling you, there's all kinds of stuff going on.
It's a soap opera, my friend.
I've talked to people who work at the grocery store, they say it's a soap opera.
In that break room and everything, it gets weird.
And so the point is, your problem isn't with church people, your problem is with humans.
Problems with sin, sinners.
It's life.
But you know what?
Just go with it.
Be Elijah, eat what's put in front of you, love people, get out of your comfort zone,
get around some people that are different, get over it, deal with it, put God first,
go to church, seek first the kingdom of God.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for this passage, Lord, that shows us a little bit of the background
of Elijah.
We often think about the big stories of Elijah calling down fire from heaven, Lord, but thank
you for these early stories in the life of Elijah that pretty much show us how to become
an Elijah by enduring hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ and by learning to be around
different kinds of people and eat different kinds of food.
Lord, help us to be submissive to your will and to go with the flow in our Christian life
and to seek you first and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
Take your hymnals, please.
Let's go to hymn number 343.
343, revive us again.
Hymn number 343 begins, we praise you, O God, for the Son of Thy love.
Number 343, let's sing it out together on that first verse.
Hymn 43, we praise Thee, O God, for the Son of Thy love.
For Jesus to die and His power run above.
Hallelujah by the glory, hallelujah, amen.
Hallelujah by the glory, revive us again.
We praise Thee, O God, for the Spirit of life, who has shown us our Savior and scattered our night.
Hallelujah by the glory, hallelujah, amen.
Hallelujah by the glory, revive us again.
All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain, who has borne all our sins and has cleansed every spade.
Hallelujah by the glory, hallelujah, amen.
Hallelujah by the glory, revive us again.
Revive us again.
Fill each heart with thy love, may each soul be rekindled with fire from above.
Hallelujah by the glory, hallelujah, amen.
Hallelujah by the glory, revive us again.
Amen, next one singing this morning, what is this?
Hallelujah by the glory, hallelujah.