1 Kings 16 Your Real Enemy Is Not People

Ahab looks powerful on the outside, but 1 Kings paints a different picture: spiritual compromise, idol worship, and leadership choices that poison a whole nation. We start there because many of us know what it feels like to live under pressure, to carry anxiety, trauma, or depression, and to wonder if we are the only ones. Elijah shows up in the middle of that mess with a simple but explosive message, and it forces the question: what happens when God calls ordinary people to speak truth to power?

We walk through Ahab, Jezebel, Baal, and the drought, then slow down to talk about the real battleground. The fight is not against flesh and blood. The devil’s best strategy is division, isolation, and getting us to treat people like enemies. We talk about how Christian love, reconciliation, and refusing to assume the worst can be a punch in the face of those lies, while also clarifying that abuse is different and requires wise boundaries.

Then the story turns personal: Elijah obeys God and ends up hiding at a wadi that dries up, relying on ravens for food. Faithfulness does not always feel good. Sometimes suffering comes from disobedience, and sometimes suffering comes from obedience, but God uses both to form endurance and hope. We close with Romans 5 and the gospel of Jesus Christ, anchoring real hope in the presence of God and the gift of the Holy Spirit.

If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s tired or discouraged, and leave a review so more people can find this series on Elijah and anxious faith.

Transcript

Elijah The Anxious Prophet

SPEAKER_01 0:00

King Ahab of Israel did more evil in God's eyes than any king before him. And the kings before him did some seriously bad stuff. He worshipped fake gods and married a demon to one. Ahab made life miserable for anyone who stepped up to him. Boom. God important Elijah to speak truth to power. But other times, he was great. And in with our friends, on the rise from a hateful king. Elijah. Oh you see, sometimes in the midst of great turmoil, even God's chosen prophets lose heart. Sometimes even the great Elijah needed to be reminded of God's care for him. Also, sometimes Elijah just needed a dance out. But when things go south and we forget God's love, like Elijah, we can trust God is present. We can listen for God's still small voice. And we can find hope in God's promises. Even when we're scared or hanged, even when the world around us seems to fall apart. So bring your hurt, bring your trauma, and bring your shame, and let God serve up the grace. In the book of First Kings, join us for Elijah, the anxious prophet.

Bibles Notes And Series Setup

Ahab Jezebel And The Text

Prayer And Why We Need Hope

Compromise Brings Real Consequences

Fight Idols Not Each Other

Faithfulness Does Not Feel Good

Suffering That Produces Endurance And Hope

Repentance And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Like I was trying to get him to write something for it, and I was sending him the information, and he sent that to me, and I was like, this is filthy. It was so good. I was just, I'm so proud of that. We have so much talent in this church. Not everyone knows about it. But today we are going to be in our Bibles in 1 Kings 16 29. 1 Kings 16 29. We have great, really nice study Bibles available for you. If you need a study Bible, we would love to give you one. We also have them in other languages. Tenemos Biblias Bilinguees disponibles o costada de Salon. Bonjour, mwensatim, cantar, nueve avec muen isit la nubi creo aisien puno gratis, nos somson au crayon. Now, for those of you who always wonder what I'm saying, I'm saying that we have crayol bibles, but we also have notes. So if you ever meet someone in here that speaks Haitian Crayol first, um and you want to help them, you can always take those notes to them. Those are the sermon notes so that they can follow along more easily. So we're gonna be spending eight weeks today, nope, eight weeks starting today. Good, don't worry. In the book of 1 Kings, and we're gonna go through the life of Elijah. Um the book of Kings has uh what we would say is an anonymous uh author, but many attribute it to the prophet Jeremiah. Um overall, it would probably have had multiple people updating it, helping it complete it. And I've been excited for this series for almost a year, actually, um, because I know that just about everyone in the room has anxiety. I know that almost everyone in the room has trauma. I know that almost everyone in the room uh has depression. And guys, almost everyone in the room thinks they're the only ones. And uh what we have to do is we have to look at the Bible and see that we're not alone. And sometimes we need to be willing to look at each other and say, Yes, I suffer this way. And so this is this is one of the ways that we're starting to get this out. We can see one of the greatest prophets in the Bible suffering and struggling, depressed, anxious, having relational struggles. We need to see that, I think, modeled in the Bible. So, um, and he doesn't always model it perfectly either. So uh in 1 Kings 16, 29, let me read to you from there, and then we're gonna go all the way through 17, um, but I'll probably stop us a little bit early on, just you know, trying to fill you guys in. Alright, here we go. This is God's word from 1 Kings 16. You with me? Ahab, son of Amri, became king over Israel in the 38th year of Judah's king Asa. Ahab, son of Amri, reigned over Israel and Samaria twenty-two years. But Ahab, son of Amri, did what was evil in the sight of the Lord more than all who were before him. Then, as if following the sin of Jeroboam, son of Nabat, were not enough, he married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbal, king of the Sidonians, and then proceeded to serve Baal and bow in worship to him. Okay, so before we go any further, let me just get us caught up a little bit. Um we gotta do a little bit of history, right? So the author mentions King Jeroboam. Now there was a time when a prophet approached a man named Jeroboam and told him he was ripping the kingdom away from King Solomon. Okay? Uh Solomon, son of David, one of the first kings. Um, because Solomon had chased after other ladies that were from other places that worship foreign gods, and Solomon ended up worshiping foreign gods. Um he worshipped idols, idols being something that we use to replace God, okay? So Jeroboam, given this warning and then given the kingship rightly after, um, guess what he did right after that church? He chased after the wrong things, right? He worshiped idols. And guess what Omri, father of King Ahab, did? He worshiped idols. Now, parents, there's a lesson here. Your kids are going to do what you do. If you tell them church is a priority but you don't make it a priority, they will do the same. If you take them to church and you teach them the Bible and you tell them those things are important, but at home you don't follow the Bible, they won't either. Matter of fact, they will be enemies of God because you have taught them to be that way. Kids do what we do, not what we say. It's why parents, our kids need to see us apologize. Um, uh our kids need to see us apologize to them, to our friends and to our spouses. They need to hear us say, I was wrong. Um, they need to see us reading the Bible and praying, they need to see us show mercy and to love justice, otherwise they will just follow our example. I would hate for my children to follow any of my idols. All right, verse 32, we're continuing. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he had built in Samaria. Ahab also made an asheropole. Ahab did more to anger the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him. Now, first Kings 17. Now, Elijah the Tishbite from Gilead's settlers said to Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel lives in whose presence I stand, there will be no dew or rain during these years except by my command. That's bold. Then the word of the Lord came to him, Leave here, turn eastward, and hide in the Wadi Cherith, where it enters the Jordan. You are to drink from the Wadi. I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there. So he proceeded to do what the Lord commanded. Elijah left and lived at the Wadi Sherith, where it enters the Jordan. The ravens kept bringing him bread and meat in the morning and in the evening, and he would drink from the Wadi. After a while the wadi dried up because there had been no rain in the land. This is God's word. Will you pray with me, friends? Father, first I just want to thank you for the continued recovery of our friend Rick after his triple bypass surgery. Um I'm so heartened to see the way he's improving and to see the way our church has blessed him with presence and love and prayers. God, we also thank you for the marriage of Diego and Valeria and ask that you protect and bless them and bless him as he's finishing up basic training soon. Bless them as a family, help them to bless others as a family. And Father, great provider, you give us what we need. You provide for us, and yet there are times when we are driven to despair. There are times when we cannot feel your presence. Or your hope. We have too much hurt. We see too much pain and suffering in the world. Our ears become deaf to your still small voice. Father, we're grateful that even in those moments you do not leave us. When we tune you out intentionally or accidentally, you are still here. You are Elroy, the God who sees us. Please receive all our praise, all our hurt, all our hope this morning. You're the only one we trust with them. Please teach us today. May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our hearts be pleasing to you. We pray this all in Jesus' name, and all God's people said, Amen. So, guys, as you will see coming up, Elijah gets into some very scary situations, and um, it's God who sends him there. And based on all we read, God equips him to rise to the occasion constantly. Um, and you'll see a zeal for the Lord almost unseen by anyone else. But God often blesses us by pulling back the curtain to see, to see the ways he struggled, to see the ways he felt alone, to see the ways he was hungry and angry. We get to see his private moments, which is such a blessing. And so today we're gonna get a bit of both in the text we've seen already. And I'm gonna give you three points from Elijah's first royal smackdown. That is three points from Elijah's first royal smackdown. And my first point is this spiritual compromise always leads to consequences. Spiritual compromise always leads to consequences. Verse 30 Ahab, son of Amri, did what was evil in the Lord's sight more than all who were before him. Then, as if following the sin of Jeroboam, son of Nabat were not enough, he married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbal, king of the Sidonians, and he proceeded to serve Baal and bow in worship to him. He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, and he he had built in Samaria. So he built that temple. Ahab also made an Asherah Pol. So Asherah was a fert uh fertility goddess and the mother of Baal. Um, and then Asherah Poles were often, let's just say it, they're kind of like sexual, and they're they're meant to be kind of like dirty. And so then Ahab did more to anger the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him. So we have to lay this out, what's happening. Jeroboam sinned, right? Omri sinned, and now it was up to Ahab. Well, I have bad news for us, right? Like Ahab would also sin and make terrible decisions. Now Ahab was marrying a woman from Sidon. It said he married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbal, king of Sidonians. So Tyre and Sidon, um, in the land of Canaan, were they had a reputation. Um, it might have been a little bit like talking about Vegas, um, but it it was uh within what we would call Lebanon today, okay? And the Greeks actually called it Phoenicia. You may have heard of Phoenicia. Um, Phoenicia was their word for purple because they had a particular snail there that could be boiled down and could create really expensive purple dyes for clothing. But the Jewish people, they knew that that region was known for something worshipping fake gods and depravity. Depravity, depravity, depravity. Um, that those people had a hatred of the God of the Bible. But Ahab, he had no choice, right? Like, he had to choose Jezebel, right? Like, she was probably beautiful, um, and we know that she cared about her makeup and her hair, because we see this in the scriptures. Um, the Bible tells us, and I'm guessing he was blinded by beauty. But the book of Proverbs tells us this that charm is deceptive and that beauty is fleeting. That text describes a godly woman, and it says, She works hard and she extends her arms to the poor and blesses her family. What you'll see about Jezebel is she's not really concerned about the poor. Jezebel was none of these things, but she ensnared the king. Um and we know outward beauty can hide inner filth. Like, outward beauty easily hides glaring flaws. Jezebel was bent on destruction and she was taking her husband with her. Now, let's just be clear about this. Like, there's a lot of people out here who like to blame women for their problems, like Jezebels. And I'm just like, dude, this was Ahab. This was all him. This was his family too. Like, it wasn't just her, but it was him. And so, you know, I always want you to be really careful when you hear preachers talking about Jezebels out there. Man, just tune it out. Like, let's let's just like look at like the true Jezebel here, and and let's be really careful, because the Jezebel spirit is mentioned in the Bible, but you have to be really careful who you put that mantle on, okay? No one is beyond uh God's salvation, okay? So, but she was beautiful on the outside and nasty on the inside. Now, Jesus describes religious people this way, the religious leaders of his time, the same way. He called them whitewashed tombs, right? He said that these dudes appeared, quote, beautiful on the outside, but inside full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. But Ahab made his choice. He chose the beauty on the outside. He knew where Jezebel came from. And sometimes suffering comes from disobedience. She was just being her authentic self, right? Like he knew who who Jezebel was when he married her. And I'll just say, some of you are trying to date someone who is, quote, open to church or whatever. You've already put yourself in a compromising position, or you will soon. Like you are walking into a trap. And physical intimacy is how you'll be trapped. Um, and you already know what is probably gonna happen. It is so much easier to pull someone down than to lift them up. I'm just being real. Like, guys, don't missionary date. Don't do that. Stay away from it. Find someone who loves the Lord. If it means waiting longer, wait longer. It's better to wait for the right person. Now, if you choose to be around someone you are attracted to who is not devoted to God, you are going to make excuses for them. And you're gonna suffer. And sometimes suffering just comes from disobedience. Like, uh, I did the same thing once, not with a lady, but um with a dude, and you're like, whoa, hey, hey, hey. No, no, no, no, no. Wait, hold on. Um, I was in a worship band. Um, and um when I was in my worship band, what we would do is we would try musicians out, and then we would meet with them. And so we had this one musician, man, oof, he was so dang good. I remember trying him out, and and like, I mean, he was just a really good drummer. And I just remember like he also listened to all the same punk bands as me. And so I like I love this idea that like we're a worship band, but we want to be influenced by punk. That's what we were into, okay? Get over it. And he came in and he was like, Oh, I like, and he named like every band that I liked, and he started playing drums exactly like I liked. So then I was like, wow, he's great. Let's let me go meet with him and like talk to him about Jesus. And he's like, Yeah, dude, I'll like, you know, uh, I'm I'm good with Jesus, you know, like like I talk to him every day. And and I like for me, usually that's like a little bit of a sign of something else, you know, like um it's kind of something people tend to say um when they they don't actually like engage in the Bible, they don't engage in church, they just say, I talk to him every day. It's kind of a way to like write off everything. And but I'm like, okay, well, he talks to Jesus every day. Okay, great, tell me more. Yeah, I've been in lots of churches, like 13, you know, and I'm like, okay, cool, cool experience. You know, when you're like, oh, there's no problems there. Um but he was so good. But I tell you, so I compromised. Like I used his gifting to interpret his heart for Jesus, and it caused me so much pain. There were signs, there were selfish, there was arrogance. He wasn't currently in a church, but why was I able to overlook things so easily? Because he was a good drummer. I was seduced by gifting, but there were glaring problems. Now, we did the opposite with Ruben, our worship leader. I don't know if you guys know this, but Reuben, um, we we met with him first. We're like, we're gonna meet with these worship leader candidates and get to know their hearts first. And that's what we did. And I cannot tell you how, in some ways, it was very uh scary because like then we're like, okay, well, let's have him sing a song, and I'm like, don't suck, don't suck, don't suck. We got really uh blessed, not lucky, we got blessed that that he had great talent, but for me, the most important thing is we need to know if Reuben had a good heart before we saw his talent. Because you can be seduced by seeing the wrong things first, friends. And I I think if I had to guess, the king saw the wrong things first. When we look first for beauty, when we look first for gifting, when we look first for talent rather than integrity, guys, um Jesus would say, You reap what you sow. Guys, did you know if you plant cucumbers you aren't gonna end up with like sweet, awesome winter squash? Did you know that? It almost looks the same, but squash doesn't taste like trash. You see? Like you're gonna get stuck with cucumbers if you plant cucumbers. Why are you expecting any different? I don't need to hear from you, Isaiah. You stop. Stop. But I'm not gonna be mad at the cucumber, you know, it's just doing its thing, being nasty over there. Like it's my fault for planting the cucumber, okay? Sometimes suffering, it just comes from disobedience. Another way to say it is play stupid games, get stupid prizes, right? So the question becomes: are you setting yourself up for success, friends? Married people, affairs don't just happen. They happen when you respond to an innocent DM. If you got a thing for that girl, if you got a thing for that guy, and you get that DM, just block it. Don't even read it. Block them. Don't compromise. My therapist once told me, he's a therapist for pastors, he said, every pastor he counseled who cheated on his wife stopped reading their Bible first. They compromised first with their Bibles. Guys, compromise with sin starts small. Okay? You might say, I'm just gonna go on that date with him, even though he's not a believer, it's just one date. Friends, that won't end well. Either you'll be seduced by his charms, or you'll end up on a crappy date with someone who will not encourage you in your faith. You know what else starts small? Tigers. But they grow up. And when they get too big, it's too late. Like, ask the Tiger King, okay? Like, they had they this this dude from the Tiger King, they had a tiger handler named Ryan Easley at a place called Growler Pines, Tiger Preserve in Oklahoma. This was only like two years ago. And he was performing a show with a tiger that he had raised since it was a cub. It attacked him, causing fatal blunt and sharp force injuries. He was killed by the tiger that he raised. When it started, it was small and cuddly and easy to take care of. But those things grow. You make a little compromise, it grows. Sometimes suffering comes from, you know, raising tigers, but sometimes suffering comes from disobedience. But friends, there's there's another way to look at this. Yes, if you plant cucumbers, you'll get nasty cucumbers. But even when you make bad decisions and you suffer, God can still use those bad decisions for glory because he's a good and loving God. But since King Ahab was planting bad seeds and worshiping fake gods, God was gonna punish him, and and nothing was going to grow for him. And God called the prophet Elijah to speak up, and this is where we see miracles, and this is our second point. God sends his people to confront his enemy. God sends his people to confront his enemy. Now I want you to look at this point, and I want you to see a nuance in what I've written today. It does not say the word enemies. It is not plural. Okay. Verse 1 from chapter 17. Now Elijah the Tishbite from the Gilead settlers said to Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel lives, in whose presence I stand, there will be no dew or rain during these years except by my command. Now, Ahab's name means father's brother. It's not a lot of really cool stuff in his name. Basically unk, you know. But Jezebel's name has been said to mean a where is the prince? Or Baal is exalted, Baal being that false God. Her dad's name actually had Baal in it. But Elijah's name translates as Yahweh is my God. Now anyone who's read a good amount of the Bible knows that Elijah is important. Like Jesus shows us that Elijah is important. If you've heard of him, you might be surprised by his introduction here. It's like, this is his dad. This is where he's from. None say, like, he's this awesome dude. It's just nothing special. He's a humble introduction for a great man. Now, Indian Bible scholar Havila Durham Raj, he says this how in the opening scene, Elijah's introduced with neither of the usual titles, man of God or prophet. He is an unknown quantity. So it's crazy how you have these people with these great grand titles, and then just this guy, Elijah, who loves God, and he's not given a title. Elijah spent time with God, though. He stood in the presence of God. It sounded like we're describing an angel here. Like Elijah wasn't undergunned, was he? Ahab was. And even more so, the devil and the fake gods, they're always weak in the face of Yahweh. Dr. Tony Evans says this was a direct attack at Baal, a fertility god. His worshippers depend on him to provide rain to ensure good crops. Elijah would demonstrate that the Lord was alone in control of the natural world. He was their source. So, yes, Baal was known for growth, for rain. This was the first of many attacks, many smackdowns on Baal. God, through Elijah, was directly challenging the lie that fake idols had any real power. But I want you to see something. The challenge was less against the powerful king. In this moment, it was less against the powerful king. So who was Elijah challenging? He's challenging the devil. He's challenging the devil's lies. God is going to challenge many of you to punch the devil, not the people around you. I know we get that mixed up. We turn that around sometimes. God turned that around, right? Because our battle is not against flesh and blood, friends. Friends, you do not need to be against any person. Here's the crazy thing. The people who you think you are against in this church are probably for you. The people who disagree with you usually love you. So who do you need to fight? The devil, the one called the divider, that's his goal, to separate you. You have to tell yourself the truth. He wants nothing more than you to be alone. That's where he can hurt you. The person you are fighting with, the devil knows. If you humbly sit down with that person 95% of the time, you're gonna reconcile. He knows this. You're gonna forgive each other, you're gonna talk through misunderstandings. He hates that. He wants you to keep people at arm's length. He wants you to assume the worst about each other. But 1 Corinthians 13 says, love believes all things and keeps no records of wrongs. Now, once again, as always, I say we're not talking about abuse, okay? This is different. But I would say it this way: Christian, love your neighbor. Loving your neighbor means you assume the best. Christian love for people you struggle with is a punch in the devil's face. This is the fight. This is the hard part, friends. Uh and you know, like politically, there's gonna be people on different sides that disagree with you, but you are never going to come to understanding if you hate each other, if you avoid each other. Sometimes it's easier to challenge some evil king, though, than it is to challenge ourselves, isn't it? To challenge your bitterness, your trauma, your fear, or being hurt and your stubbornness, that is more difficult. Like, man, we could look at somebody on TV and we could just say all kinds of things about them about them, can't we? That's easy. But what about the mirror? Guys, but this is how you know God is growing you. You realize that people are not your enemy, they are hurting just as much as you are. That person you can't get along with in church, in work, in your family, they are not your enemy. They are people to be loved. Your enemy is the devil and the fake gods of this world. And and we need to stop giving them airtime in our minds. Don't we stop allowing Baal and the devil to live rent-free in your brain? They only want to turn you against the people who love you. Now, I'm I'm gonna tell this story. Uh, you know, I I don't got any new stories, so some of you have heard these, I don't know. Um, but uh several years ago, probably now 15, 16, 17 years ago, um, we were coming up on Christmas, and my wife's family um had some like disagreements, we'll say. And um, you had a bunch of people that were mad at other people, and this person was mad at this person, and this person was mad at this person, and this person was mad at this person. And so what happened was when we had Christmas that year, all the people thought the other person was gonna be there, and it was basically empty. It was just Ashley's um parents, her sister, her grandmother, me, and Ashley. It was awesome, actually, because no one was fighting. But it was only uh two months later that her dad died. And all those people who were beefing missed out on an amazing day. But the devil knew what he was doing. If we can just divide people, then we can just get them to sit alone and stew and hate everybody, and then I can get them. And they missed out, and I'm I'm so sad for them. There's no way to make that up. Guys, um, I get I get it. There are times when you need to stay away from abusive people, but there are other times when you refuse to spend time with certain people because you are, quote, protecting your mental health. Guys, that's not always protecting your mental health. Like you are isolating yourself, you are losing endurance, and you are leaving yourself susceptible to the devil's attack. We battle against Baal, we battle against the devil. Don't pick up your sword against people. Choose to believe the best. Don't pick up your sword against people, pick up your sword against the devil. Now, Elijah did something powerful. He did something in the name of the Lord, and he knew God's will. This made him a prophet, and he did some things that were painful. But how did he know that it was God's will? Well, he he stands in the presence of God. I'm gonna believe him on this. But I talked to so many people in the room. Um, so many of you guys are trying to discern like, is this God speaking to you? And I just want to break it down for you for a minute. God always speaks to you through his word. We can trust that. The book of Ephesians calls the Bible the sword of the Spirit. When you think God is speaking to you, first line it up with the word. That's the first step. Elijah was a prophet who did what God told him to say. He was exceptional, though, okay? Like we tell stories about Elijah because there was something big going on, not normal, okay? And let me just say this: you are not Elijah. But you can hear from God still, okay? And this is something that is hard for so many of us. Um, if this is hard for you, you you're in a good club with us, okay? Sometimes I will talk to someone who knows God wants them to do something. And often their friends in church may question them. But friends, if God told you, how are we supposed to speak to that person? How are we supposed to talk to someone like that? We can't. Why? Because they know it's God. This is difficult. Now, here's one of the most mature things you can say as a Christian when you'd like to do something or you think God might be in something. I think I'd like to do this. Or I think this is the best idea. That's really okay. Like there's nothing sinful about that as long as it's not sinful, right? But if you really think about it, God may be leading you to something. I mean, really, He may be telling you to do something. And here is the most mature thing you can say about that. I think God may be in this, but I'm not sure. I think God may be in this, but I'm not sure. Guys, there's so much freedom in that. You do not sit in the presence of God the way that the prophets Elijah, Aaron, Moses, or Isaiah did, and that's okay. You are not the angels Michael or Gabriel. That's okay. We have God's spirit in us, but it's a bad filter that it goes through. He goes through, excuse me. Now, sometimes you will say, God told me because you got an impression. And you know what? If if you are a Christ follower, the Bible says God's Holy Spirit is in you. So God does speak to you. The problem is he's just going through this bad filter. We have a lot of history, we have a lot of bias, and we have a lot of trauma. And the spirit, he's going through that. But guys, if you thought God told you to take a job and you told everyone God told you, he would hook you up with a new house, and then you got laid off right away and you didn't get the house, that would make God a liar, wouldn't it? We don't want that. We don't want that because God doesn't lie, does he? So, what's the other option? If God didn't lie to you and you said something false, what does that make us in our prophecy? A false prophet. It's okay to say I don't know. It's okay to say maybe. It's okay to say God might be in this. It's okay to say I'm not sure. But also, God calls us to things, He actually calls us to things, and then it doesn't look like success. Sometimes suffering comes from obedience. God may call you to show radical kindness to someone who's gonna hate you. You will not see the reason this side of heaven. Amen. You are called to do the right thing despite consequences, friends. We are called to be faithful even when others mock us. Elijah didn't confront Ahab because he knew things would go awesome for him. He did it out of obedience to God, even if it meant his life. Sometimes suffering comes from obedience, but God always uses suffering for our good and his glory. We just may not see it. But as children of God, we can always carry hope with us no matter what. We can trust God when things get rough. We know he loves us even when we see all the hard things around us. Friends, God is going to cause some of you to be hopeful when it feels like there is nothing to hope for. He provides his spirit, our counselor, to help us in those moments. But I promise you, following God will feel difficult at times. If it doesn't feel difficult, I don't know if you're following. And that's where we get our third point. Point number three, faithfulness doesn't always feel good. Faithfulness doesn't always feel good. Verse 2 When the word of the Lord came to him, leave here, turn eastward, and hide at the Wadi Shareeth, where it enters the Jordan. Okay, so our prophet just did as God told him. Amen. Um, but God didn't blow up Ahab's palace. You're like, ah, he did the thing, he told the prophet that he threatened him and all that stuff. And you think like God's gonna just like knock Ahab down, and instead he says, Hey, Elijah, you need to go hide now. Like, wait a minute. Elijah was faithful to God and he has to go hide? That's wild. And then it says in verse 4, you are to drink from the Wadi. I have commanded the ravens to provide for you there. So he proceeded to do what the Lord commanded. Elijah left and lived at the Wadi Cherith, where it enters the Jordan. Now, for those of you who don't know what a Wadi is, I'm sure you're figuring it out by context. A Wadi is a riverbed that is only wet during the rainy months, okay? And it almost always dries up, okay? Now, for those of you who have watched the Lion King and were traumatized by it, remember when Scar killed Mufasa? Yes, you see it every night, right? Like, long live the king, right? Mufasa was trampled on the wildebeest in a dried up wadi. So now you have a picture of the wadi, and I've just like brought out some scars from your life. Oh, scars. Okay. Moving on. Verse 6. The ravens kept bringing him bread and meat in the morning, and in the evening he would drink from the wadi. After a while, the wadi dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Now, one of the things you see throughout the narratives about Elijah is this if you are a prophetic witness to power, you will often suffer. I'm not, but but guys, I'm not talking about if you post something on your Instagram. It's just not the same thing. It's not, it doesn't really cost you a lot. Oh, only the people who agree with you are seeing this. Like a lot of times you have to be with someone, build a relationship with someone in order to be able to speak to them about these things. Guys, a prophet is always asking what God is doing, and a prophet is often sent to his own people. Elijah was sent to his own king, and he would have been accused of being disloyal. But believers are loyal to God and to his word. If you're a Republican, you may need to challenge Republicans. You will be disliked for it. But if you challenge sin in your own camp, there is a small chance, but a bigger chance than anyone else, that someone's gonna listen to you. Who will they listen to you if they don't listen to you? If you're a Democrat, it's the same for you, friends. When your party sins, you will have to challenge them for it. You will have to be willing to see your own people through the lens of scripture, and you will get in trouble for it. It's the same for Crips, it's the same for cops. God may call you to challenge your own, and it's gonna be rough. I often challenge white people more often. Um, it's because I'm of the khaki persuasion, okay? Sometimes you gotta challenge your own delegation friends. Like we challenge ourselves about the raisins and the potato salad. We don't need anyone else to get involved. Um, but it feels lonely at times, you guys. Faithfulness does not always equal fun or happiness. It doesn't. Sometimes faithfulness means you confess your sin and people don't like it, and it hurts your career and it hurts your friendships. You confess, but it makes me grateful to be a part of God's church. I can always show up to a city group or a church event and know there are people there who love me in spite of me, in spite of my sins. You guys can know this too. There are people who love you in spite of your mistakes. It's okay. This is why we do this. God always uses suffering for our good and his glory, friends. So Elijah was hungry, he was on the run. This is not turning out the way he probably saw it in his head, but God provided through him, uh, provided for him, and God used ravens, which is wild. Like ravens are an unclean bird, okay? So in the Bible, there are certain animals that are considered clean and certain animals that are considered unclean. If you're a prophet, you don't want to mess with anything unclean. And yet, God provides through the unclean. God fed Elijah this way, it was foreshadowing, I believe, um, to be something even bigger. Like Elijah was going to be fed by non-Jewish people. Um coming right after this, you'll see it happen. God was preparing him. Now, as Elijah had been obedient, God continued to provide for him up until the wadi went dry. It doesn't say Elijah loved it. Like Elijah was hiding. It doesn't give us a lot of input into what Elijah was even feeling, but later on we will actually see his discouragement, and it's real, and it's painful. Now, Indian author Jay Jezudason, he says this the life of a true prophet did not include walking on red carpet or sleeping on a bed of roses. Prophets had to struggle and face life-threatening situations while proclaiming God's word and seeking to help others. Friends, if you want to be a prophet, you gotta know what happens to prophets. Elijah's life was hard and good. We have to be able to see that. Was Dr. King's life easier because he spoke up against our nation's sins? No, he was killed for it. Ultimately, it cost him his life. So here's Elijah speaking truth to power, but now hiding and hungry. And God sends ravens. Like ravens of all the animals. You can't send me a dove, Lord? No, no, ravens. And he was faithful. And then, like, his faithfulness led him to leave. And God used unclean birds to feed him. I mean, you've got to be starving for a bird to bring you meat. Like, that just sounds gross, doesn't it? Anyone else? Like, it's not all rainbows and lollipops to be obedient to God, is it? This is like how you quit your job at the casino because of God, and then you ended up on food stamps. You're like, wait, I did the right thing, Lord. You might have made so much money dealing on the side, and then you were making now in your full-time job, and now you gotta wear a dumb uniform. You stopped lying to the R IRS, and now you have to take food from the pantry. You were faithful and you feel punished now. Well, sin has consequences, but you're being faithful now, and that sometimes has consequences. Some of you wish you were in a relationship, but you didn't compromise like Ahab. And you are lonely. Something about that feels wrong. Like, man, I could have been with this person who doesn't love the Lord, and like at least I would have been with someone. But the thing is, is you're in your faithfulness, you've suffered, but God is with you. God often blesses us through the most unlikely of sources, and sometimes he blesses us through the suffering. For the longest time, I told people to build relationships with friends that are strong so that when they suffer, you can comfort them with the good news of Jesus. And I don't think that's wrong, but I definitely have changed it. I've learned God often speaks more through my hope in my suffering than during my neighbor's suffering. When I give hope to my neighbor because he's suffering, he's like, Thanks for the Jesus juke. When I talk to my neighbor about how hard my life is, but God is good in the midst, they tend to listen more. God always uses suffering for our good and his glory. People wonder how you survive the things you walk through, and it is in those moments that you tell them it is Christ in me, the hope of glory. Friends, during that season we were in the hospital endlessly. We always joked about having a punch ticket for surgeries. We had a child in a surgery three times in one day. But we had Jesus and we had hope in Jesus, and he was our hope and joy. Our joy was not dependent on our situation. And I tend to love this text in Romans 5. It's alright. Most of you guys know Tiffany by now. Um, good to see you, Tiffany. Come on, sit down. Um, in Romans 1, 5, 1 through 5, says this. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have obtained access through him by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions. Because we know that affliction produces endurance. Endurance produces proven character. Character and proven character produce hope. This hope will not disappoint us because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us. Friends, God empowers us to suffer well. And you just cannot white knuckle this. You cannot just do this with more grit, friends. Everyone is gonna struggle. The question becomes when you suffer, are you going to fight through it on your own power, which always fails you, or are you going to suffer with the God of the universe by your side? It is only through Jesus that we can have this hope that transcends all understanding. This is the joy of the gospel. That as you suffer, you have a God present. How did that happen? It's God left the perfection of heaven, sent his son Jesus to this earth to live a life that we could never live. Perfect. Perfect life. And then offer himself up as a sacrifice for our sins, taking our place, rising again on the third day from death, showing that he was bigger than sin, bigger than death, bigger than the devil. Guys, this is why we have hope. And this is who empowers us to have hope when we don't have hope. Guys, when you give your life to Jesus, he equips you with his Holy Spirit. God in you. That is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And he gives you his word, and he gives you his church to inspire you, challenge you, and sometimes annoy you. And the Bible says we are to irritate each other towards good works. Note I didn't say he was gonna make God was gonna make life easier. Sometimes things get harder when you belong to God, but they can still be good. Stay in the fight. So when it came to King Ahab, he suffered through drought because of his disobedience. When it came to the prophet Elijah, his suffering came from obedience. But God used his suffering for his glory. So City Left Church, sometimes suffering comes from disobedience. Repent of your sin, commit yourself to moving forward with God. Sometimes suffering comes from obedience. But God always uses our pain for our good and his glory. Let's pray.