Sermon Transcript
Well, take out your Bibles, everybody. We’re going to look together again at 1 Kings chapter 19. The last 3 Sundays, this being the 4th one, we’ve been looking at the life of Elijah, and this has been a fascinating study here in the summer. We thought, let’s do something that would be replenishing. Summer is all about hopefully getting replenished physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally, and so we focused for 3 Sunday so far, this being the 4th one, on a topic that I hope has been helpful to you.
I know it’s been helpful to me. This is the first time I’ve ever really dug deep into the life of Elijah. I have never studied chapter 19 like we’ve studied it together these few weeks. So this has been an adventure to me and for me. Every week I feel like I’m gaining ground in a personal way.
I hope it’s been the same for you. If you haven’t been with us, welcome to the final week in our 4-week series. On replenishing, and I hope that what we— you hear today will be enough that will give you some encouragement. But also, if you haven’t heard any of the messages, or maybe you’ve caught one or two, go back, go online, get on there to what is available to you, and enjoy listening to some of what we’ve already talked about. But today we come to the end of this study, and it’s focused on this whole problem that we have of of isolation, of being isolated from others.
We can fall into a state of aloneness, we’ll say. If you go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible, God said after he created Adam, it’s not good for man to what? To be alone. Okay, so even from the beginning, God saw that aloneness would not be a good thing for human beings, so he created the possibility of relationship. But life, the things that happen in life, can cause aloneness in our lives.
So it could just be related to the busyness of life, and so we don’t have room for relationships or time for that. Or maybe it’s just something to do with our personality. Maybe we’re more on the introvert side of things, and we really don’t want to have relationships. Or maybe it’s just always been that way. You know, you think back in your life and There are people that just love to hang out with others, and you look at yourself and you’ve always been kind of a loner type of person, and so you, you know, aren’t really trying to build relationships.
It could just be related to changes in your life, hardship. It could be related to the transient lifestyles that we live where there’s these constant changes, and, you know, it might be a different school that you’re going to now, and so you gotta start all over with friendships, and there’s some aloneness involved, or it could be that you moved, or you just moved into the area, or you moved out of your neighborhood to another neighborhood in the area, or whatever. There’s just so many things that could come our way that can produce aloneness. So as I was thinking about this, Bernice and I, we’ve lived in 4 different areas. We’ve lived in Central California in Fresno.
We’ve lived in Southern California in a few cities down there in the Los Angeles area. We’ve lived in Phoenix, Arizona, and we’ve lived now here in Northern California. So on the California side of things, We’ve lived in Central California, Southern California, Northern California. We kind of have the California thing going, but we understand a little bit of the aloneness just connected to moving. And so every time we moved, we really put ourselves in a state of aloneness.
You got to kind of start over again. So for instance, after we got married and were in Fresno for a bit as a married couple, then we moved down to Southern California to Van Nuys. And we had come from a city that basically we grew up in, Fresno, and that was great. We had lots of friends there and we were real busy. Our phone was always ringing off the hook, all of that.
Some of you don’t understand what I mean by ringing off the hook right now, but anyway, so we used to have these phones inside the house and they were hooked up to things. And so anyway, we’ve— we moved down to Southern California And when we got down there, we’re still in the mentality of things are really busy. You know, we’re busy, busy people. So we called the phone company and we asked them to come out and put 2 phones in in our very small apartment. We thought, we’re gonna need 2 phones here.
So they put 2 phones in. 2, 3 weeks went by and we had not received one phone call, okay? 2 to 3 weeks. And I remember distinctly thinking, well, we don’t know anybody. That’s why nobody’s calling us, you know?
Here we are in Southern California. We didn’t have any friendships here. I mean, I guess after we moved out of Fresno they forgot us too. But anyway, so we didn’t know anybody, so obviously we were going to experience some aloneness when we got there. Well, kind of that happened to Elijah, this person we’re focused on here in 1 Kings, chapter 19.
God moved him around, so that was part of it. He was running for his life from Jezebel who put a death threat out on him, and so that produced some changes in his life, the hardships that he came into. He basically, at the end of this chapter, is in a state of aloneness, and God needs to address his aloneness. Fact of the matter is, is that you can actually see this comes up early in the chapter if you go back, 1 Kings chapter 19 to verse 3, where it says that Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. And if you’ve been with us, you know that the reason he was afraid was because Jezebel, Ahab’s wife, said that she was going to kill him and she was gonna get the job done within 24 hours because he had killed the prophets of Baal, 450 prophets of Baal.
So it’s a long story here. We’re not gonna go back and do the whole thing. But the point is, is that Elijah is running away from Jezebel. He was afraid. He came to Beersheba in Judah, it says, And he left his servant there while he himself went a day’s journey into the desert.
Now I haven’t commented on these 5 words that are found at the end of verse 3, but this is where we’re gonna kind of focus this morning. The 5 words are, he left his servant there. Now most of us would just read right past those and not think anything of it, but really this comes into play in the story and it can be really actually helpful in our own lives. At this point in time, the worst thing Elijah could do was to leave his servant there. You know that there’s a good aloneness and there’s a bad aloneness, right?
So a good aloneness could be a time in life where, you know, you just need to be alone because life has been so busy. You’ve been with people and it’s just sucked the energy out of you. And you just need some time to just be alone. That would be a good aloneness, right? If you’re a parent, you understand this, where you’re raising young children and they, they take it out of you.
I mean, it’s a lot of work. And so there are times where you just need to be alone to recharge. For instance, our second son and his wife Mary right now are alone. They’re in Cabo San Lucas. They went to Cabo on Friday.
And as they were leaving, they left us the children, which means we have their 4 kids: 3 years old, 4 years old, 6 years old, and 8 years old. And we’ve been with them now for a few days here, and I am delighted that they are alone, you know, Brian and Mary. And someday I’m going to be alone again too, but right now this is exhausting. I mean, this is— I, you know, I want to high-five every mother who’s here that has young children. You get this.
So there is a time to be alone, right? I mean, there’s a good alone. But this isn’t a good alone for Elijah. You say, why not? Well, first of all, because the guy’s living under the threat of death.
So you don’t want to be alone if somebody’s, you know, hunting you down. You want to have a few people around you kind of, you know, carrying your shield or something. You want them to be a part of protecting you. Secondly, this is not a good alone because his state of mind was, I wanna die. I mean, if you’re in a state of mind where you’re thinking about suicide or you’re asking God to take your life, that’s not a good time for you to be alone.
And thirdly, he’s in this state of mind that basically was a pity party. He thought that he was the only guy left. I mean, the only guy standing up for God, The only prophet standing up for God. In fact, in his answer to God found in verses 10 and 14, just the last part of both of those verses, they both say the same thing. He said this to God, the Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your altars, put your prophets to death with the sword.
I am the only one left, and now they’re trying to kill me too. I mean, they wanna take me out just like they’ve taken out all the other prophets. I’m the only one left, let me tell you. This is not the time that you want to be alone if you think that you’re the only one left. You need some other people around you.
So when we get into this passage this morning, I just want you to think this morning as we look at this, there’s a good alone. We understand that. This is a bad alone. And so God is going to address his aloneness. This is not the time to be alone.
It’s not good for Elijah to be alone. So what does God do? Because what he does for Elijah could be something that could help us when we’re experiencing aloneness, whatever that aloneness has been caused by. What does God do for Elijah? Well, look at it with me.
It’s the end of the chapter. We finish off the chapter now. 1 Kings chapter 19. We’re just going to pick it up in verse 15 and go along here. I want to use The Message translation this morning because it’s just so clear that I thought this would be a great way to understand what’s written.
So If you have your message notes, it’s written out for you there, the passage we’re looking at, but whatever helps you. So, 1 Kings chapter 19, verse 15. God said— so this is God speaking now to Elijah. God said, go back the way you came through the desert to Damascus. Now let me just stop there.
Let’s put a map up here on the screen so you understand what’s going on at this moment. Elijah’s at Mount Sinai, but in this text it’s called Mount Horeb, okay? The same place. He’s at Mount Horeb and God says, okay, it’s time for you to go back the way that you came. See, Elijah had run all the way to Mount Horeb or to Mount Sinai.
By the way, Mount Sinai, you see it down there, it’s kind of, you know, yellowed out, highlighted for you. It’s actually off the screen, so it’s even farther south if we were to pull it up. But Elijah now is going to relocate by God’s will from Mount Horeb or Mount Sinai to the Desert of Damascus. You see Damascus up there in the top right corner? It’s about as far as you can go, at least on this map.
But the point is, it’s a long distance. This is a long relocation plan, actually 450 miles. So he’s going to send him 450 miles back to the area, to the area where the whole meltdown began. He’s gonna go right back to that area. So with that context, already you know something is up if God’s gonna take a person that far away.
You wanna be asking at this point, why would God take somebody that far away? I mean, it better be for a good reason, right? I mean, if God’s gonna ask you to go 450 miles away from where you are right now, it better be for a good reason. So let’s pick it up again. God said, go back the way you came through the desert to Damascus, and when you get there, anoint Hazael and make him king over Aram.
And then anoint Jehu son of Nimshi, excuse me, make him king over Israel. And finally anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel-meholah to succeed you as prophet. Anyone who escapes death by Hazael will be killed by Jehu, and anyone who escapes death by Jehu will be killed by Elisha. Now that’s an interesting passage. Most of us, if we were to read this passage, we would read through it real quick and say, I have no idea what’s going on there, let’s move on.
And we would just move on to the next section of scripture, you know, I think I’m going in the New Testament now, whatever you wanna say at this point. But I want you to understand what’s going on here because this connects to Elijah’s aloneness. So Elijah is going to be, he’s being sent by God up to the area of Damascus Because God wants to address his aloneness, his state of aloneness. He needs some companionship. He needs somebody in this battle with him.
He needed help. So God, in moving him into this help, these people that could now be a part of his life, he gives him 3 anointing assignments. Do you see the word anoint used over and over there? He’s to anoint Hazael king of the Arameans. In Damascus.
Ultimately, Hazael was destined to play a key role in punishing the northern nation, which was Israel, for their sin of idolatry. Secondly, he was to anoint Jehu king of Israel. This is again the northern kingdom. He was destined— Jehu was destined to put an end, listen to this, to the worship of Baal. He was ultimately the guy that was gonna abolish the worship of Baal You might wanna put a reference down, 2 Kings chapter 10, verse 28, where it actually tells us that he accomplished that mission.
So Elijah was to anoint Jehu king of Israel, and then thirdly, he was to anoint Elisha from Abel-meholah as his own successor. So ultimately, God’s thinking about who’s gonna take over after Elijah, you know, walks off the scene. Now what does it mean to anoint somebody? Well, basically it means to appoint them for a task. You know, you’re giving them a job or something like that.
And in this case, what’s the task? Well, the task is these 3 other people are going to come along and they’re going to help Elijah with the elimination of Baal worship. So he gives a first line, a second line, and a third line of attack for eliminating these Baal worshipers. I mean, this is fascinating. Maybe not to you, but if you like history, you might like this.
The first line of attack was going to be led by King Hazael. And if a Baal worshiper escaped Hazael, if they escaped Hazael and his death by sword, then King Jehu would step up. And Jehu would be running, you know, backup. He would be running the second line. His assignment was to finish off any of the Baal stragglers.
And if anybody got past Jehu, then who was going to step up? It was Elisha. So Elisha’s running cleanup in this thing, and his deal is to step in if they got by Hazael and Jehu. Now you say, that’s kind of crazy, isn’t it? That kind of thing is in the Bible, really?
I mean, what’s really going on here? What’s God trying to do? Well, what do you think he’s trying to do? He’s trying to help people worship the only God. Do you remember back in the 10 Commandments that the first 2 commandments were connected to God, and that that first commandment was, you shall have no other gods before me, and the second commandment was, you shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on earth beneath or in the waters below.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them. Don’t worship these idols, for whatever idols you make, For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. See, all the way back even to the time of Moses, God made it clear to his people there’s only one God, and God wants us to worship this God and this God alone and not substitute other gods for this God. And they’re living at a time— in Elijah’s period of time, they’re living at a time where the king Ahab and his wife Jezebel are actually promoting Baal worship. So God sent Elijah to rid the land of Baal worship, but he could not get the job done alone without falling apart.
So God now is saying to Elijah, you’ve got to anoint some others who can join you in this effort. In other words, God is essentially saying, I really want people to worship me, and I don’t want anything to interfere with that. That’s how serious he took this. Now what Elijah didn’t know, and he needs to find out, so God tells him this, is that there are others who are on task with him as well. It says in verse 18, meanwhile, I’m preserving for myself 7,000 souls, the knees that haven’t bowed to the god Baal, the mouths that haven’t kissed his image.
Not everybody was worshiping Baal. That’s what God’s telling Elijah at this point. There are at least how many? How many? 7,000 others that had not kissed Baal’s image.
To bow down to Baal or to kiss his image was just a sign of love, loyalty, allegiance to Baal. And just Elijah knowing that would and could be enough for him to say, hey, okay, I guess I’m gonna be okay. I mean, it might have cheered up his soul or something like that. But God wanted Elijah to not just know that there were 7,000 others running around that were worshiping him, but he wanted him to have 3 colleagues. He wanted him to have 3 people that were gonna stand with him in this effort.
So he tells Elijah his mission is to go 450 miles away and to anoint Hazael, Jehu, and Elisha. Now, pick it up then in verse 19. So it says, Elijah went straight out, so he didn’t hesitate at this point, And he found Elisha son of Shaphat in a field where there were 12 pairs of yoked oxen at work plowing. Elisha was in charge of the 12th pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak over him.
Elisha deserted the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, Please let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, and then I’ll follow you. Go ahead, said Elijah, but mind you, don’t forget what I’ve just done to you. So Elisha left, he took his yoke of oxen, he butchered them, he made a fire with the plow and tackle and boiled the meat, a true farewell meal for the family, and then he left and he followed Elijah, becoming his right-hand man. So what did Elijah do? He gets this assignment from God.
Elijah, it says, went straight out, took the trip, and then found Elisha. And in finding Elisha, he anointed him in a prophetic role, and he did that by taking his cloak or his coat, we would call it an overcoat with a hood on it, and he threw this over the shoulders— this was his custom in the East— he threw this over the shoulders of Elisha. And to do that was a sign of a calling into prophetic ministry. He got it immediately. You’ll notice in verse 21 that immediately Elisha understood what this meant, but he asked before he went with Elijah and started to follow him in this prophetic function, that Elijah would grant him just a little bit of time to say goodbye to his family.
And he did, it says. He actually said, you know, but remember what I just did, so don’t forget, you know, this calling that you have now, this unique calling. So he says, no, I’m not going to forget. And Elisha went off. He said goodbye to his family.
He not only said goodbye to his family, did you notice the detail on this? He took the 2 oxen that were his. And he butchered them, and then he took the plow that was his and he burned it. Why would a person at that point butcher, you know, your 2 primary sources of income, your oxen, and then burn your plow? Well, the only reason he would do that was a sign that he was all in in this new call that God put on his life.
He was saying goodbye to the old life. And it was so that they even took the meat from the oxen, having boiled it, and they had themselves a little party and celebrated, you know, no doubt the anointing that Elisha now has to follow Elijah and to become his right-hand man. The story ends there. We’re not told, you know, well, what about Hazael? You know, what about him?
Did— how did that all work out for him? And how did it all work out for Jehu? Well, we’re actually not told. We do know a little bit of information about them if you continue to follow and read through the rest of Kings and on into 2 Kings. Evidently they did become significant in eliminating the worship of Baal.
As I already suggested, Jehu was very much a part of completely eliminating at that time Baal worship altogether. But what’s more important right now is that we see what Elijah did. That Elijah didn’t hesitate when God said, you need to take a long trip and you need to connect with 3 individuals. Elijah did not hesitate. He did it immediately.
He didn’t push back and say, oh, you know, listen, I’m a loner. I like to do things alone. No, he didn’t do that at all. Are you kidding? At this point in time, he knew he needed help.
You know, push back and say, well, you know, nobody else can do it as good as I can. Okay? I mean, I’ve been doing this for a long time, and so this idea that you’re telling me delegate? Are you kidding? Delegate?
Ah, I don’t know about that. No, he immediately embraced this lesson that God not only wanted him to get, but he wants us to get. And what’s the lesson that’s here? It’s simply this: it’s not good to do life alone. It’s not good to do life alone, that we need people backing us up, that we need people that will be a support system to us, that will come around us and help us with whatever it is that we face in life, with the hardships we face in life.
I mean, if you’re really serious about this call as a Christ follower to do spiritual battle, you’re going to find out, like Elijah found out, that this is tough, that this is tough to walk against resistance and to stand up for Jesus Christ. You remember Jesus himself did not try to do life and ministry alone, that from the very outset of his ministry he pulled in a team, didn’t he? And he built his life into this team. We might call them a small group, this band of brothers, and for 3 and a half years they did ministry together. They lived in community with each other, and as far as I can tell, Jesus never sent these guys out to do ministry alone.
He always sent them out with somebody. He sent them out usually in pairs. See, what the scripture tells us from the very beginning of the scriptures is, is we need relationships. I mean, even the Lone Ranger had Tonto. Who do you think you are?
Who do I think I am? You know, when you think about it, we need an Elisha. We need a Hazael. We need a Jehu. We need— like Jesus had an inner circle, Peter, James, and John— we need people like that who are a part of our life.
You probably recognize the name Mark Burnett. Mark Burnett is the executive producer of the series Survivor. He’s done other series as well. Survivor has been on for 32 seasons now. 32 seasons.
It’s incredible. But it’s interesting because Mark is a Christ follower, and on every show he’s tried to get a Christian on the show. And I don’t know if it’s been— he’s been successful in doing that, but I do know a personal friend of his who just recently let me in and others on the fact that Mark has been trying to do that, but he said it was interesting because at one point he asked one of these Christians after the season was over what lessons he learned on Survivor. And the main lesson that this guy had learned was just simply this. He said, you know what I learned?
I learned how weak I am without fellowship. I learned how weak I am without fellowship. And really, that’s Elijah’s story, isn’t it? See, this was a bad alone. And so God is going to address that by bringing into Elijah’s life 3, at least 3 colleagues, people who would do this work with him.
A few weeks ago, I was looking online and I noticed that one of my friends put up a post that, that caught my eye. This is a guy that I’ve known now for 3, 4 years. Once we moved into the area, began to, you know, attend some meetings with other pastors and stuff. And, uh, this guy was at one of those meetings, and he talked a little bit about his life and his ministry. And he’s not a pastor, he’s in Christian ministry in other ways, but he, he just shared some things that intrigued me.
So I asked him if we could get together sometime, and we just began a friendship over lunch, and that led to playing some golf together. Might add, terrible golf together, both of us. But just getting out together and hanging out and having fun, and we’ve had lots of conversations, a lot of it related to his work and what I do and how those two come together and all of that. But a few weeks ago he posted this. He said, I’m not a cussing man, but something just happened in my life that makes me want to cuss.
And when I saw that, I thought, oh boy, you know, I wonder what’s going on. It’s always fascinating to me the kind of things people post, you know, like you get a read on their life at that moment when they post something. I’m not saying everybody does it, but he did that day, and that’s usually not him. And so when I saw that, you know, I texted him and I said, hey, what do you think about getting together? You know, maybe we should get together, maybe we can have some breakfast.
Let’s play, in fact, why don’t we play golf together and then we’ll have breakfast? Let’s play early round of golf at a short course and then have breakfast. And he said, oh, that’d be great. So we got together a week or so ago and did that. And we had a great time and the golf was terrible again.
And then afterwards we went out and we had breakfast at Denny’s, and that was fun. And then we all through it just encouraged each other. We just encouraged each other. Actually, I shared a little bit of this story with him about Elijah because he had not seen this story like I’m seeing it now too. It was, it was really just kind of a special time to talk together about the scriptures.
But I think As a result of that short time that we had together, it was better for him, and I know it was better for me. See, that’s the point. We need that kind of friendship. We need relationships that can buoy us up, that can encourage us, especially when we’re down. So the simple question here is, are you doing life alone?
If it’s not good to do life alone, the simple question is, Are you doing life alone? Or are you making time for replenishing relationships? You say, well, I don’t have much time. Well, even just a little bit of time. Maybe you’re married and you just gotta help each other make time so that there is the time for replenishing relationships.
It may be that you’re doing great on this and so all of this is this morning is just a little reminder to say keep going. You’re right on track. You need to stay right where you are because we don’t want to try to do this life alone. So continue to strengthen that in your life if that’s already strong. It may be that you got derailed on the relationship thing, and you could have been derailed just by moving.
Or maybe it was something that happened in your life, or maybe it was something that happened in a relationship, or maybe it’s just a part of, you know, you. And you don’t seem to have a long relationship. Relationships last for a little bit and then, like, they break up. Or maybe it’s just you have pretty much lived an alone life and not really been a part of relationships and you’re trying to do life alone. Don’t go down that road.
All this is saying is, hey, take this matter seriously. Pray about it. Ask God to give you the kinds of relationships that are going to be an encouragement to you. In addition to prayer, it’s gonna take some time. Yeah, this isn’t gonna happen without us carving time out of our lives for these kinds of relationships, and it’s gonna take some effort.
It’s going to take some effort. And you be the one to take the initiative. You don’t have to wait for somebody else to come to you. You take the initiative. And if you do nothing else, Just eat with somebody.
You know, invite somebody over for dinner or something like that, or lunch or whatever it is, and you be the cook. But if you can’t cook, then ask them if they could be the cook. But whatever, you know, the point is just get together. Bernice painted these words in our dining area at our home. She just put them right on— she painted them right on the wall, and they say, a shared table is a shared life.
I love that. Just, you want to do life together with others, then just do something as simple as just have some food with some people. We’ve had lots of people over into our home and we’ve just shared with them around a meal. And it’s amazing what God will do in those kinds of moments. So what have we seen?
Well, we’ve looked at the life of Elijah. That Elijah was physically exhausted. And so God intervened and he basically went back to the basics with him and helped him get the sleep he needed and helped him eat the food that he needed and helped him drink the water that he needed so that he would be physically replenished. And we looked at the emotional area and how God intervened on that too. He actually took him away to a special place, to Mount Horeb, A place where God had done many wonderful things in the past.
And so it was this special place where, you know, the getting away itself was a part of the emotional reenergizing that God was doing in him. And while he was there, God had him take stock. He had him answer an essential question that would cause him to think about, what’s going on in my life right now? Why am I a wreck? Why am I in the condition I’m in?
And then he allowed Elijah to just express himself, to get it off of his chest, to open up. All of that was a part of the emotional recharging. And then God replenished him in the area of the spiritual. He was spiritually deflated, and we talked about this last week. And so the Lord had him come out of the cave that he was in and get into the presence of God so that he would be present in God’s presence.
And he was to stand. He was to stand in the presence of the Lord and to stand was a way of giving attention to the one who deserved attention, to God. And then the Lord spoke to him in a quiet whisper.
And sometimes that’s what it takes. God speaks to us in a quiet whisper, and if we hear him, something reconnects in our relationship with God. And then God worked on the relational thing. This thing would not have been done if he allowed Elijah to continue to live in isolation. So he said, you need to take a long trip, and when you get up there, you need to connect with 3 people because these 3 people are going to be essential in your life.
How did it end for Elijah? It’s really fascinating. Remember, the guy wanted to die.
Remember? Do you know that Elijah never died? That’s funny, isn’t it? I mean, the guy that wanted to die didn’t die. God took him to heaven, took him on this chariot of fire to heaven.
Wouldn’t you love that? Get a shuttle to heaven, not have to die. You know, I’ve heard Christians say, I’m not afraid to die, but I am afraid of dying. I don’t wanna go through the death thing. Elijah didn’t have to die.
Some guys get all the luck, don’t they? I mean, the guy that wanted to die didn’t die. But you know what? This guy turned out pretty good. In fact, he’s the one I already mentioned that ended up appearing when Jesus was transfigured in the midst of his disciples.
Elijah was there. And Elijah is going to actually come back with the Lord. Malachi chapter 4 and verse 5 says that there’s going to be a day when Jesus comes back, when the Lord comes back, and guess what? Elijah is going to be there. You know why he’s going to be there?
Because he didn’t finish when he was finished. God intervened and he replenished him and he got him back in the game again. So I don’t know where you are right now, but this doesn’t have to be the end of the story any more than it was the end of Elijah’s story. Our God is a God who wants to intervene in our lives, and often he gives us the kind of directions that Elijah received, right? There were things that God asked Elijah to do.
He could have just said, nope, I don’t think so. But he acted on the information that God had given to him. So my encouragement to you this morning, and as we bring this series to a close is just simply this: What is it that God wants me to do physically, emotionally, spiritually, relationally? What is it that he wants me to do? And knowing what it is that he wants me to do, do it.
Just ask him to help you do it. He’ll hear that prayer. Let’s pray. Lord, thanks for this time, and thanks for this series that we’ve benefited by. Thank you that you are a God that hears, and you are a God that sees, and you’re a God that knows, and you’re a God that replenishes.
And you know the conditions that often we find ourselves in, and we would pray, Lord, that that wouldn’t be the end of the story. That would just be the the start of a new experience with you, the start of even more energy in us physically, emotionally, spiritually, and relationally. And so here in the middle of this summer, having talked about these matters that are so practical to the state that we live in. May we take what we’ve heard and translate it into action in ways that it truly does honor you and it worships you and it transforms our living. And I believe, God, that for each one of us, you have something special.
That’s why we’re here. And so even as you called Elijah, you’ve called us to a life that demonstrates your love to others and shows you how much we love you. And so we pray that you would help us work that out. Whatever has us stuck right now, whatever has sucked life out of us, Lord, would you bring the replenishment that is needed? And Father, I pray too for anybody who’s here that does not have a relationship with you in a personal way.
They’re trying to do this at a distance. From you. God, may they connect with you in a personal way through your Son Jesus Christ. Thank you that he died on the cross for our sins and made it possible for us to have a relationship with you now and forever, and that we don’t earn this relationship, we receive it as a gift by belief, by faith. And so Lord, I pray that if there’s anybody here who has not yet received this gift of life by faith, they would even receive it now.
They would just tell you that, Lord, just Save me from my sins. Save me from my idolatry. Save me from my worship of every other god but you.
And be my God, be my Savior, be my Lord, be my forgiver.
Help me live the kind of life you want me to live. Thank you, Lord, that you hear those prayers and you hear prayers of people that are just honest with you that would be just willing to say, God, I don’t know if you’re there, but if you are, would you show me. Wherever we are, Lord, you know. And so we turn to you for help in this moment, but not just in this moment, Lord. May we turn to you for help as we leave this place and live for you.
For we pray this in Jesus’ name, amen.
