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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Alrighty, take your Bible and turn with me back there to the book of 1 Kings. Look at 1 Kings. You know there’s a thing about God up in heaven, God’s in heaven. And God looks down upon the earth and the Bible says he looked for a man. The eyes of the Lord run to and fro, looking for a man who’s hard is right that God can show himself strong on his behalf. Well I have to be honest, I’d love to be a man that God could be able to use.

But you know, when you studied a book of Job, and it says that Job was just doing his thing, a good man, a godly man, even made sacrifices in cases kids had messed up and all kinds of things. I’m going to preach up another storm. But you have God in heaven saying to the devil, has thou considered my servant Job? Have you considered him? What have you been doing? Oh, I’ve been looking for whom I can get. In other words, the devil wants to turn people against the Lord.

I’m just concerned about this thing here, lighten up my life. But you know, it was the Lord that said, look at my man. There’s my man down there. And he loves He loves me more than all of his cattle. He loves me more than his wife. He loves me more than all of his possessions. He loves me more than anything. He loves me even more than his own body, than his own health. And so the devil went to work to try to turn Job against God.

Well that didn’t happen. God did show Job how much further he had to go. And Job was kind of reminding the Lord how far he’s come. But God was, I believe, proud of his boy. It was his idea. I believe that when you look at it, here we are. We ought to be bragging on God. Like God brags on us to the devil. Do you know that God may be looking down from heaven and says, hey, look, a devil.

Look, look at Louis down here. See, Louis, yeah. He loves me more than anything. And tomorrow, here’s the devil. He’s coming after Louie. Now Louie don’t like this scenario. He just says, you just leave me alone. And he might be looking down and he might be looking at you and you might be the next one on the schedule. But what you do in the midst of all of that is, like Job says, he prays the Lord anyway. The Lord give it, the Lord take it the way, blessed be the name of the Lord.

And I believe that’s the way it ought to be. Now in 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 1 he says, therefore having this ministry we faint not because there’s a cause there. And later on in the chapter he talks about and for this cause we faint not. There is a cause. Now here you are and you have the Lord. When the Lord was here, do you realize that he was here for a cause? There was a reason, a purpose. When God used Moses and Moses died, the cause didn’t die.

Only Moses died, but the cause did not die. He used Joshua to continue the cause. And when you study the Bible and you find out, okay, here David, David had a cause. He was going to build the Lord of house. But because he had blood on his hands, God didn’t want him to do it. But he used him to get everything together, though he never built it at all. And then along comes Solomon. Now just because David died, the cause did not die.

And so now you have Solomon that God used to finish the task and he finished the house and they had a great dedication. And all these people of Israel were so glad and thankful and marvel over this building. And even when they were taken in the captivity, some says the one that they came back to build. They went because it was did not have the glory of the former building. But there’s another one going to be built down the road.

It’s going to be better than anyone wanted. Solomon had. Now, when you come to Jesus, can you imagine here’s Jesus and he was here for a cause and even though he knew he was going to go to the cross and die come back from the dead, he gave this cause, the greatest purpose for any man to live. He gave it to a bunch of people that had just deserted him. 11 people deserted him at the most trying moment of his life.

And when they deserted him within lations, it was only 40 when he came back to him. But in less than that, He gave to these bunch of failures, these deserters the greatest job in the world. Because see, even though He was dead, the cause, the cause was not dead. For example, Hank came over here and began a great ministry. He had a cause. He won people that trust Christ is Savior and challenge people to serve the Lord so that the cause lives on.

Now Hank’s been dead now five years, but has the cause died? The cause hasn’t died. I made a statement to somebody one time. I says, we build a ministry on the temporary dedication of God’s people. Wouldn’t it be neat if all of God’s people stayed faithful to the Lord all their life? But they don’t. And there’s times in their life when they’re closer to the Lord and more dedicated to the Lord than at other times. And the most dedicated people today might be the most undedicated tomorrow.

And those that are so undedicated to the Lord today might be the ones you depend on for tomorrow. Because people are like this, they come and they go. And so you’re seeking to build a work, cause that can be carried on on the backs of the temporary dedication of God’s people. So you never know how much can be done because we’re dealing with people who have changing attitudes, changing desires, changing goals and motives, and all those things change and sometimes the cause of their life, it changes.

When you study and you find out that God God had a man named Elijah. Elijah was able to do about seven miracles and he died. Well did he really die? No he just disappeared. They even sent out 50 people to try to find the guy and they looked for him for three days because they said maybe the Holy Spirit took him up put him on the other side of the mountain dropped him. Maybe it was too heavy or he didn’t want him he changed his mind.

they were probably out there looking for a body because they saw him go. But then the cause was not dead. God was not through doing miracles. He got a Elisha in 14 more miracles because he says, I want a double portion. I want to do twice as much that the other man did. Everyone should live with the desire that I want to do as much as I possibly can for the Lord. Now here in the book of 1 Kings, I want you to look in chapter 17.

Look in 1 Kings in chapter 17. When you talk about Elisha’s God, there are several things that he does. In verse 3, he hides his prophet. In verse 4, he provides for his prophet and in verse 8 and 9 he guides his prophet. Now what you can learn by looking at some of these things and these stories in the Old Testament is what God does for them can God do that for me. You see there’s an enemy that’s searching for us and the thing is is that God told the devil I know where he is.

It’s like playing hide-and-seek, and you can’t find me. Now, there are some Christians that are members of the secret society. In other words, they’re of that group that’s a secret service Christian. Theirs is they don’t want anybody to know that they’re a Christian. So I’m a secret service Christian. So they live in such a way that nobody knows that they’re a Christian because they know that that somebody might expect more of them and they’re not willing to give more.

They’re not willing to, as a testimony, to live the way they ought to. Maybe there’s a part of their language or things that they see and do and so forth that is not right. But the Bible talks about how that God can hide His children. Now, Ahab had been a bad man. Oh, he was terrible. He was married to somebody that you may have heard of before, named Jezebel. of Jezebel, oh wicked Jezebel. I pity the man that’s married to a Jezebel like that.

But look what he says in verse 1, and he lied to the Tishpai who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab as the Lord God of Israel, liveth before whom I stand. You ought to underline those words, before whom I stand. That’s where you learn how to stand is before the Lord. If you can stand with God, you can stand against anything and anybody. But where do you stand? That’s why you find a word as God stand and that’s where I want to stand.

There’s a lot of issues in this world and a lot of things to fight and causes but there’s no cause greater than the one that God has called us to do. Then down in verse 2 he says, and the word of the Lord came unto him saying, get the hints and turn the eastward and here’s these two little words hide by yourself. Well, why? Because there’s old Jezebel and Ahab we’re gonna do everything in their power because they’re gonna kill this guy.

They hated Elijah. They’re gonna kill him and the Lord knows right where to hide him. He only hit him a few miles from you know from Ahab. Who wasn’t that far? So here you are he was on Mount Carmel but there’s also a little place there that was close by and there was a brook. So you see there in verse 4, and it shall be that thou shall drink of the brook and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.”

Now, being fed by ravens, that would be a miracle. Now remember, all he knows is he doesn’t know how God’s going to do it. All he knows is I’m a man of God. I stand before the Lord. I do what God says do, I go where he says go, I tell the king what I’m supposed to tell him and he has to leave the rest of God. God did not always tell him everything in advance how it was going to work out, but he did tell him, I want you to go to this place and I’m going to hide you there.

Now remember this, if God could hide you, God could hide you, if God can shut things up, God can shut things up, if God can open doors, God can open doors, you see all we got to do is just believe God and stand with the Lord and learn to walk with him. So we have where he says he commanded the ravens to feed him. So he not only said, I’m going to hide you, but he says, I’m going to provide for you and provide.

He did. Then you go down here in verse five and he went and did according unto the word of the Lord for he went and dwelt by the brook, cherith, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening, two meals a day. I wonder if it was a heart of coal.

And he drank of the broth. Remember the heaven, God not going to be in your reign. Three years could be a drought. No rain, all of Israel, bad time coming. So even in bad times, God can take care of God’s people. We worry a lot about what’s coming down the road and you’d be surprised the things that I’ve seen and emails that I’ve gotten and people are, believe me or not, there’s people that are scared to death. They have no clue what to do.

I say just find the most important thing God wants you to do and just keep doing it and don’t worry about it. I remember when I first came here I preached a sermon from the book of Habakkah. It was on how shall we live in the midst of a crooked world. When the world is falling apart… What are we supposed to do? Well, the world is falling apart, but that doesn’t mean that God’s children have to fall apart, just because the world falls apart.

We ought to be the most stabilized people that there are. And then he makes this statement up here, when God was ready for him to move on, when he wouldn’t do something else. What did he do? In verse 7, and he came to pass after a while that the brook dried up. had been no rain in the land. Well, wait a minute, God, you could have miraculously caused water to flow in the brook and whatever. If God had something, He wanted him to do.

You see, there was something that God said, He told Him, said, I have commanded a woman to take care of you. They give you some food to eat. Of course, the woman hadn’t been told yet, God gave a command, just like He commanded those ravens to feed Him. See, we don’t have to know how God’s going to do something, only that we believe that He will. And it will come through in the nick of time and God is God.

So He says here in verse 8, And the word of the Lord came unto Him, saying, Arise and go, time to leave. He was where God wanted Him to hide, and now He’s going to tell Him something. He’s going to tell them, says, I want you to go see O’Ahab, not Ahab the A-rab, the Sheik of the burning sand. This is Ahab the king of Israel, he’s, I want you to go see him. Now he had been looking everywhere trying to find him because he wanted to kill him.

And so as you go down through this interesting little story, look there in chapter 18, chapter 18. And it came to pass after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year saying, go show thyself unto Ahab. And I will sin reign upon the earth. And Elijah went to show himself unto Ahab. And there was a sore famine in Samaria. Ahab called Obadiah. And Obadiah was a good man, he feared the Lord. And he says, I want you and me, we’re gonna go and we’re gonna search every brook, every stream.

We’re gonna try to find some water. And he already doesn’t sit and I try to find Elijah. Couldn’t find Elijah anywhere. So he told him, he says, I want you to go and see if you can find. So as Obadiah was going down this your creek bed, you know, looking for some water and stuff, you know, lo and behold, he comes upon Elijah. And Elijah told him, says, look, I want you to go tell Ahab that I want to see him.

And over there I said, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you want me to go tell Ahab and he’s already been looking for you. Even in other countries, he tried his best to find you. He wants to kill you. And if I go back and not tell him that you want to see him and that you can meet him at a certain place. Well, if I tell him that and then you’re not going to be there because nobody knows what the Holy Spirit’s gonna Lift you and put you and take you someplace and then you won’t be there and then he’s gonna kill me It is thing pretty well figured out So he says in verse 8 and he said I Am go tell thy lord behold Elijah is here and he says what have I sinned?

That thou would have delivered thy servant into the hands of Ahab to slay me? As the Lord thy God liveth, there’s no nation or kingdom whether my Lord hath not sent to seek thee, and when they said he is not here, he took an oath of the kingdom and nation that they found thee not. And now thou saith go tell thy Lord, behold Elijah is here, and it shall come to pass as soon as I am gone from thee that the spirit of the Lord shall carry thee, whether I know not.

And so when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he shall slay me. But I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth.” He said, all right, I’ll go do it. He served the Lord from his youth. But have you ever just won a voice or opinion? And then you’re gonna go ahead and do it, but you’ve got to let your opinion be known. Well, in verse 13, he says, was it not my Lord. What I did when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord, he said, I hid a bunch of people in caves.

I hid them in the caves. Now see in serving the Lord sometimes you don’t get to do all the things you’d want to do. You just had to do some of the things you have to do. Serving the Lord is not doing what you like. Serving the Lord is doing what you got to do. Just do it. You got to do right. Do right. And so he says, I saved all these people. I fed them with bread and water.

And now thou sayeth, go tell thy Lord behold Elijah’s here. And he shall slay me. Elijah says, as the Lord of Hosts liveeth, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself unto him today. And over I went to meet Ahab and told him and Ahab went to meet Elijah. And so they had a peace talk. they got together. And so things begin to happen. And you know about the 450 prophets of Baal and there’s a big old showdown.

And so the Bible tells us that the Lord, he did several things. He had his man in the right place at the right time because not all these years it’s going to rain. And you know when you read in the New Testament in the book of James in chapter 5 where he talks about this man of fervent prayer was able to pray and it brought rain. Well, God already told him he was going to bring rain, so whatever he prayed, he prayed it because he knew the will of God.

And God blessed and gave him the credit for it. That God did it because he prayed. But he prayed because he knew the will of God. That’s why when it talks about in the New Testament 1 John chapter 5 that when you know the will of God, you can pray accordingly. Some things we don’t always know. but I believe it’s interesting. When you look at this, I want you to see this in verse 36. And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the even sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel.

You say Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but now Jacob is Israel and Israel is where he’s the king. And the capital is in Samaria, and this is in Samaria. So he says, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant and that I have done all these things at thy word. Everything that’s going on is I’m doing it because you told me to do it. That’s boldness. He hasn’t yet seen what was going to be the results of this little showdown.

He hasn’t yet seen if God’s going to literally bring fire down from heaven. All he has is God’s Word. So he says, take this bull and all that. And he says, soak everything in water in the wood, Soak it in water, and then all of a sudden, here comes this fire down from God out of heaven, and consumed everything, and the ground was totally dry. See God delights in having a child that he could show off on his behalf.

Did you know that God is looking to you to see, now what can I do with you if you’re only getting the right place with the right frame of mind and do what I tell you to do, the way I tell you to do it and live like I tell you to live and believe me like I tell you to believe and see what God will do for you. Are you afraid to get out on a limb? Because you’re afraid to make them cut it off.

You know, I actually have people that would love to see me fall flat on my face. And that’s not a joke. But that’s a great challenge. I feel like almost like he says right here. Lord, let it be known this day that thou art God and Israel and that I am thy servant. Lord, I just want people to know that I’m trusting you and I’m believing you and I’m expecting you to do what you want to have done. And it doesn’t matter to me how God does what he does, only to believe that God will do what he says he will do.

We’re supposed to believe it anyway. And look down here in verse 39 where he says, And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and they said, and this is what God was after. The Lord. L-O-R-D, Jehovah, He is God. It’s not Allah, He is God. Or anybody else is Jehovah. He is God. He is God. And God wanted them to know that the God of those fall 450 prophets, it was not God. Their God is not God.

the God of Elijah, that’s God. See, a lot of people, they don’t know if God’s real or not because they don’t see God’s real in anybody else’s life. And you and I should be concerned about that. But what I wanted you to see down there in verse 41, and Elijah said into Ahab, get the up and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain. He hasn’t even seen any rain yet. He hasn’t even yet seen a cloud yet.

He had to pray seven times and he sent his servant out to see what do you see now and finally after a while there was a cloud about the size of a man’s hand. So we’re only starting with an acorn, but he says it wasn’t long before the sky was black. Look what he says here. He says the sky was black, same verse 45, came to pass in the meanwhile that the heavens were black with clouds and wind and there was a great rain just like the Lord promised.

But you see, he stated things and came to the point where he believed it without seeing how God was going to do it or when God was going to do it, but he believed that God would do it. And then when you go to the New Testament, you’ll find that the Bible says he was a man of like passion, just like us. But it says much can be done by the fervent prayers of a righteous man. God says he was a righteous man.

Did you know that right after this? He was a man about rather to have a nervous breakdown. He was on the verge of wanting to commit suicide. But you know when you go over there in the New Testament you don’t read that. God just kind of leaves all that out of it. You see the things that you do for the Lord, when you get to heaven that’s all that’s going to be is what you did. All the things that you didn’t do and the failures that you had, it won’t be remembered in the mower.

That’s what’s so good about the Lord. But he says, lay up treasure in heaven that you can’t lose that. But all the time that you wasted, yeah, you could have had some more. But it’s so good to know that when you read chapter 11 of the book of Hebrews, a great hall of faith, all those people that messed up all those times, none of it’s recorded there. It’s just that they’re a man of faith. They man of faith. They man of faith.

The man of faith. By faith they did all these things. And you don’t see him when he talked about Moses there and he, you know, esteemed the riches of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt. It doesn’t record that man he killed. That’s not even not her. But didn’t he kill somebody? Yeah. Didn’t David kill somebody committed to, but you see get to Hebrews, chapel none of us mentioned. And so when you and I get to heaven, it’s amazing.

That’s why for now we ought to serve all over the hall that we’ve got. We’re going to be so glad, so glad that we did. Now, looking first Kings in chapter 18, just go back just to page, I want to show you this. In chapter 18, you’ll notice that he makes a statement in verse 36. In verse 36, it talks about when you’re looking at God’s Elijah. You see, before we talked about Elijah’s God. Elijah’s God, well, he hides and and provides any guides so you know that.

But God’s Elijah, he prays, and then in chapter 17 and verse three, he obeys. He prays and he obeys. And then he stays, or God tells him to until it’s time to move on. You see, if God tells you to do something, you just do it, and then when God opens a door, then you’re free to walk through it. But we’re not supposed to get sledgehammers and crowbars and try to bust open doors that God has closed. Cause if God opened up a door for you, he can open it.

When God was ready for the children of the visitor to go across to Red Sea, I believe he made it wide enough from the get through. And all of them to get through. And for all of them to get cleaned through. But you see, it closed in upon all those that he didn’t want to go through. They kind of got wet. They were all baptized. They didn’t get it crossed. So you have interesting things found in the Word of God.

But we have so much to be thankful for. God’s been so good to us. You’ve been listening to Bibleline, a teaching ministry of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida with Dr. Ralph Arnold. We pray that you were blessed by today’s message. If you have enjoyed our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ, you can reach Bibleline and pledge your support to keep us on the air in your area by dialing tool free 1-800-576-3771. That’s 1-800-576-3771. To listen to today’s message again or to obtain a free download of any of our Bibleline programs, just go to our homepage at BibleLineMinistries.org and click on the radio broadcast link.

If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Our Sunday morning services begin at 10-30 and at 6 o’clock on Sunday evening. Live broadcast of our services may be seen by clicking on the Calvary Community Church link at BibleLineMinistries.org. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline, and now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed.

Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day, believing that the Lord is coming soon, and just keep looking up.