Sermon Series by Rev. Richard Jones
Standing for God in a Godless Culture
1 Kings 17: 8 – 18:15
THE JUG THAT WOULD NOT EMPTY
1 Kings 17:8-16 (ESV)
8 Then the word of the LORD came to him,
9 “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to feed you.”
10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Bring me a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.”
11 And as she was going to bring it, he called to her and said, “Bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”
12 And she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I have nothing baked, only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. And now I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die.”
13 And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said. But first make me a little cake of it and bring it to me, and afterward make something for yourself and your son.
14 For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ”˜The jar of flour shall not be spent, and the jug of oil shall not be empty, until the day that the LORD sends rain upon the earth.”™”
15 And she went and did as Elijah said. And she and he and her household ate for many days.
16 The jar of flour was not spent, neither did the jug of oil become empty, according to the word of the LORD that he spoke by Elijah.
THE LIFE THAT WOUD NOT END
1 Kings 17:17-24 (ESV)
17 After this the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.
18 And she said to Elijah, “What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance and to cause the death of my son!”
19 And he said to her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her arms and carried him up into the upper chamber where he lodged, and laid him on his own bed.
20 And he cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, have you brought calamity even upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by killing her son?”
21 Then he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried to the LORD, “O LORD my God, let this child”™s life come into him again.”
22 And the LORD listened to the voice of Elijah. And the life of the child came into him again, and he revived.
23 And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper chamber into the house and delivered him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives.”
24 And the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is truth.”
THE MEETING THAT WOULD NOT CHANGE
1 Kings 18:1-15 (ESV)
1 After many days the word of the LORD came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth.”
2 So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria.
3 And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly,
4 and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the LORD, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.)
5 And Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys. Perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive, and not lose some of the animals.”
6 So they divided the land between them to pass through it. Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself.
7 And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him. And Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?”
8 And he answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your lord, ”˜Behold, Elijah is here.”™”
9 And he said, “How have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me?
10 As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you. And when they would say, ”˜He is not here,”™ he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation, that they had not found you.
11 And now you say, ”˜Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here.””™
12 And as soon as I have gone from you, the Spirit of the LORD will carry you I know not where. And so, when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have feared the LORD from my youth.
13 Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid a hundred men of the LORD”™s prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water?
14 And now you say, ”˜Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here””™; and he will kill me.”
15 And Elijah said, “As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.”
Habakkuk 2:18-20 (ESV)
18 “What profit is an idol when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own creation when he makes speechless idols!
19 Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a silent stone, Arise! Can this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.
20 But the LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him.”