Well, we share with the message, so we'll just turn the service over to him. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. Well, we turn over to First Kings, Levantine. First Kings, Levantine. And verse one. And Elijah of Tishvite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, as the Lord God of Israel liveth, for whom I stand, there shall not be to nor reign these many years, but according to my word. The word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn the eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Chira, that is, before Jordan. In other words, he dropped a bomb, and then he ran for his life. There are many prophets in the Old Testament, and major and minor, and they're really interesting. Those two are exactly alike, and all my life, as I've been a Christian, I've somehow been more or less intrigued with this one, Elijah, and yet never have made a study of them until about Wednesday or Thursday morning I decided I would, so possibly in the next few meetings we'll be speaking on... this remarkable character, this explosive character, Elijah the Tishvite. You'll find the word used, Elias sometimes, instead of Elijah. Well, that's the Greek word, Elias or Elijah. Daniel Little is he was a Tishvite. In other words, this fellow was one of the grandest, and he came from an area unexpected, if you'll speak on more tonight. He came this time, and he's one of the grandest, and I would say most romantic characters Israel ever produced. And you'll see that, too. This man who had no fear of man. He didn't fear a man. And yet strange, it seems, he did fear a woman. Hard to explain, isn't it? He didn't fear a man, but when he went into the presence of King Ahab, with Jezebel, his ungodly wife, He dropped a bomb, and he ran for his life. Because, to think of a man going in before Ahab, and as you know more about him in these meetings, and more about his wife, his life was in jeopardy for making the statement that he did, that he got away with. And tonight we'll speak about some of the things concerning Elijah that caused him to come in with such holdings. And to be so frank, and even risk his wife that he might speak face to face with the king and with the tree. So he suddenly burst upon the scene. He doesn't come with any introduction like other prophets did. They would speak about his birth and something about his life, and was more or less a little poor view of the character. But here nothing is said about Elijah's previous life. all of a sudden as a bolt out of the blue, he drops upon the scene, he delivers his message, and he wins. He chains, and he rebukes the godliness, and he warns those who need to be awakened and restored God's beloved people. God knows we need men like that today who will be rebuked and warned God's people. of their backslidden and cold spiritual condition. Pulling about him, a number of things worth noticing. This man of iron, he's presented in many ways a fearless, bold, thoughtful performance. You have in chapter eighteen, we'll be speaking on next Sunday, now on Mount Carmel. Here you see him, in all his boldness, he's confronting four hundred and fifty prophets of tales, He's calling the nation to repentance. He was a bold and doubtless reformer. And again, he was a rebukement of kings, too, especially Ahaziah and Ahab are the two kings that he rebuked very severely. The thing I noticed that I like most, it just seemed to stick with him. He was a man of light passion. Now, if you want that, you find it over in... James, I'm going to read this to you. James chapter five and verse sixteen. Confess your faults one to another. Now here's something for Christians. For James, they call them old camel knees because he had talismans on his knees, spending so much time in prayer. He was a sober, serious man and in a measure legalistic. Now he says, confess your faults one to another and pray. one or another, that ye may be healed or restored. Then he says, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man, a veil of might. Why did I read that? Now notice the next verse. Elias, or Elijah, was a man subject to like passions as we are. And he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. You don't read that in the Old Testament. James is the one that tells him exactly how long rain was withheld from the earth. I'm glad he didn't stop there. It rained not on the earth for three years and six months. It would be dreadful that his prayer stopped there. But he goes on, and it says, and he prayed again. This is where we say, we pray much about a day. God wants us to pray again and again and again and again. And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain and the earth brought forth. And there'll not be any fruit in your life or my life as an individual, nor in any church, unless an end is brought to this parent condition suggested by three and a half years, no way. Men must be brought to these barren spaces and periods in our life, and it will only be brought about by praying again and again and again. Then again you'll notice something about in Acts chapter fourteen and fourteen, and here is Paul referring to men of like passions as we are. We somehow think that these prophets in the Old Testament were of another breed than we. No, they're made of the same material, the exact same material as you and me. They have a sinful nature. Some of them were pale men. Others were strong men. Some were kings and some were peasants. Some were farmers and some like this man undoubtedly a shepherd. Yet with them all, they were men of like passions as we are. I love that little expression. What do I mean by passion? Oh, love is a passion. Fervor, that's a passion. Desire, a passion. Emotions, anger, rage, hate, jealousy, envy. These are passions that sometimes control the human heart. And yet, here are these men. Elijah sing the light, a man of light, passion, as we are. Now notice what you read in Acts fourteen and fourteen, and Paul is speaking, which when the Apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, in other words, they were going to worship Paul and Barnabas, they called their deal a lame man, and the multitude came together, and they wanted to make got out of Paul and Barnabas. Paul says, When the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they went their clothes and ran in among the people crying out and saying, Sir, why do ye these things? Why worship us? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these humanities unto the living God, which may turn on earth and see in all things that are there. Here is the Apostle, saying just like Elijah, and James are but Elijah. Men are like passion. Don't you feel as though that's comforting? We look upon these great men that God has used in the past, the prophets and the king, and they're just like you. They're just like. You won't find true exactly alike in the Old Testament. you'll hardly find true among God's people exactly alike. Yet we all have a same nature, the fallen Adamic nature. And there are various ways that nature expresses itself to the temperament of the individual. And that's very encouraging to me. You'll notice this too, he says in verse five. For when we were coming to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Oh, you say, I have troubled morning, noon, and night. Paul says we were troubled on every side without work, fighting, but in the tears, men of light passed. Paul takes a lot of time later on to speak about this passage. Just what a human being he was. He says, nevertheless, God that comforted those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus. Here is Paul. He's somewhat ejected and cast down. The temperature was low, undoubtedly depressed. But just at that time, God sent Titus, and what an uplift that was. My, Paul says, God comforted us. God understands our past. He understands our feeling. The Lord Jesus was tricked in at all points, like as me, but sin upon. The Son of God knew what it was, the weak. He knew what it was to be sad. He knew what it was to be mad. When he cast out those in the temple who were selling and making money out of their flock, the sacrifice. There must have been some occasion to see the meek and the lowly Jesus make a whip and roll up his sleeve and drive a whole bunch out. There you see the masculine character of the Lord Jesus Christ. There, when Matthew twenty three, he blustered those scribes and parishes the rulers of the Jews. There is a son of God in a different display, for he's the same one with the little children. upon his knees. Yes, the various passions of the Son of God. All the passion of his love that led him to the cross. Wouldn't it be wonderful if he for took more of the passions of this man who was without sin? Passions of like men. That's what is true of a life. Passions of just like you. just like me. Paul and Barnum are just the same. We have that same fallen nature that wants to express itself in so many ways. But God comes along with this couple. I want to confess to you, Wednesday night I was a little down. But you know, at the end of the meeting, a young lady came up. She said, I want to talk to you. I want to be saved. Out the door at my ears. Out the door, out the window at my depression. I will write on the mouth and sharpen them, and she would like to be baptized by it. Who does she some say? How God can come along at the right time? She gives us a lift. Yes, Paul said we were cast down. Our bad passions have got the best of us. But right at that moment, why Titus paid us a visit? A young man paying you a victory arc of visit. God sees through it at that very moment when servants are cast down, he's able to lift them up. Now notice something about Gideon's over in Judges chapter six. And Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why? Then is all this for Paul and us, and where be all his miracles, which our fathers told us, or told us all? Saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? but now the Lord hath forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. Here is Gideon expressing his passion, his passion, his field. Why our fathers told us about this God, he told us about the miracles he performed, but where is he? Look at us. He's destroyed us. He's left us. He's delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. I love the next verse. And, oh, that lovely conjunction, and the Lord looked upon Gideon, and said, Go in this, thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midias, hath not I say. The Lord understandeth, he knows our train, he remembers we of the dust, and he knows our passion, and he loves to come in and deliver us from. those passions. Men of light passions. In other words, ordinary men, with an extraordinary God, do very ordinary things. Men of light passions. Men and women in the scriptures, who find them time and time again, and how the Lord came in and took possession of them. The old passions We're set aside and now they've got a new passion. A passion for God. The only gods and emotions they desire are controlled by him. Now they've got a real passion. A passion to win souls for Christ. A passion to help God's people. A passion for Christmanship. I wonder if you have that kind of a passion this morning. Or is it a passion of a vassal? Nature, that's what they're up. You think of Joseph. We used to have a dear brother up in the little church in Canada where I want and I would stay, Albert Burke. And he used to say, you know, there's one man in the Bible, you can't find anything wrong. He said, I think he's the only character. There's nothing wrong. No flaw said about him. Joseph. Joseph. Now Joseph is a wonderful character. You know, if you study Joseph, when he was interpreting the dreams of the butler, the butler was going to be delivered, and he was going to be in the court of Pharaoh. Joseph says, when it is well with thee, think on thee. Put in a good word, the king, for me, will you? Oh, Joseph, if you've been really trusting the Lord, you would not need to set that. The Lord's thinking about you, Joseph. The Lord will put in a good word for you. But there is a little failure in Joseph's life. Dependence on self, dependence on humanity, instead of dependence upon God. Look at John the Baptist. For one, when he saw Jesus coming, he said, behold, the Lamb of God was taken away, the sinner. Later on, John sent someone at the sight of the Jesus. He said, art thou ye that should come, or he went and looked for another. He's in a spell of coaching. Art thou he that should come, or shall we look for someone else? How will we be misled? Have we been misled? The Lord sent back a message after he performed a number of miracles. Now he spoke back and said, John's doubts addressed. Yes, I am he. that did come. I am He, the Son of God, the one that you recognize when you baptize him at the little resort. So you see, John the Baptist had his own school. You think of John the Apostle? The one that leaned on Jesus wasn't mine, you say, he must have had wonderful traits, wonderful passion. He was the youngest of the twelve. He had such an infancy with Christ. Yet John said, who's going to be greatest, Lord, in the kingdom? I'd like to be on your right side and change my brother on the other side. He was seeking priority over the other apostles. He wanted to be in that place of prominence at the right hand and on the left hand of the Lord. The Lord said, that's not mine to give. that will be given by my father in that age. He said, are you able to go through what I'm going to go through with? Are you going to be baptized with the baptism? I am baptized with? Yes. Oh, you're right. You will. You'll be crucified. After that place of prominence, that's not mine to give. Here is John and James wanting to be in a place of superiority over the elder apostles. That says he was impassioned. It wasn't much of humility. So you see these men with their traits. And here is Jonah. God said Jonah was a message into Nineveh. Here was forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And Jonah got kind of a thrill out of that. These Ninevehites, he was a biased Jew. These Nineveites are the glad ones brought. Watch for it! I've just got to wait forty days. this city is going to be wiped out. That kind of a pill going up and down that city preaching his message, the destruction of these Gentiles, these Nineveh. But when the city repented from the king to the peasant, God changed his mind. He repented and he was going to deliver them because of the repentance. When Jonah heard that, he was mad. He went out and he made a group and he sat on it. and he was mad enough to die. He was mad. He wanted to die. He sulked. He pouted. He was angry. Because God didn't destroy the city. God delivered. Soon as much as I said, what do the people think of me? I told them they were going to be destroyed. They didn't get destroyed. That's hurting my reputation. And truly was mad because God save the city, the Lord of the city, instead of destroy. If you ever get the light going, things didn't go your way and you wanted to pout, salt, sit around mad that everybody gave them the law. Yes, men of light passions, men of light passions, the same passion that rise up in you when you don't get your way, the same passion in someone's does something you can't do that passion of envy that passion of jealousy he comes up yes it's been coming up in human hearts of the best of them right from the beginning it came up in the heart of Jonah think of Peter how Peter denied his Lord those in the presence brave Peter oh yes he was brave on one occasion not in another. He trailed before a maid, once he said, Thou wast Thou art one of his disciples. He said, I'm not. And he cursed and he went out. Peter, that wasn't the fruit of the Spirit, that was the flesh. That was a sinful passion that got possession of you then. Men of light passions. David, what about David? You know what happened to David and what David did. But then even later on he says, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Four times over, why art thou cast down, O my soul? Did you ever use that language? Just why am I cast down? Why am I depressed? Why am I in this state of doubt? Why? It sprang up in David's heart. Men of light passions. Remember Paul? and Barnabas, they get into an argument. It was all over Mark. And Mark was a relative, a nephew of Barnabas. And Barnas wanted to take Mark with them. Paul said, I don't want that young man to go with us. He failed us once, and I've lost my patience. And the contention was so great between them that Paul and Barnabas separated, and Barnabas took Mark. Those two men are never seen again in the New Testament, laboring together. They had an argument. They parted company. Did you ever have an argument? You couldn't get your way. You know the passion that you must. Our clash of personalities. Men are like nationalists. Do you remember Moses? Yes, that great leader, Moses. Moses lost his temper and he speak unadvisedly with his lips. He says, must I bring water out of this rock, the rebels? He called God's people rebels. He was mad! All right, Moses, that will cost you. I'm going to let the water flow to Israel, my people, but you won't go over Jordan to the promised land. You'll die this side of Jordan. men of night pastors what about Aaron the high priest of Israel and his sister Miriam jealousy they brought up a matter of forty years prior to this when Moses married an Ethiopian boy and Miriam saw that Moses white oh yes she was of another race and this aggravated Miriam and terror she was getting a popular place a prominent place the wife of the great moses the great leader was and they got jealous god says were you not afraid to speak evil of my servant moses and god struck them with leprosy and miriam was a leper and god says you are barren for the rest of the life Maybe some Christians wondering why they're barren spiritually. They're not producing much fruit. They're not seeing soul faith. God's not using them. Is the barrenness in your life caused by jealousy speaking against God's servant? Is that the cause you're barren? Are you not afraid to speak evil of my servant? God said to Miriam. Oh yes, these are lessons. Men and women of light passion, light passion. Their faults can be our faults and our faults similar to them. You can remain a slave to these passions. You are a very miserable and happy Christian if you are a slave to these passions I've been mentioning. It's horrible. It's a missable existence. All the time being a slave to these passions that come from the fallen nation. I know one thing. I couldn't live like that. I've got to pull myself together if I'm going to preach on Sunday. I can't go along through the week and being that state of soul. I've got to be delivered myself before I can deliver others with the word of God. What does it take? It takes hours of prayer and study during the week, in order to get a message from God and pass together on Sunday morning and Sunday night. You can't get anything from God or give anything from God all the time you're possessed with those passions. It's got to be delivered. Same way I get help. You can get help. Study and pray. That's yours. If you sit around and pitying yourself, possessed with these passions, these emotions, you're going to continue and continue and continue. Till you'll work yourself in a terrible state of mind and soul. Lie deep from feeling upon wind, says God. shall reap the whirlwind. God wants us to be victorious. He wants us to get the victory over these passions and the resulting of the fruit of the Spirit, the passions of the Christian life, the spiritual life in Christ Jesus. So Elijah pray more earnestly. Yes, that's what God wants us to do. Pray more earnestly. There are a number of things we could say about a knife of it. We are not this wrong. But I will say that he was a man that was prone to discouragement. If you read, does that ring a bell? You read over in chapter nineteen and four, you see in this verdict. He was also a man that was capable of accountability, making a mistake or being wrong. He did that too. He made a mistake. He was wrong. He gave way to this, but not for long. One thing you notice about Elijah, he didn't stay in that condition long. He got delivered. Also, you notice concerning him, Elijah is one who was greatly honored by God. He was divinely honored. God took him to heaven in a chariot. And if you read this, seven people, Matthew, you'll see him sitting on the Mount of Transfiguration with Christ. That's Elijah, the man of light passions with us. The grace of God put him there. What a wonderful character he is. He performed many miracles. Many miracles. Some say that John the Baptist was Elijah. No. He was not. John performed no miracles, you read over in John chapter ten and verse forty-one. John performed no miracles. With all things John said concerning Christ the tree. But this one Elijah, he performed a number of miracles, eight of the least. So here is Elijah, and he performed many miracles. A man of power. Furthermore, he was a man that was inspired of God. He knew what it was to yield himself to God, ready to obey and trust God. He was God, listen to me, consecrate. And he was a saint of God, whose ends were glorious. He was one of the mightiest thoughts given us in the Old Testament. All you have to do is read just a few chapters. Chapters... We're through the closing chapters of the first king, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, and a couple of chapters in second. Not much. Oh, when you're comparing with some of these other thoughts. We stand out and above them. There are these things about this fiery creature, Elijah, this fiery copper. Ah, yes, God used them and used them not. But you'll notice in these studies. Also, you see some of his might coming out that he stood before Ahab. He mentioned that tonight in chapter seven. How he dropped the word out to the blue before Ahab in his court. And he let blast a message that must have shaken Ahab on his throne with foundation. And then he fled. He also is the one... His greatness is seen at the book, Sheriff, also at Zerahat. We see more of his greatness coming up. A man that was fed by angels, fed by ravens, and fed by a widow. Yes, God took special care of his overlord, Prophet Prophet, when one or two were chased. Here he is with his head between his hands and hands between his knees. He's the victim of his own preaching. He said there'll be no rain for until Israel is restored or until I say, never shall not give the really rain. There'll be a time of famine according to my word. And he fled. The rain stopped in the sky. The rivers dried up. The little streams dried up. Then the lakes vanished. Here is Elijah sitting down beside the river, the victim of his own prophecy. The brook cried out, Yet God said to him, He sent the ravens to feed them, to bring him food and drink. He sent them to the widow, she gave them food and drink. And then the angels came and gave them food and drink. Can you tell me another thought? who had such tender care by God. Seaman Mount Parmel in chapter eighteen, here you see the benefit of absolute surrender. There on that mount he challenged the religion of Baal on four hundred and fifty of their prophets, and he put a proposition to them. They couldn't turn it down, but he got the victory. And he lost one of his prayers when he called upon God and God answered him. Fire came down from prison and destroyed all those four hundred and fifty prophets of David. Yes, the light of the mighty Christ. And yet, a man of light passion, as we are. He just shows what God can do with a human being. and what that human being has in the way of talent and equipment, if that is delivered over to the Lord, God can take it. And God can, as He did, take it all the life. Also, you'll notice this rugged prophet, he is a type called John the Baptist, we mentioned that, and one of these soldier boys, the sailor boys, and then we're going to hear this morning, before the rest of them went away, asked me if John the Baptist wasn't Elijah. Well, I looked up some scriptures yesterday, and these are some of the books. Over in Matthew chapter seventy, and as they came down from the mouth, I wonder what provoked this. Why were the disciples had just seen Elijah sitting with Christ and... Moses on the other side of the mountain, Moses, said the lighter, he was supposed to come before Christ came. And there he is up there sitting on the part of the mountain. And this is the argument. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged and said, Tell the vision to no man until the Son of man be risen again from the dead. And the disciples asked them, Why then say the scribe that Elias must first come? And Jesus said unto them, Elias truly shall first come and restore all things. But I say unto you that Elias is come already. And they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listened. Likewise shall also the Son of Man shall come of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. Now notice what seems to be a contradiction. Here you have in John chapter one, verse nineteen. And this is the record of John when the Jews sent priests and Levites on Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed, and denied not, but confessed, I am not with Christ. And they asked him what then? Art thou Elias or Elijah? And he said, I'm not. Art thou that prophet or Moses? Because God said the prophets of the Lord your God raised up like unto you. He was talking to Moses. Are you that prophet? And he said, No. Then he said to the enemy, Who are you that we may give an answer to them which sent us? What saith thou of thyself? Here's what he said. He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make strength to wear the Lord as saith the prophet Elijah. I am the voice. I am the echo. I'm not the substance. A voice is something you can't handle. An echo. I'm just the voice of Isaiah, Elijah. I'm just the echo of Elijah who lived in the kingdom. And I'm also the voice of the coming Elijah, the one that will come in that day and up more hence as we see things today. Elijah in the Kings, she was raised up to oppose the religion of faith and the God of faith. Conditions like that didn't reign when John the Baptist was here. John performed no miracles. But Elijah, the past, did perform miracles. And the Elijah, who is yet to come, will also perform miracles. the one who's coming before that great and terrible day of the Lord. Look what you read over in Malachi. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. The great and dreadful day of the Lord hasn't come yet. Elijah's coming just before the great tribulation. You have the two witnesses in chapter eleven. And in that day the world is going to see Satan incarnate. A man who is Satan incarnate. It means the devil is going to give all his power unto the beasts. Demon and Satan worship will cover the earth. That wasn't true in John's book. But I'll tell you it's getting to be true in our book. Why write in Atlanta there are four or five churches worshipers of Satan? There's not a large city in the United States that doesn't have little souls of Satan worships. Spiritism, demonism. It's creeping today. It's taking over. It's brightening the day for the coming of a man of sin. That one who will be Satan incarnate. All the world will linger after the man with his coming. He'll be so tolerant that that wasn't true in John's day. Before this coming day and everything is pointing to it, there will be Elijah. God's witness will just as I like you in the past be that hell rain from heaven for three and a half years. So he will in the future. Rain will be that hell from heaven for three and a half years, the last half of the sweet years given us in death. To add to all the miseries of that coming time, when Christ the like of which has never been, and never will be again, had there were all the mysteries of canon and other things in that coming dreadful day, no race. A worldwide dirt was set just before that time as you find a louser. And he's going to perform miracles, controlling the elements, also parling down fire, also making an image to the speech. John performed no miracle. John the Baptist. So John the Baptist is not Elijah. I think this makes it very plain. He says, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord as said the prophet Isaiah, Gilead, Elias, Elijah. And they which were a set of the Pharisees, And they asked him and said unto him, Why baptizeeth thou then, if thou be not that Christ nor Elias, or Elijah? Neither that prophet, Moses. John answered them, saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth one among you whom ye know not. And he pointed to Jesus Christ, and standeth not a matter of you asking who is Elijah and who is not. Where is Elijah and where Elijah is? God's question to you this morning is, what think, ye of Christ? John immediately pointed to Jesus Christ. There standeth one among you whom ye know not. And this morning there's one here in this meeting. And some of you know not. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. You may argue and debate about some of these other things, but then the question is, do you know Jesus Christ? there standeth one among you who you know not. You haven't had a personal encounter with him. You do know him as your personal see. And another verse or two, I will conclude this one. For he that is John shall be great in the sight of the Lord and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. And he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. And many of the children of Israel shall return to the Lord their God. And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of the life. Return the hearts of the fathers of the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the judge, to make better yet people prepared for the Lord. Here's a man. He's in the spirit and power of Elijah. He wasn't actually little, little Elijah, but he spoke with power, the power of God. Yes, he had the spirit of God and the power of God, those two things that characterize Elijah the past and the characterize the Elijah that is today. These two, Elijah and John the Baptist, were similar in this one thing, and I love to notice it, Give us what it says here. Come to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedience to the wisdom of the God. That said about John the Baptist. Now look what said about Elijah. And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. These two men were similar in this respect. They came to turn the hearts of men and women. Poison goes to Christ. That was their message. That's our message today by the Spirit of God and the power of God as God and David is to turn the hearts of men and women, poison goes to Christ. A lot of things you don't understand, you will understand. When you come to know the Lord Jesus. Oh, the things that people ask, the questions they ask, that if only they mean Christ, He would be the answer to a lot of their questions. And friend, all I say to you this morning, if you don't want to know something about this blessed book, then deceive the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you're a Christian, and you're subject to passions, human passions, that are robbing you of spiritual passions, you're likely to be delivered, that's beyond your ability to deliver yourself, give yourself. like Elijah. He was a man of like passion. Give yourself to the study of the word of God and prayer. Don't be afraid you're going to spend too long in prayer. You can never spend too long on your knees. There's the answer. Prayer and the presence of God is the solution to the problems of Christian today. who are gripped and held in the bondage and slavery of evil, that passion, passions of the old nature, instead of the passion of the spirit, of the passion, of the spirit of God. Oh, what a transformation! I shall move from the one area and power to the other area and power, from the natural to the foolishness, from the earthly to the heavenly, to the heavenly. you may have this experience this morning if you're not a christian come to christ we point you to him you are a christian you're out of fellowship we report you to the same one he is the answer to the sinner's question he must tell them to all the christened father shall we pray our father in heaven in the name of our lord jesus christ We commend for thy presence. We ask thy blessing upon thy will. May it please thee to steal at home the human part. May precious souls come to know Christ. May thy beloved people fall afresh in love with the Lord Jesus Christ that his passion may control them. We ask this in his worthy and precious.