The life of Elijah as a model for Christian living, emphasizing his boldness and obedience to God. It highlights Elijah's confrontation with King Ahab and his subsequent period of reliance on God's provision by the brook Cherith, illustrating that God uses ordinary people who are willing to obey Him. The message draws parallels between Elijah's experiences and the challenges faced by believers today, stressing the importance of faith in God's reality, recognizing oneself as God's representative, and trusting in God's resources through His Word. Ultimately, it encourages listeners to be obedient and faithful in their own lives, whether in public ministry or private devotion, trusting that God will lead them step by step.
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About ninety-five percent of what we will be saying today and tomorrow and Sunday will be directed to those who know Jesus Christ as their Savior. But I am aware of the fact that by the law of averages, in a meeting of this size, that there may be some who visit among us, who, though born and reared in this wonderful land of America, where the Gospel has been freely and abundantly proclaimed, through a combination of circumstances, you may have never come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I'd just like to say that if while we are on these grounds, these three days, that we could have an opportunity to talk with you, to counsel with you, to help you, to answer any questions that you might have about what it really means to know and love and serve the Lord Jesus, we would be most glad to. I have a particular burden for people who have been active in churches and who have been religious. and for all outward intents and purposes have been Christians, but who have never come to know personally and experimentally the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now one of the reasons for that burden is because I was one of those people. I was active in a church. I was kind of looked upon in my community where I grew up in north central Georgia as kind of a model young man, morally and otherwise. I led the singing in the choir. I taught a Sunday school class. I was the president of three Christian young people's church-related organizations when I was converted. And I'd just like to say this, when I didn't start to give them a testimony, and I'm not going to.
I did it the last time I was here. Perhaps if the Lord should lead, I might give it after a meeting or something. But when I was saved, when I came to know the Lord is my Savior, the sixteenth of June, five o'clock in the afternoon, nineteen hundred and thirty-eight Eastern Standard Time, when I was saved, you know what happened? I lost my religion. That's right. I used to be very religious. But I lost my religion when I was converted. And I received a life. And I received a person. And so I just feel as though there may be someone here to marry. And you have high respect and high regard for religion.
And for Christianity as a religion. And for people who are Christians. But you never come to know experimentally. Personally the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to tell you, the most wonderful thrill in all the world is the thrill of knowing that you are rightly related to God through His Son, Jesus Christ. And so if I could have a word with you privately or at the close of the meeting, it doesn't matter when or when, I'd be so glad to talk with you. Because this is the most wonderful experience in all the world. But since we know that by and large, perhaps the large majority of the people here, at the conference, who live on the ground, who come into the meetings, who might have driven into the conference, know the Lord Jesus, then primarily most of what we say will be to those who know Christ.
This morning we thought about the joy of the Christian. I brought a number of thoughts which I had brought about two years ago from this same platform, but I thought that in lieu of the fact of the seeming tragic accident, the death of our brother Clark, that it might be appropriate to see what does the Bible really say once again about joy in the midst of trouble and tribulation and sadness and disappointment and so forth. Now tonight, I would like for us to spend the next thirty-five minutes, approximately, looking at one of the most intriguing, exciting, interesting, characters who ever walked on this earth.
Now I know you're all guessing. Well, I tell you, you've got a lot of ground to guess over because this book is literally filled with intriguing, exciting, adventurous stories of men. In fact, that's one of the most wonderful ways to study the Bible, by the way, is to study the lives of the men. who live whose lives and accounts and actions are recorded on these pages. That's one of the best ways to study history. Did you know that? When I was a student at the University of Georgia, I keep... Brother Bob, you don't have to keep referring to I've been in the Lord's service many years.
You can de-emphasize that if you want to from now. I noticed de-emphasize of that many years. Well, it has been about thirty. I reckon it is many. All right. Well, praise the Lord. It's been good to me. But when I was at the University of Georgia, and this was over thirty years ago, there was a history professor there who taught history by teaching the lives of the men who made the history. And he would teach English history. He would teach the tutor time, the student time, the steward time. And that's the way we study the history. We'd go to the Encyclopædia Britannica and we'd come back. He's going to come back tomorrow with seven pages of information about James I.
And when you study about what a character James I was, you'll understand why what happened happened when he was in power. Now that's a one-way to study the Bible. And if you're looking for excitement and for adventure, here it is right here. Now, held you in suspense long enough. Turn to First Kings. First Kings chapter sixteen. First Kings sixteen. We're going to look at Elijah tonight, not in his life in its entirety, but because it would take actually a a week.
It take at least a week to study this man's life. We're going to look at the first part of it. I'm going to read from this very familiar verse in the book of James. You don't need to turn to it. Verse seventeen of chapter five. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not reign and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Now, back to First Kings, verse twenty-three.
So Omri slept with his fathers and was buried into Mary, and Ahab his son reigned in his stead. And in the thirty and eighth year of Asa, king of Judah, began Ahab, the son of Amrath, to reign over Israel. And Ahab, the son of Amrath, reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty and two years. And Ahab, the son of Amrath, did evil in the sight of the Lord, above all that were before him. and it came to pass as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam, the sons of Nebat, that he took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Esbael, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal and worshipped him.
And he read up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove, and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him. Chapter seventeen. And Elijah the Tishpite, who was of inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these days, but according to my words. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook's chariot, that is before Jordan. and it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
So he went and did according unto the word of the Lord, for he went and dwelt by the brook cherished, that is before Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook. And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land. And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidane, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee, to sustain thee." Now we're not going to read in your father, even though that is a very, very exciting, interesting story, but we're probably not going to get to go that far in our thinking tonight.
But I would suggest to you that one of the most exciting histories and biographies recorded in the Word of God are these number of chapters in here recording the life, the work, the disappointment, the discouragement, the defeat and the victories of this man, Elijah. There's a book, I think it cost a dollar and a half, printed in England. But fortunately we can get it over here by Mr. Pete on the life of Elijah. It is undoubtedly the best thing that I've ever seen. It's the most thorough thing. He takes one little word at a time and then goes right on down through it. It's very, very exhaustive. And if you ever get a chance to get a hold of a copy of that book on the life of Elijah by Pete, be sure and do so.
I've heard a number of men speak. And I wondered, where in the world they get all that tremendous truth? Well, those shades of thought meaning... And then I pick up that little book by pink. There it is. We've got some help. This wonderful man of God by the name of Mr. Peek. There are a number of reasons why studying the lives of men in Scripture are very profitable. One thing that it does, it reminds us that these men whose lives are recorded in print, had brushes with reality just like you and Isaac.
They were ordinary men. They had bones, they had hands, they had feet. They had wives, they had mother-in-laws, they had in-laws, they had neighbors, they had friends, and they had enemies. They had problems just like we do. The Scripture says they were subject to like passions. as we are. To study a biography sometimes in the Word of God makes you spiritually hungry when you stop to think of what a man like Abraham didn't have that we have.
And then you see what God was able to do with Abraham because Abraham was willing to do what God told him to do. Now, this is not in my nose, but Let me say this. You will notice in studying the Scriptures that the men of God that God always used were the men that were willing to do what God told them to do. And you'll find that the men that got into all kinds of trouble and difficulties and disasters and defeats were men who were disobedient to the Word of God. It was true then, and it's true today.
When you see somebody start out in a so-called ministry or a so-called program for God, and it goes down the drain, the thief, you can just mark it in your little book, somewhere along the way he disobeyed the clear, plain teaching laid down in the Word of God. Another thing that studying the biographies of these men does for a Christian, besides making you spiritually hungry, it makes us realize how spiritually poor we are.
It convicts us of our spiritual needs, and it causes us to be cognizant of the fact that God can meet our needs if we will listen to Him and be obedient to Him. Another thing that it does is it not only causes us to recognize our need and to be spiritually hungry and to realize that these men have brushes with reality just like we do day by day, but it gives us spiritual hope. I remember hearing Mr. Howard Hendricks tell of an experience he had.
He had been pastoring a church in Fort Worth. I think perhaps it was when he was still a student at Dallas Seminary. I believe he teaches there now. But he was pastoring a little independent church over in Fort Worth. And he said he supposed most every church has someone in it like this. It was a fellow who was a close resemblance to Simon Peter, if you know what I mean. He had the uncanny ability of always opening his mouth at the wrong time and putting his foot in it, you know. You know, he always does things backwards. And he said...
One day he had been preaching on the life of Simon Peter, and some of the characteristics of this wonderful man, there was so much like so many of us. He said, all the people left after the service, but this man. And Simon the man came up to him and said, Pastor Hendricks, I've got it. He said, you've got what? He says, I've got the truth of what you were preaching about. What truth? He said, well, you know, the thought came to me while you were preaching, Pastor. If God could take Peter and do something with him, there's hope for me. He said, you know, brother, you did use it, didn't you?
If God can take Peter and transform him and use him, he can take you and transform you and use you. Now, We have a portrait gallery here of this man Elijah. And there are just two portraits we're going to be able to look at tonight. There are probably seven or eight or ten of them, at least. But there are just two of them we're going to be able to look at tonight. The first one is Elijah in confrontation. And the interesting thing about it is the Holy Spirit uses only one verse to record this for us.
And that's the first verse, of course, of the seventeenth chapter of First Kings. Elijah in confrontation. And here he is in the palace of a wicked, idolatrous king. All we know about Elijah is that he came from a land by the name of Julius. He goes into the palace of the king. He delivers his message and leaves. Now remember this, when you're thinking about this man that goes into the palace, remember that this very king has already had numbers and numbers of the prophets of Jehovah killed.
Now if you think that was easy, just think again. Because the very man that he goes in to give this message to, for the Lord God Jehovah, has already slaughtered numbers of the prophets of Jehovah, and numbers of others would have been slaughtered, but a friendly man had taken them and hid them by fifties in a cage so that they wouldn't be slaughtered too. Now this was a study that this man was operating in. The worship of the Lord God Jehovah wasn't too popular in this day and time. As I've already suggested, many of the prophets had been killed.
And the man who is now the most powerful man in the kingdom is a godless, idolatrous, man by the name of Ahab, who was really not too much of a man in one sense because he was ruled and dominated by a woman who was more godless than he, a woman by the name of Jezebel. If it's anything the Bible teaches very clearly, besides the message of salvation, I think that the Bible teaches that in the husband's life relationship that the husband is to be the head. And whenever the woman becomes the head of a family, you can look out for trouble.
The husband is supposed to be the head. Here's a case where a woman is dominating a husband. And this was an era when it was not popular to be a worshiper of Jehovah. Now, I know this is not true today. I mean, it's true today to some extent. But it was more true persecution and death could well be the lot of the man who stood up for Jehovah. But times of difficulty and problem and persecution are not times of defeat for the cause of Christ.
Did you know that two of the greatest enemies that Christianity has are the enemies of peace and prosperity. Did you know that during times of peace and prosperity, the cause of Christ many times does not go as it would during times of war and conflict and privation and persecution? Let me just study it, study history. Let me give you two examples. I talked to a missionary who had returned from Vietnam. Now, one of the major works in Vietnam for many, many years and still is conducted by the wonderful organization known as the Christian and Missionary Alliance.
They have more missionaries and always have had more missionaries in Vietnam than any other group. Very fine, godly, separated spiritual people. And I talked to one of these missionaries. Rather, I heard him speak at a conference and I heard him make this statement. Before the war in Vietnam, in one of those little outlining areas, way out in the sticks in the mountains, there was a little community out there with twenty baptized believers. And when the Viet Cong began to come in and terrorize this community, and put pressure upon these people not to follow the gods that they've been told to follow by these imperialistic Americans.
There were twenty believers. And a few years after the war had been going, and the missionaries had been forced to move, a missionary was able to get back in to this little community to where he had left twenty baptized believers with these native Christians. How many believers do you think he found? Two hundred believers. When the Italian soldiers went down into what is today Ethiopia in the late thirty-nine and early forties, the Sudan Interior Mission, as it was known then, I suppose it still is, had seventeen alcohol stations, little churches.
And these missionaries, of course, had to leave when the army came in. And they said, oh, how pathetic it is. We're having to leave these people that need our guidance and our help. Seventeen little churches... scattered out over the countryside. Well, I am guessing in saying that they were gone perhaps for five or six or seven years. When they came back after World War II, you know how many testimonies they found? Sixty-seven churches. Some days, by God's grace, we may be able to get into China again.
And you know what I predict? I predict that if and when we are able to get into China again that we're going to find millions and millions of Christians. Small groups, perhaps. and they're working on the ground. And by mouth-to-mouth and person-to-person, which is real New Testament evangelism, I believe there's a real ferment working in China today. And the gates of hell and communism, anything else, will not prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ.
And so just remember that when things look back, black, and when war and persecution and hardship come, the church of Jesus Christ goes right on going. Now there are three reasons why this man was so bold. Number one, some of you people change, I might want to take a note, so here's your first reason. If you want to know why he was so bold, this man Elijah believes in the reality of Jehovah. He believed in the reality of Jehovah.
In other words, to put it in modern day language, he believed that God was alive. Now one of the best things that a man ever does for, that God ever does for a good Christian man is give him a good Christian wife. If for no other reason she can criticize it, you know, in love. Criticize with preachers. If he's a colorblind, she can tell him he's got on the wrong color spots and all like that, you know. But one of the best things that God does to a Christian man is to encourage him in the things of the Lord. Such a man was a man by the name of Martin Luther.
You know the history of Martin Luther. You've seen the film. You've read his life, I trust. You're familiar with it. God bless Martin Luther with a wonderful helpmate. And Martin was human, like all of us all. And there was a time during his life, before he went back out into the public eye, when he was hunted and being wanted and sought after, and he was hid away in this castle. This was after he'd been married, of course. But they still wanted him. There was a price on his life. And he was translating the Bible and so forth, you know, and being used of God, and it was being published. But he became discouraged because he wasn't doing all he wanted to do.
Well, you know, if there's anybody that can tell when you're kind of down in the mouth and discouraged, it's your wife. Because they know us and still love us, and that's real love, you know. And... So one day Martin came down to breakfast from his study. He'd been studying upstairs and came down to breakfast and his wife was dressed in black. Black shoes, black clothes, a black dress. She's dressed in mourning. He says, what in the world has happened to you? She said, well Martin, isn't God dead?
Martin, you act like God is dead, so I thought we'd go ahead and celebrate. Observe it, you know. He said, you've been acting like God is dead the last few days. Like he's forsaken, and he's let you down, and he's dead. Don't you imagine that kind of shook him? Now, we would never say God is dead. No. We would never stand up and say, God is dead. We just act that way. We just get discouraged and despondent and blue and downcast and get ready to throw in the towels as though God were dead.
One of my Christian brothers and friends and acquaintances is a man by the name of William Goldie. He is now in charge of personnel in the Chief of Chaplain's Office of the U.S. Army in Washington, D.C. A year and a half ago he was the head of all the chaplains in Vietnam. On one occasion, several years ago, back when the God is Dead controversy was raging at its height, I suppose you'd say, some of the chaplains were called to Atlanta. to the Second Army Chaplain School or something over there, and they had this man, Altizer, from Atlanta, from Emory University, to come up and give his theory about the God is Dead movement.
And he talked and talked and talked for about an hour, and then after he talked for an hour, they said, now we're going to open the floor for questions. And a number of questions were put forth among them was this one. There was a chaplain there who had just come back from combat in Vietnam. He said, Mr. Altizer, my name is chaplain so-and-so. I have just come back from Vietnam. The men that I was stationed among and with have been in combat many, many months. He said, Mr. Altizer, it has been my solemn duty and responsibility to hold the hand of many GIs.
as they died. To pray with them, to counsel with them, to read them the scriptures and to tell them what hope there is beyond death for those who put their trust in a living God. He said, Mr. Althizer, what would you in your position and your theory have to offer a man as he died on the battlefield? Mr. Algeiser said, well, I think it is quite evident that we would have nothing to offer. I'm so glad God even did.
I talked with him just a few moments ago down there in that room. I talked to him this morning. He's a living reality in my heart and life, and I hope he's a living reality in your heart. in your life. All right. He believed in the reality of Jehovah. The second reason he was so bold, Elijah believed that ye was a personal representative of this man who was alive and who was a reality. Now, you know, it means a lot. if we are conscious of the fact that we have a job to do and that someone is depending upon us to do the job.
I was glad to see Mr. and Mrs. Livingston because it reminded me of one of the greatest men that I ever knew in my life, Theo McCulley. Whenever I thought of Theo McCulley, you know what I thought of? God's business man. And whenever I thought of that phrase, he's the man I thought of. And he is the man. He was a baker. And a good one. And a good business executive. But far most and ahead of that he was God's man. Now beloved, wherever you are, and this goes for people who are retired and who are living in the park of Palm's colony, you are God's representatives.
Now you may not have contact with a lot of people, such as you might have if you lived in Fort Lauderdale, or if you lived in Hollywood, or if you lived in Jacksonville, or if you lived in Tallahassee, or in Columbia. You might not have as much contact being kind of retired as you would if you were out in the business world. But just don't you forget, everybody that you do contact, whether it's a young Christian who needs to be encouraged, or whether it's an unsaved person or a converted person who needs to be shown the way to life, you are God's representative. And here was the man standing before a wicked, godless, idolatrous king, and he realized that he was God's representative. And he couldn't fail his God. Young couple moved into a neighborhood.
And she saw her pastor, said, Oh, pastor, did you hear the good news? What good news? Oh, we've just bought a home, and there's a Christian living on this night of us, and a Christian living on this night of us, and there's a Christian family across the street. Oh, and the Christians all around us. He said, terrible. Terrible? Yes. He said, why in the world didn't you go to a neighborhood that has nothing but healings in it? And you could be the missionary to the healings. I know of some people in Columbia, I know of a family in Sumter, I know of a family in Atlanta right now that have bought a home in a particular neighborhood in Atlanta because they know that they are needed as a testimony in that neighborhood to bear testimony for the name of Christ.
They recognize that they are God's representative in that neighborhood in Atlanta. So, beloved, whenever we're going to buy a home or build a house or buy an apartment, let's just always be sure, is this where the Lord wants me? But don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the Lord doesn't lead you to come and settle in a Christian community. But I'm talking mainly now about people that are still out active in life in that chosen vocation and so forth. When you start thinking about where you're going to live, just remember you want to be God's representative wherever you go. because God might use you to win that neighbor to Christ when no one else could do the job.
Number three, Elijah could be bold because he believes in the resources of Jehovah's. Now, this man knew the word of God. He said, how do you know that? Well, I'll tell you why. Listen to what God had said many years ago in the book of Deuteronomy. Chapter eleven, verse sixteen, I read. Take heed to yourselves that your heart be not deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. And then the Lord's wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven that there be no rain.
and that the land yield not a fruit, lest he perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord God giveth you." And what is the Word of God says? The Word of God says that it reign not for three and one half years. Here's a man He didn't have a Schofield Bible. He didn't have a Thompson Bible. He didn't have a Pilgrim Bible. He didn't have living letters. He didn't have it the way you and I have it today. But he knew the Word of God so completely that he could quote what God had already said about wickedness and idolatry and godlessness.
And he could say, by my word, it will not reign. Now that's power of God. That's knowing the Word. He prayed on the basis of the Word of God. You know, the way a Christian prays is a real good thermometer of that spiritual life. You want to know something about somebody, pray with them. You want to learn to pray?
I'll tell you one of the best ways to learn to pray is to get with some young Christian, somebody that hadn't been converted long. You see, they don't know all the phrases and the cliches that we know. And that's good. Get with the young Christians. And you know what a young Christian will do? And it's a good thing. They'll just believe God will do what He says He'll do because they don't know any better. They just take the Word of God and they say, now God, you're promising your Word that you're going to do so-and-so if we do it and we believe you're going to do it. And you know what? God does it. Back in the early days of the youth of Christ, they called us all crazy, off our rocker, fanatic, and everything else.
And we were. We were fanatics for Christ. And we went out and saw God do things that people have never done. But we were fools for God enough to believe that because God had promised to bless it, because we did it in his name, he'd do it. Some of you people who live back in the Midwest remember how the first time Bob Cook leased the Chicago Stadium, they said he's crazy. The next thing they did, they went out and leased the Chicago Soldiers' Field. They said they're crazy. What do they do if it rains? And you know what? They got ready to have the rally, and the people started pouring in Chicago Stadium, and a huge cloud came up.
Some of you might remember that circumstances, Dr. Charles D. Fuller was the speaker. In five minutes before Dr. Fuller was to speak, it looked like the bottom was going to drop out in that place. And they stopped the regular plan program on the meeting and said, let's pray and ask God to hold the rain back. And they did. And you know what happened? God held the rain back. It rained in Austin. It rained in Oak Park. It rained into flames. It rained in Park Ridge. It rained in Wellamette.
It rained in Oak Lawn. It rained all around, but in the downtown Chicago it didn't rain. God can hold back rain a rally like that. God can answer prayers for you. up in Washington, Georgia, where Owen Hoffman lives, there's a big oak tree out there behind an old Methodist parsonage. There's a man that lived there who was a Methodist preacher. He wrote a tremendous book called Power Through Prayer by E.M. Bounds. Everybody ought to have a copy of it. And one morning at five o'clock in the morning, E.M. Bounds, who was out there under that big oak tree, pray it. And a tornado came through Washington, Georgia, and it came to fifty feet from where he was.
Went out fifty feet that way and missed a tree and went on again. God didn't want to interrupt the prayer meeting with his tornado. You say, oh, it just happened. I don't believe it just happened. I believe that the Lord God of Elijah still lives today. And one of the reasons why things don't happen for some of us is because we just don't have the simple, childlike faith to believe that God will do what He has said in His word. He'll do. Call upon me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things that thou knowest not.
Now, the second portrait, and I see my time is about gone, is right here in this same little book, First Kings chapter sixteen. I get blessed and happy and I forget all about what I meant to say, but I believe the Lord wants to share that with you. The second portrait, the first was Elijah in confrontation. Second portrait is the success of Elijah. in verse one then explains in verses two through seven.
Now to say it in just a few words, here it is right now. God could use Elijah as recorded in verse one and subsequently later in this chapter and in the next chapter and in the next chapter. God could greatly use Elijah, as recorded here in this book, because of the kind of man you see he was, in verses two through seven of chapter seventeen. What kind of a man was he? He was an obedient servant.
God told him to go in before wicked, godless King Elijah, Ahab. And he goes in. And he whispers, Ahab, Elijah. Your confrontation with Ahab, for the time being, is over. Come out. And he comes out, and he must have rather been rather proud of himself, you know, after all. This is a big, great king. Look at me, young country boys from Gilead, preaching to Elijah, telling him what's what. And the Lord God says, wait a minute, Elijah, don't get too proud now. Elijah, you've already said there's going to be a drought.
There's going to be no rain. So I've got a little brook out here. And I want you to go out and build your little camp by the brook. you'll drink out of the brook and the ravens are going to bring you bread and flesh in the morning and bread and flesh in the evening. I have informed and instructed the ravens to feed you. I imagine Elijah must have said, now wait a minute, God, haven't you gotten your instructions kind of mixed up here? You remember, I'm the big public man.
I'm the man that goes up in front of the kings and preaches. Remember? No, Elijah. No more big public confrontations right now. I have more ministry for you ahead. But before I can use you in the public again, Elijah, I'm going to have to get you alone. Hudson Taylor, I believe it was, who said... God is looking for men little enough for him to use. I think one of the most wonderful things about some of the men of God that I've been privileged to me is, is the fact that I have seen them willing to grapple with one soul.
as well as preach to a great throng. And they're just as interested in sitting on an airplane or a bus or a train or in a public place somewhere with a Bible open, and they're just as interested in talking to one individual as they are in preaching to a mighty crowd. Now let me bring this out about Elijah. Elijah, somewhere along the way, had been prepared of the Lord. He didn't just come out of the field and go in before the king. There's a lot in Elijah's life that we don't have here.
Someday we'll have it. But one of the reasons why some of the Lord's people are no more effective in public than they are is because they haven't learned to be effective in private. One of the curses of our day, and this is true many times of the Lord's people that are in what we call full-time work, one of the curses of our day is the fact that they are so busy doing other things that they haven't had the time to spend with the Lord in private that they should have had when they get into the pulpit. Those of you in assemblies of Christians, and you're privileged enough to have someone labored among you in the Word and in doctrine.
Do everything in your power to keep little responsibilities off of the shoulders of those who are ministering the Word because they need as much time as they can possibly get to be in the Word and to be apart with the Lord. I believe it's Van Pattener who has said, If we don't come apart and rest a while, we'll come apart. I personally think that every church and every assembly that has a pastor shepherding in it would do well and it would be a good investment if they could send their shepherd away for two or three or four weeks out of every year to a good Bible conference and just let him do nothing but soak in the Word of God and have his soul and his body refresh and invigorate it.
It would be one of the best investments an assembly or a church could ever spend. is to encourage those who minister to them to get away to a conference and be fed. All right. This man kept on an appointment with the Lord. And his appointment was to sit humbly by the brook and to receive the bread and the flesh that the ravens brought him two times every day. And what happened? Well, you know as well as I know what happened. The brook dried up.
The brook dried up. What was he to do? Was he to throw in the spurns? Was he to give up? No. Imagine as he sat by that brook, he kind of got used to how much noise it would make every day, you know, ripping over the rocks and so forth and leaves and sticks. He probably noticed that brook getting a little smaller and a little smaller and a little smaller. Thought probably came to him and I wonder what I'm going to do if the brook really does dry up. But you know, when the brook dried up, God had other instructions for him. Just like walking with a flashlight.
You know you can't see very far with a flashlight, but when you get to where the flashlight is now, the light will be a little thug. And so God leads you a step at the time. And God is expecting us to learn from the problems and the trials and the difficulties that we have in our everyday ordinary pursuit of life to trust in Him. I close with this. It is told of how on one occasion a young man came to Dr. Harry Ironside. He said, Dr. Ironside, I know you're very busy, but I have a prayer request for you.
He said, Would you pray for me? He said, Yes, I will. He said, What is it, young man? He said, Dr. Ironside, I want you to pray that God will give me patience. He said, I know I have, I'm very impatient and I have need of patience. And I want you to pray that God will give me patience, that He'll make me patient. She said, all right, young man, let's pray. So I started praying. Dr. Ironside prayed very simply and briefly, as most great men of God do. Now, Lord, you know this young man. You know his need. You know his situation. You know his problem. And, Lord, I pray that you'll send this young man all kinds of difficulties and problems. Hey, wait a minute, Dr.
Einstein. I was praying for patience, not difficulties. Lord, I pray that you'll send this young man difficulties and problems, and we know that as you send them to him, you'll teach him to have patience. And so, whether Elijah is standing before the king... or whether Elijah is seated by the brook's chariot, he is no less a man of God. And so whether it be in the pulpit, whether it be in the kitchen, whether it be in the office, whether it be in the store, I trust that every one of us here tonight will pray, Lord, make me to be the kind of a vessel that you want me to be.
And as I was thinking about the Christians, the talk of the palms, I was thinking about the ministry of you Christians. You know what the Holy Spirit impressed upon my heart? There's one ministry that every Christian in talk of the palms can be very, very effective in. You know what it is? Intercession. Some of you people have a number of hours every day that you could consider leisure time, some more. And I think of how the Lord's work around the world could be strengthened, encouraged, and helped by your faithful intercession.
May God teach you to be obedient to him and to be willing as he leads you to come apart and spend time with him. That when you do have an opportunity to give a word of witness, a word of testimony, your witness and your testimony will be effective. Shall we pray? Our Father, this man was a faithful man.
This man was an obedient man. We know that he was a normal man. He was a natural man. He had problems. He had difficulties. He had discouragements at times. There were defeats in his life, but we thank thee that he learned how to be victorious over them all. We thank thee that because he was willing to be obedient, you were able to use him. Now, Father, you know the areas in my life and in the areas of other lives here tonight, but we need help.
and we look to thee to teach us as to where we need to grow and to mature and to be strengthened. We thank you for speaking to us tonight from thy word. Bless our fellowship together in the lounge. May it bring glory and honor to yourself. In Jesus' name, amen.