Sermon – “Tenderly and Patiently”

And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. 2 Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” 3 And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!” 5 Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” 6 Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. 7 And the angel of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” 8 So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God. 9 And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 10 So he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.” 11 Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. 13 So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 14 And he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

It’s more of a message I tell you titled it tenderly and patiently and I’m not going to stand up here and proclaim that God always deals with all mankind. Tenderly impatiently. But I believe that God deals with his people. Tenderly and patiently. Most of the time with those that have rejected him he may have to do a deal more severely but with his people I truly believe that most times God will deal tenderly and patiently with them with the ones that he loves the ones that have given his heart their hearts to him you know look at some of the great men of God and the struggles that they have had the struggles that they had and God dealt with them tenderly and patiently. This morning I’ll probably go a little bit different here the Lord just told me to forget about my notes but I’m going to use the scripture This morning we’re going to look at the first Kings Chapter nineteen verses one through fourteen. Here the word of the Lord. And they have been told as a bell all that Elijah had done. Also how he had executed all the prophets with a sword binge as a bell sent a messenger to a lie just saying so let the gods do to me and more also if I do not make your life as a life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that he arose and he ran for his life and went to Berseba which belongs to Judah and left his servants there but he himself when a day’s journey into the wilderness and came and sat down under a broom tree and he prayed that he might die and said it is enough now Lord take my life I am no better than my father’s. You can see that he lives at this point his life was kind of the press one day. Lord it’s enough I’m finish go ahead let me die right here. I don’t want to go any farther I’m done. Just let me die. Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree suddenly an angel touched him and said to him Arise and eat. Then he looked in their bias head was a cake baked on coals and a jar of water so he ate and drank and lay down again and the angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said Arise and eat because the journey is too great for you. So he arose and ate and drank and he went on the strength of that food for forty days and forty nights as far as who are out in the Mountain of God and there he went into a cave and spent the night and then that place spent the night in that place and behold the what the word of the Lord came to him and he said to him What are you doing here Elijah. So he said I have been very zealous for the Lord God of post for the children of Israel have for sake in your covenant have torn down your altars and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left and they seek to take my life. Then he said Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord and behold the Lord passed by and a great strong wind. It tore into the mountain and broke the rocks and pieces before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake a fire but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice and so was when a lodger heard it he wrapped his face with his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave and suddenly a voice came to him and said What are you doing here Elijah and he said I have been very zealous for the Lord God of. Because the children of Israel for seeking your covenant tore down your altars and killed your property with the sword and I alone am left and they seek to take my life. I’ll add a couple verses then the Lord said to him go and return your way to the wilderness of Damascus and when you arrive annoyed as well as king over Syria. Also you shall anoint J. you the Son of Man shy as king over Israel and Elijah the son of Safad of Abel Mottola you shall knowing as prophet in your place. Nischelle be that whoever escapes the sort of Hazel gent you will kill who ever escapes a sort of jail you they lie sure will kill yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel. All whose needs have not bowed to bail and every mouth that has not kissed him. So not all have rejected God in turn to bail his reserve seven thousand you know there are times in our lives where we need that strong when there is times when we need that strong wind to turn his back to God There are times in our lives when we might need that earthquake that we truly need a shaking. We need a great shaking in our lives that we will turn our eyes back to him where we just moves our lose our lives if you will where we realize that he is the only one we can trust that we can turn to. So there are times when the dead earthquake there are times when a death fire in our lives because there needs to be a cleansing. He needs to cleanse us from our own righteousness so yes there are times we need that fire but our lives are needed that still small voice that comforting voices says Alija What are you doing here. Why are you here. We need to go back and look at what a lodging had been through a lodge it had been. At the pinnacle of his prophetic career if you will. He had seen so many things that the Jehovah God had done for him and for his people are back up and just going to highlight some things just to see that a large It was a great man of God yet he still struggled. Elijah at the word of the Lord came and told a ham that as the Lord our God lives before whom I stand there will not be do nor reign in this land except my word not be do nor rain not even in the morning when they wake up they would not be one speck a dew on the grass. A lie just says it is not going to rain in this land until I say the word it will not rain. You will not even have to do and you might say well why why did he send this drought upon this land. Because Israel had turned their backs on God and there was worshipping bail and they believe it to be the God to sent the rain that is why he held back the rain. They believe that Bell sent the rain which in turn gave them their plentiful harvest. So God is into a tab in the nation of Israel. I’m going to show you who sends the rain go ahead and call him bail and see if he sends you any rain in these years that you’re going to get this drought. Call out the bail or did you want. Well severe drought came upon the land and a famine to follow but the word of the Lord came to the lodge and he said I want you to go and hide. You’re going to go hide by the book by the brook not the book the brook sheriff and he said I want you to hide there because they have been searching all the cities and lands around to try to find me. He’s going to drag him back here I’m sure. Again as I say let there be rain. So he’s hiding hiding for may have been those soldiers when he sends up the hunt for him and why he’s there by this brook. Lord says I will provide Do we not just sing about that. I will provide God provided Ravens to bring him bread and meat every morning and every evening church. Do we need to worry about where our food our meals our sustenance is going to come from when we trust in the Lord our God He can send the Ravens to bring us food Amen. God provided Ravens to bring him food every single day. But eventually the brook dried up because of that severe drought that is I just spoke to God says I had commanded a widow to provide for you. So he sent him to Sarah Palin and this widow is out there whenever he enters into the gate of the city he seizes where there she is gathering up sticks because this drought has affected the entire region. She’s gathering up sticks and she’s going to go in and prepare. She has a handful of flour left and a small amount of oil in a jar. She’s going to go in and prepare a meal for her and her son and then they’re going to die. They’re just going to die so you know that’s all they have. All they have left the law just says to her the Lord has instructed me to go to prepare what you have said but first prepare a small cake for me and come and bring it to me because the Lord has told me that they have been a flower will not run empty and that jar of oil will not run dry. As long as you’re faithful to provide all the days of their lives. Who was there with that widow and her son that been a flyer did not run dry and that door oil did not run empty again. The Lord our God provided need we worry God will provide. He will provide after some days there on this chair nice to see that all they got it did all that God had done for his people for Elijah. How he provided for them. This woman’s son died he got sick and there was no life ending as he said have you come here to remind me of my sins and to kill my son in law to take this young boy and his arms and he goes up to the upper room where he was staying and he lazy morning zone bed and he cried out to God God let this young boy’s soul come back into this body. And God heard his prayers and answered his prayer and he takes this young boy and leads him back down to his mother and say Here he is he lives so God seen Elijah seeing God provide food while I was by the brook. He provided food while I was at the Widow he raised the widow’s son from the dead. But that wasn’t the greatest yet. The greatest is yet to come. God finally then told Elijah I go and show yourself to a have to present yourself to a happen so he went in found a have and a lie just says I have a challenge. He says Go and call all of Israel to Mt Carmel and call all the prophets of bail all four hundred fifty of them and bring them to gather them there together. So when all the people come and all the prophets come. He says I had this challenge for you. I’m paraphrasing here if you think Bale is God He says I have a challenge for you. Bring two bowls and we’ll make an altar and will place wood on this altar and we’ll prepare the bowls will put them on these altars and you call on your god and I’ll call on God my God and the God that answers by fire he is truly God and the people said this is good. This sounds good to me good to us. Rather this sounds good to us. So you’ve probably already the story you know that he says you guys go first because there’s many of you. You go ahead and get your bow prepared and and do your thing. So they get their ball and they cut it in pieces they put wood on the altar and he put the born there and the prop of the bale began to cry out the bale but they’re not hearing anything happens happen and there’s no fire coming down out of heaven to consume this sacrifice from morning till no nothing’s happened and they crowd the bell well about noon time a lodger. He gets a little. Why stay if you will he mocks them he says. Maybe your god is a way. Maybe he’s on a journey. Maybe sleeping maybe you need to shout a little louder maybe he’s busy so he mocks them so they’re not just entices Amata Morden are jumping on the on the rocks and are cutting themselves until the evening time of the evening sacrifice. Still nothing nothing has happened. No fire came down from heaven. A Lodge says oh OK it’s my turn it’s my turn. So he repaired to the altar he built were build an altar and it was twelve stones on that altar. Representing each tribe of Israel. He got the word and placed the word on the altar. He got the ball when he cut the ball and placed the bull on the altar and he said Now go get four water pots and fill them bring them in Pour him on the sacrifice on the wood and on the stones and he put a trench around it. He said do it again and they did it a second time he said do it again a third time. They saturated the sacrifice in the wood in the stones in the trench was full of water. But he said I’m not sure where he said this but he said to the people you need to decide who you’re going to follow of God be God then God is God follow him. If Bale be God then follow them you need to make up your mind you can’t be back in four but you’re going to follow God you need to follow God the One True God So after he did they board a water all over the sacrifice he called on God He said show these people that you are God and fire came down out of heaven you know the story. It consumed the sacrifice it consumed the would it consume the rocks and the looked up the dust and looked up the water out of the trough. God showed them that he was God that He is God and there is no other. There is no other god. In verse thirty seven of Chapter eighteen and says Hear me O. Lord hear me that these people weren’t may know that you are the Lord God and that you have turned their hearts back to you again. That’s what this whole thing was about that they might turn their hearts back to God I have no other God before the but the one true god. No other God before the they needed there are shuck. They need. When the earthquake if you will. They needed that fire to turn our hearts back to God. But Elijah after experiencing and being part of all these things. Oh jazz a bell said I’m going to kill you tomorrow and he runs and he runs you know the same man that called fire now not I haven’t runs the same man that writes that little boy. Well with the power of God and he runs I’m like wow. But I’ll say this to you he was a man. Do you get there. He was a man and operating in a spiritual realm or doing spiritual things is exhausting. Hear me church we are men and women it is exhausting. It can wear you down. There are some sadness when I leave here I’m exhausted. I really am I’m not saying that’s the way it is I believe a lot Alijah was exhausted and it’s a much a said that it is enough is like it is enough Lord I’m tired I’m weary it is enough but the Lord renewed his strength in the Lord renewed his strength the Lord spoke to him gently patiently. God is longsuffering with us is it not. Amen praise God I know is long suffering with Maisie the long suffering with anybody else. Are you all perfect right. He is longsuffering with us. He is gentle with us he is tender with those who love him the cherish him it says. And Psalms chapter one of the three verses eight through thirteen. The Lord is merciful and gracious he is slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us nor will he keep his anger forever. He is not dwelt with us according to our sins Hallelujah praise God is not well with us according to our sins nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth so great is his mercy towards those who fear him. Can anybody say amen. Great is his mercy to those who fear him. As far as the east is from the West so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children so the Lord pities those who fear him. God is merciful to those who fear him. Is Qana just adds on the what we were talking about a Sabbath school. He loves those who fear him that those who have given him his whole heart. Matthew nine verse thirteen says. But go and learn what this means. I desire mercy not sacrifice for I did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. He came to call sinners to repentance. My prayer is today that we will hear that still small but still small voice of God and they are saying that God is calling. God is speaking to his people today I truly believe that and may that voice. Maybe it may be that boy’s prick that little part in our hearts that we may not have surrendered to God yet. Or they’re a little piece of our heart that we are holding back from God or May that still small voice speak to that part. May we fully surrender to him. May we give him our all. May we fully trust in him. May we depend on him to provide for us. May we be faithful to walk in all his ways because he is patient with us. But let’s not take advantage of his patients. Let’s be faithful to obey the Gospel. Back to what we talked about in SAP school.