Preparation for the Battle

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. Elijah's greatest enemy was not his weakness it was his strength. And he's about to go into a battle where he's not going to have the strength to do it so God first has to take him back to the brook Cherith to remove his most basic abilities because there he'll learn to depend on God. And sometimes God makes you weak so that you can find your strength in him.

Has this happened to you? Welcome to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of J.D. Greer, lead pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.

As always, I'm your host Molly Vidovich. Have you noticed that a lot of people tend to see religion as a personal choice? It's not so much about discovering truth as it is about finding the faith that works for you. In fact, the phrase of the day seems to be my truth. But in our new teaching series called Something Better, Pastor J.D.

explains why that attitude doesn't really work. We're looking at the Book of First Kings and the life of the prophet Elijah. It's a period in Israel's history that's eerily similar to our world today. So grab your Bible. We'll be in the Old Testament today and let's jump right in. Pastor J.D.

titled this message Preparation for the Battle. The question for most Americans is not, is there a God? The question for most Americans is which God is the right one and how can we know which God is the right one or is that even the kind of thing that you can know? I mean, you've all heard proverbs like, you know, the God's like a mountain and whatever way you choose to get the top is up to you. You're all headed to the same place. Maybe you think that there's a good truth in every religion and what you got to do is you got to take the best out of the different religions and kind of come up with what works for you.

That's the world that we live in which makes what we're going to study over the next few weeks together particularly relevant. We're going to study through the lives of a couple of Old Testament characters who God raised up during a time when Israel as a nation was considering this very question, which God is the right one? And those characters go by the names of Elijah and Elisha. So if you have a Bible, I'd love for you to take it out now and open it to the Book of First Kings chapter 17. First Kings 17.

Let me give you a little historical context. Getting into First Kings, if you know anything about the Bible, Israel was founded as a monotheistic nation. God called them out of Egypt around the worship of the one God Jehovah. But between that exodus and the Book of First Kings, a lot has happened.

Namely, there's been a civil war. The civil war that's divided the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom. The northern kingdom is called Israel and there are 10 of the tribes.

The southern kingdom is only two tribes and it's called Judah. Well, Israel, the northern kingdom, has a succession of really bad ungodly kings, 19 of them to be exact, spanning about 200 years, culminating in the worst king ever. King Ahab, the queen mother of all the bad kings.

First Kings says that he did more evil in God's sight than any other king who had ever come before him. Well, Ahab married a cute little thing from the neighboring pagan nation of Sidon called Jezebel. Now, Jezebel has become sort of the epitome of the evil woman in our culture. That's why not many girls that you know are named Jezebel.

Most of us think of Jezebel as something that's not flattering. There's a reason for that because Jezebel was just a wicked woman. She brought into Israel the worshiper, her two favorite gods, which were Baal and Asherah, and she set up temples to worship them all over the countryside of Israel. The people of Israel are so far away from God at this point that they go along with her because Baal and Asherah promised two things that Israel really felt like they needed, which were protection and prosperity. Well, as they start to worship these gods, the worship gets increasingly dark. Jezebel, after she's firmly entrenched in power, has hundreds of God's prophets, Hebrew prophets, slaughtered and in their place she sets up priests and prophets of her own.

So for the first time, the point is this, for the first time in Israel's history, we're dealing with a pluralistic society, which means that everybody has their own different god. By the way, when I was a kid and I would hear Baal mentioned, I always thought Baal meant one god named Baal. But Baal is more like a title than it is a name. There were hundreds of Baals. There was the Baal of nature, the Baal of rain. There was the Baal of fertility. Each career field had its own Baal. You had the Baal of medicine, the Baal of business success. The Baal of the harvest, whose nickname was the Baal of hay. That's just a joke, I just made that up. There was the Baal of scholarship.

Each region had its own Baal. Into this situation, this pluralistic situation, God sends a man named Elijah. And the whole point of Elijah's life is which god is the real god? And is there a way to know which god is the real god or is it whatever Baal works for you?

It's fine. Elijah's name means, in Hebrew, literally, the Lord is God, which kind of gives you the punchline of his life. But that was his life's calling to show that the Lord was the only true God. The primary scene in Elijah's life is going to take place in 1 Kings 18, where there's a showdown between the prophets of Baal and Elijah, the prophet of God, on top of Mount Carmel to see which one's the real god. And it's a battle of prayer to see which god answers from heaven by fire. And biblical scholars tell us that every other scene in Elijah's life rotates around that one.

They're either headed to that mountain or they're coming from that mountain. So the point is that our world that we live in today is much like Elijah's. And therefore, we got a lot that we can learn from Elijah.

Maybe more than any other Old Testament prophet, we're dealing with somebody who was called to be God's prophet in the midst of a context very much like you and I are in. How can we be effective showing our society that God is the only true God? I mean, you realize this, but no longer are we simply calling people in our society to come back to church.

Maybe it was like that 30 years ago, but now it's not. When you're dealing with people, you're dealing with completely different contexts. How can you be effective? You ever wonder, am I actually making a difference in my work? Am I making one in my family?

Am I making one in my school? Maybe you get confronted with questions. You're like, I don't even know what to say to that. It happened to me not too long ago. I was in an airport, which I know you think everything significant happens to me. It happens around an airport, and you're probably right. But I was in the airport getting ready to get on an airplane. The waiting room was packed. And so I'm reading a book about God.

It says something about that in the title. And I look up, and there's this woman just staring at me right across the row. And so I just tried to ignore her and look back down at my book. And I look back up at her, and she's still staring. And I'm like, I wonder if she goes to the Summit Church. And so I look up at her, and she got a big smile. She says, you like God? And I was like, all right, let's go here. And so I answer her question, and we started to talk a little bit. And she goes, you know, I can't tell you how comforting it is to know that there's going to be a pastor on the flight that we're about to get.

I was like, why is that? She's like, well, because God certainly will send the plane down with you on it. I'm like, you know, whatever brings you comfort. And so she says, I consider myself a really religious person too. She says, I wouldn't really call myself a Christian.

She says, I'm probably, you know, 60% Christian, but I've tried to take a little bit from the different parts, and I've kind of come up with something that really works for me. Well, about the time that she's in the midst of this, sitting next to her is this older couple, which is one of those sweet older couples where the lady is talking to the man in a voice. Well, he's about two feet from her, but she's talking to him like he's about 35 feet from her. Hey, you know what I'm talking about?

One of those sweet old people like that. And so she's just talking to him loud enough for everybody in the airport to hear her. And she has the newspaper out, and she's reading the horoscope. And she's like, oh, look at it.

You know, the horoscope says that my sign's going to have peace today, so we got a safe flight coming up. Well, my little woman over here thinks that this is the greatest thing she's ever heard in her life. She's like, wow, really? She goes, the horoscope says it.

Can I see that? And she looks at it, and she looks at it. And she's like, we got a passport. And as she's reviewing this, the guy three seats down from her leans forward and says, I got St. Christopher right here in the bag. And I'm like, what bag?

And are you allowed to carry him on? That's the patron saint of traveling. And this woman over here says, she goes, we got a pastor. We got the horoscope.

We got St. Christopher. This is awesome. And I'm like, who are you people? Who are you people?

You probably found yourself at some point. You're like, I don't even know what to say to these kind of questions, right? How are you effective in this kind of context? We have missionaries in places, members of our church where the worship of other gods is the official state religion, where literal Jezebels are trying to kill them. How are they supposed to conduct themselves in that kind of context? That's what these stories are about.

Let me tell you what's really encouraging to me. When God wanted to do something about this situation in Israel, he didn't raise up an army. He could have. He didn't raise up 10,000 people and like, hey, I got 10,000 now. They make an awesome group. We got congressmen in there and rich people. And we got people who write music.

And our sports teams are better than their sports. He didn't do that. He raised up one man.

One man. And I believe that's what God wants to do today and through this series. He wants to raise up some of you as an Elijah in your circle of friends. He wants to raise you up as a man or woman as an Elijah in your workplace, an Elijah in your family.

One business leader to stand for integrity within an organization that is corrupt. One teenager who will stand for purity and the truth of God's word in a school where they're the only one, it seems, that's going to stand that way. And just the way that God changed Israel through the ministry of one man, I believe he's going to raise up some of those men and women over the next several weeks. At least that's what I'm believing God for.

And some of you that are listening to me right now are going to be that Elijah. And if you are one of those who are not convinced that there is only one God or you're not convinced that the Christian God is the true God, these stories are going to present you with reasons that you at least ought to consider about why God is the only true God. Listen, pluralism is not new.

That's not something we invented in the 21st century after we became sophisticated and globalized. Pluralism is as old as the world itself. In fact, it's one of the oldest religions you're ever going to find, the idea that there's multiple gods and you've got to find one that works for you. When somebody says to me, you know, all religions are the same. When somebody says that to me, I don't really know how to respond. I always put it in the category of this.

Hear me out here. I put it in the same category of when I hear somebody say that everybody else in another race all looks the same. Like when I lived in Southeast Asia, I would have, when I first got there, one of the guys I met, a Southeast Asian guy comes up and says, you look like Kevin Costner. I'm like, all right, movie star.

Yeah. About two weeks later, somebody else says, you look just like Sylvester Stallone. And I'm like, you think all white people look the same. That's the problem, isn't it? When somebody says that, what you end up thinking about them is like, well, you must not actually know anybody from that other race.

Or you may never have, you probably never paid attention. You're kind of a bigot, right? When somebody says to me, all religions are the same.

I'm like, you must not actually know any of them. You're kind of a religious bigot. And so what I want to invite you to do is just kind of put that bigotry down and actually consider what the Bible presents about God and the uniqueness of God as God.

And at least consider what's being said. Thanks for joining us today for Summit Life with Pastor JD Greer. We'll get back to today's teaching in a moment, but I am very excited to tell you about our latest premium resource here on Summit Life.

Today is the first day we're offering it to our faithful supporters. It's called Elijah and Elisha, an eight-day scripture guide through 1 Kings 17 to 2 Kings 6. And the beautiful part is that it parallels with our new teaching series we just began here on the program. It's an eight-day devotional that takes you through the amazing, extraordinary lives and ministries of these two prophets by using our normal four-part approach to the text, reading, studying, praying, and applying.

You can walk through it on your own or bring someone along the journey through some key passages in 1 and 2 Kings. As you'll see, reading about the great faith of others is a very helpful way to grow your own faith in God's power. We'd love to send you a copy of this new devotional today with your gift of $35 or more to this ministry.

To give, call us at 866-335-5220, or you can give online at jdgrier.com. Now let's get back to today's teaching. Once again, here's Pastor JD. Today, we're going to look specifically at how God prepared Elijah for this conflict. You see, the stories of Elijah go from big picture, what God is doing in the world through Elijah, and then they zoom back down to what God is doing in Elijah's heart.

They kind of go in that rhythm. And so we're going to look first at what God is doing big than what he's doing in Elijah, because you're going to see today that God has one major obstacle to overcome in using Elijah, one. And when God conquers this one thing in us, this one area that he conquers becomes the source of most of his power in our lives.

Now let me give you a little warning. This is totally different than the culture that you live in and what you've been programmed to believe. It's most likely different than what your parents taught you, even if they were good parents.

It's different than what your teachers filled you with, and it's different than what your coach has said to you. So here we go. 1 Kings 17, verse 1. Now Elijah the Tishbite. When I was a kid, we always pronounce that tick bite.

When I was in middle school, we translated that as tushbite, but neither of those is correct. It's Tishbite because he was from Tishba in Gilead. He said to Ahab, as the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word. If you remember, one of the main bales was the bale of rain. So what Elijah is doing is going up all into Baal's business, going into his hometown on his home court, saying, I own this court.

That's what's happening. He's like, you think your God controls, you think Baal controls rain? I'll tell you what, for three years, we're not going to have rain until I say it's time to have rain because I serve the God of the universe.

So he's just picked a fight. Verse 2. And the word of the Lord came to him, depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. You shall drink from the brook, and I've commanded the ravens to feed you there. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. He went and lived by the brook Cherith, that is east of the Jordan. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook, which proves that spirit-filled people eat lots of meat because whenever God hand-selects the menu, it always includes meat. All right?

Look it up. That's probably not the main point of this passage, but I couldn't let that go. All right?

All right. What you have here is what I told you about a minute ago, that you're going from the big picture of what God is doing through Elijah in the world, verse 1, and narrowing down really quickly into what God is doing in Elijah's heart. And God is going to teach Elijah one major lesson. One major lesson he has to teach to anybody that he uses.

You ready? Here it is. The lesson of complete dependence. The lesson of complete dependence.

And here's how he did it. Elijah was a man, like any man, who had always taken care of himself. He'd gotten a job, he'd earned some money, he'd spent that money to take care of his needs. But then God takes that ability away from him and puts him in a place where Elijah has to depend on the special provision of God for the food that he eats and even the water that he drinks. Elijah, functionally speaking, is like a baby.

I mean, a baby is totally dependent on the parent to give it the food and water. That's what Elijah, a grown man, has been reduced to. The ravens bring him food and the water brings him something to drink. The brook that God placed him by was called the brook-cheriff. Cheriff in Hebrew literally means to cut down.

In other words, God is saying to Elijah, Elijah, I'm going to cut you down. I'm going to remove from you any strength you have in yourself. I'm even going to remove the ability that you have to take care of your own most basic needs. And I'm going to teach you. I'm going to reduce you to the status of an infant and teach you to depend completely on me.

Write this down. Before God can use us, he must first break us. Before God can use us, he must first break us. And sometimes God does this to you and you can't figure out what he's doing, right? Sometimes God does this to you and you're like, I don't understand what you're doing, God, or why you would let this happen. You've been there.

Maybe some of you were there this morning. Somebody lets you down. A friend betrays you.

Your spouse. Maybe a father or mother lets you down. Something or someone that you've always depended on gets taken away. You lose a talent that you've always had. You lose a job. You get passed up for an opportunity that you believe that you should have. The school that you'd always plan on getting into, suddenly the door closes in front of your face and that opportunity that you thought was going to be yours, that was going to provide for your future is no longer open to you. And now you face the prospect of a future without that something or someone in it that you really thought would be there.

And it's a point of profound weakness and you're not quite sure what to do. God was doing this to Elijah as a way of preparing him to use him. In the same way, God is at work in those things in you, removing false idols and teaching you to depend totally on him.

The way A.W. Tozer said that is this, it is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until he has hurt him deeply. I know a lot of you life, I were like, hey, how many of you want to be used by God? How many want to be blessed by God? How many want to have God's power? And you're like, oh, sign me up.

You want to go down this path? It is doubtful whether God can actually use a man greatly or bless him greatly until he has hurt him very deeply. Craig Groeschel says that this story reminds him of the story of the little bird who got a late start flying south for winter because he got a late start. He got caught in a snowstorm. The snowstorm was so bad that his wings froze and so he had to make a crash landing. He's there, crash landed with his wings frozen, can't fly, thinks he's going to die when along by comes a cow who takes a dump on him. And he's like, no, this just went from bad to worse because now my wings are frozen and a cow just took a dump on me. But the manure warms his wings and they thaw and he realizes that he's going to be able to fly again.

So we get so happy about it, he begins to chirp and sing. Well, this attracts a cat who comes along and eats him. And there are three things that we can learn from this story. Number one, not everyone who drops manure on you is your enemy.

Lesson number two, not everyone who digs you out is your friend. Lesson number three, when you're in manure, sometimes it's helpful for you just to keep your little chirper shut, all right? You see, God, now I know some of you that is the only thing that you're going to remember from the sermon. You're like, what was the sermon about? I know some Old Testament, I don't know anything about the bird and the manure. God is at work in your disappointment and your pain, removing your idols, which is your false sources of trust and joy and hope, making you depend on him.

Write this down, write this down. If dependence is the objective, then weakness is an advantage. If dependence is the objective, then weakness is an advantage. Elijah's greatest enemy was not his weakness, it was his strength. And he's about to go into a battle where he's not going to have the strength to do it, so God first has to take him back to the brook Cherith to remove his most basic abilities, because there he'll learn to depend on God. And sometimes God makes you weak so that you can find your strength in him. Has this happened to you? Second Corinthians 12, 9, Paul says it this way, therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me.

How crazy is that statement? I will boast about my weaknesses. When's the last time you did that? Hey, let me tell you about my weaknesses.

Let me tell you things I stink at. I was thinking this week just about where I've seen this principle played out in my life and several things came to mind. One, the first one was when I was a missionary over in Southeast Asia. I'd been there for seven or eight months, and my roommate, who was also a good friend, this is going to raise more questions.

I don't have time to answer them. He developed this condition where he developed 103 kidney stones in his left kidney, and so obviously he had to be medevacked out. Well, that removed for me the only English speaker within 100 miles of where I lived, and I was by myself in that little city where I was for about four months. And looking back on it now, I realized very clearly that that marked a turning point in the effectiveness of anything I did in that region. God took what was a weakness.

He wounded me. He took a weakness, and he made it the strongest point of the ministry that I was a part of. I thought about my own ministry here in the United States over the last 20 years.

Veronica and I were talking about this the other night. There are a couple skills that I lack in ministry, but I've noticed that over the last 20 years that these skills that I lack, and because I've told God that since he called me in ministry, I've got to do this, but I'm really, I stink at this. God has always in every ministry I've been a part of supplied somebody who would come alongside me that was strong in that area. Sometimes it was a volunteer. Sometimes it was a friend. Sometimes it was another staff member, and I can tell you over 20 years that these areas that I'm the weakest at have been the strongest areas in the organizations that I lead.

Why? Because God takes a point of weakness, and God makes it a point of strength. Rejoicing in our weaknesses may not come easily, but what a gift and freedom. You're listening to Summit Life, and today was the first message in our new series called Something Better. So, Jadie, this month we have a devotional working through the ministries of Elijah and Elisha. Can you give us a brief intro for some of the topics that are covered in this new study we're offering to our faithful supporters?

Sure, Molly. Yeah, I loved, loved doing our kind of deep dive study on these two guys. The Something Better part of our study, we're going to see how Elijah confronted a religious environment, honestly, very much like our own. You know, just an era characterized by the attitude, you know, hey, you do it your way.

I'll do it mine. Elijah shows us that knowing the one true God is really the only way that you can have purpose in life, and it's the only one that makes sense. In the Something Greater portion, we go to the life of Elisha, his successor, and you see that the secret to Elisha's power here on earth was this fierce devotion to the God of heaven.

Both men are just characterized by no compromise, but they show you what that what that looks like. It's a great study about succession and about power and about faithfulness in the era that we're in. You'll walk through Scripture from 1 Kings 17 through 2 Kings 6. It's a real supplement to your Bible study and your time in the Word. We're excited about giving that to you. So learn more at jdguerre.com.

Just like God shaped Elijah to get him battle-ready, he wants to shape you to make you a mighty warrior for his kingdom. And this book will help you do just that. So we'd love for you to get a copy today. You can request our new Elijah and Elisha Devotional when you donate today to support this ministry at the suggested level of $35 or more. The book is just one way for us to say thanks for your support. Join the mission of Summit Life right now with your gift by calling 866-335-5220.

That's 866-335-5220, or it might be easier to give online at jdguerre.com. I'm Molly Vitovich. So glad to have you with us and be sure to join us tomorrow as we continue our new teaching series called Something Better. That's Wednesday on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.