Even though God did something for us yesterday, over time we forget how good He is and how powerful He is. And that's why it's so great that God's compassion is fresh every morning. He's not just a yesterday God. He's not just a tomorrow God.
He's a right now God. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Just when it feels like God is about to sweep in and deliver you from your difficult circumstances, sometimes that's when things go from bad to worse. But that's not the end of the story, and today we'll revisit a message from Dr. Evans where he helped us see the possibilities we might have been missing, unchanging wisdom that still helps today.
Let's listen in as he begins in 1 Kings chapter 17. There's not too many of us who haven't felt like God made a mistake and we want to challenge it. Maybe we're too scared to say it, but we know what it is to feel it, to think it, and to even talk to other people about it. In fact, when something like this happens, you're too scared to feel too good about something nice that happened.
Because you get a little worried that something's gonna go wrong. It's not gonna be real or it's gonna be snatched back. And so you want to challenge the flag. Such is the case of our next experience with the prophet Elijah as we look at experiencing the supernatural. Now, this woman has a lot to shout about. I mean, she was down to her last meal, the prophet comes along, tells her what God says, she does what God says, and all of a sudden she's living large. All of a sudden, the last meal becomes an introduction to a whole bunch of meals because of the promises of God. That had to be an exciting house to be in to see that supernatural move of God.
But wouldn't you know it? Just when there's something to shout about, just when you want to get your praise on, just when you want to celebrate the goodness of God and the land of the living, we come to verse 17. In chapter 17, verse 17, it says, and it came about after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick and the sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. Well, there are a couple of observations here as we introduce this story. Observation number one is victory yesterday doesn't mean a new trial won't happen today. The fact that God came through yesterday doesn't mean I won't need him afresh on a new day. Another observation is trials often come in the very same area that victory was previously experienced because victory was experienced in saving the life of her son, and now her son, who was the subject of victory, is now the subject of defeat. So the very thing he gave me is what I'm now losing. And so this house of gladness becomes a home of sadness because the very thing that was delivered yesterday, I'm losing today. So she said to Elijah, verse 18, what do I have to do with you, oh man of God?
I hope you heard that. What do I have to do with you? Translation, I don't want nothing to do with you. What do I have to do with you? I don't want to, yeah, I know you're the preacher, I know you're the man of God, but I want nothing to do with you. You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death. You came here to ruin my life.
I want nothing to do with you. Implication, and I don't want your God either. How many people know people who don't go to church anymore, don't want God anymore, because their circumstances has died on them? Because if God was God, and God was real, and God was true, this wouldn't happen to me, especially in light of the miracle I saw the other day or the other week or however long it was when he fed me.
So here we have a dilemma, a dilemma we've all faced or no others who faced it. Elijah then takes over. Verse 19, he says to her, give me your son. Then he took him from her bosom and carried him up to the upper room where he was living and laid him on his own bed.
Mmm. We got a hurting mama here, and any mother in this situation is gonna be hurting. But we got a man of God here, and he says, give me your pain. Hand me your problem. He could have gone theological on him. He could have talked about the attributes of God. He could have talked about the perfections of his personhood. He could have talked about his sovereignty and how he can do what he wants when he wants. He could have talked about his omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence. He could have talked about God's veracity, mercy, grace.
He could have talked about his love and his truth. But he's dealing with a woman who's hurting and who's confused theologically and who's about to walk away from God and wants to put him out of the house. And he says, hand me your problem. What's the problem?
The problem is a dead son. Hand me the thing that's ruining your faith right now. He takes the boy upstairs, and he called to the Lord. Some version says he cried out. He prays a prayer. He calls to the Lord, Oh Lord, my God. Let me pause right there.
When you are doubting God and ready to quit on God, you need to have somebody who's still in touch with him. Oh Lord, my God. Okay? Okay. She ain't with you right now. She's not hanging with you right now. She's not buying you right now. She's not buying me right now, but I know who she is.
I'm in touch with you. And so I'm going to go to you on her behalf. I'm going to go to you when she can't right now, because her situation doesn't allow her to. Her faith is too weak.
She tore up from the floor up. And so I'm going to take her burden and I'm going to go to God. It's called intercession. I'm going to go to God for her because she's too weak to go to God on her own.
And there are not too many people here who have not been in a situation where you don't want to pray, don't feel like praying, think it's a waste of time to pray, don't believe God is listening to you because you're hurting too bad. But Elijah says, I know who you are. Oh Lord, my God, you have also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying by causing her son to die. And then he lays on top of the boy, he stretches his own body on top of the boy, bounces back, comes back a second time and lays on the boy, bounces back, comes back a third time, and lays on the boy.
Now, why? The number three in the Bible is used of restoration and resurrection. Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days, three nights, before he was restored back to dry land. Jesus Christ died three days, of course, and he was resurrected.
So what you have in the number three is restoration and resurrection. He lays on the boy because we're dealing with, watch this, a dead situation. That means a situation that has no life of its own and that no human being could resolve because the thing has totally collapsed. He has no breath. He has no life left in him. That means he needs restoration or even stronger. He needs resurrection. Why does he place his body on the boy in order for this to occur?
Let me translate. Lord, he needs life. He needs breath. I'm gonna lay my life on top of his death and I give you permission to suck my breath from me and exchange it and pour my life into his life so that he can piggyback on my life because he has no life of its own. God is looking for people who will talk to heaven and stretch out on earth, who will reach to glory but also be usable in history. So he reaches up in prayer but then he stretches out in sharing his life for the life of the boy who was lost.
So here's our situation. He stretches out. It reminds me of 2 Kings, chapter 19. Sennacherib has threatened Israel and Hezekiah and said, we're gonna destroy you like we've destroyed the other nations. He sent a letter. Hezekiah opened the letter, read the threat, Hezekiah went to the temple in verse 14 of chapter 19 of 2 Kings. He goes to the temple and he said, and he spread out the letter before the Lord. He said, God, read this. Read this.
Sennacherib is threatening me and I am scared. I am terrified. So I need you to address him.
He let God read the problem himself. He stretched out the letter. Have you ever stretched out a bill before the Lord? They're threatening to take my house. They're threatening to repo my car.
They're threatening to ruin my life. God, read what these bill collectors are saying to me. He stretched it out before the Lord. And so when he did this, something happened.
Oh, this is gonna get good here. It says, he stretched out three times and he called to the Lord and said, oh Lord, my God, I pray you let this child's life return to him. Now that's not what you call a small request. Okay, this is not, this is not now I lay me down to sleep, pray the Lord my soul to keep, and if I die before I wake, pray the Lord my soul to take. That's not, it's not now Lord bless this food to my body in Jesus' name, amen. No, no, no, because you don't really know how to pray until something has died on you, until a hope has died, a dream has died. You don't know because now you cry out to God. Now it's a prayer from the heart, not repeating something you said 50 times or throughout your lifetime or throughout your week. He cries out to the Lord and he's very specific.
He said, let this life be returned. We'll learn about the result of that prayer and what it means for us when we return to this classic message from Dr. Evans in just a moment. But first, I want to tell you about our featured resource, the complete six-part sermon series on the prophet Elijah. If you grew up in the church, this special package is full of familiar stories you've heard in Sunday school. But even if you didn't, it's packed with some powerful grown-up lessons on how God provides for our needs, how to live a life full of meaning, how to beat the fears and anxiety that attack us along the way, and much more. If you contact us within the next few days, we'd like to send you all six full-length lessons in the Elijah series on CD or digital download as our gift. All we ask is that you make a donation to help us keep this ministry coming to this station and others like it around the world. Visit tonyevans.org today, make a contribution, and request your copy of the Elijah series or give our resource center a call at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our friendly team members help with your request.
That's 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that information after part two of today's lesson. Let's get back to the teaching. Verse 22, the Lord heard the voice of Elijah and the life of the child returned to him and he was revived.
Okay. She piggybacked off of the spirituality of somebody else because this is spirituality she didn't have right then. She piggybacked off of Elijah's spirituality and it says at the end of verse 22, the child's life returned. We read earlier, God took him. We read now, God gave him back. So what you just read was God reversing a decision.
Stay with me now theologically. God took him, God gave him back. In between taking him and giving him back was a prayer and a stretch. The prayer and the stretch caused God to hear and reverse a previous decision to take him. So God reverses the call.
So let me tell you something. I want you to try God at a whole nother level for the supernatural. I want you to see God reverse a call in your life. Something that it looked like he said no to, something like it looked like it could never be fixed, something that looked like it could never be changed, and because there was the right person calling on God and stretching out on the need, God reconsidered and reversed his decision. Now, you will find this throughout Scripture.
For example, in Exodus chapter 32, Moses lays out a prayer. Verse 11, when Moses entreated the Lord, his God, and said, O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians speak saying with evil intent he brought them out to kill them in the mountain and to destroy them from the face of the earth? Turn from your burning anger and change your mind about doing harm to your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, your servant to whom you swore by yourself and said to them, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the land of which I have spoken.
I will give it to your descendants and they shall inherit it forever. So the Lord changed his mind about the harm which he said he would do to his people. Okay, let me tell you something. You can change God's mind.
Now, I know what you're saying. The Bible says God changes not. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But you just read that Moses got God to change his mind. Elijah got God to change his mind.
Jonah got God to change his mind about the destruction of Enola. You will find God regularly changing his mind. Well, how can a changeless God change his mind? Well, the way a changeless God can change his mind is that you are now appealing to another part of his nature. If you're looking at this part of his nature, like looking at the sun at night, if you change locations, then you will be on the other side of the sun, appealing to another part of his nature.
So it's not that the sun has changed, it's that your rotation around it has changed. So now you are appealing to another point of his nature. God, you've got the right to destroy them, but I remember what you said in Genesis. You said in Genesis, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that you are going to keep your covenant. So while your wrath is just on this side, I'm going to spin around a little bit and come to another location of where you are so that I'm now facing the son of your grace, the son of your forgiveness. That's why repentance is so important, because repentance means to change your mind in order to reverse your direction. So when I disobeyed God and now his just wrath or justice comes against me, but I don't want it anymore, I do an earth rotation, and I kind of rotate myself around to another location in order now to sit in front of his grace and mercy, because I have repented of my sins, and now the changeless God changes his mind because I've relocated my position.
So you can get the changeless God to change his mind when you are in right relationship. She couldn't pray that way because she was too conscious of her sin. She got Elijah to pray and do a rotation for. Girl needs the miracle, Elijah doesn't need the miracle, but the way she gets the miracle is through somebody else who could access it for.
So everybody in here should be one of two people. You should be a widow that is a person in a need, or you should be an Elijah, somebody God can use to meet a need. Because one day, if you're an Elijah, you gonna be a widow, and one day when God comes through, you may be a widow, but he turns you into an Elijah.
He can use you for somebody now, because somebody's gonna need to be used for you later when your world collapses. But it's not over yet, because in verse 24, it says, then the woman said to Elijah, now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in your mouth is truth. Wait a minute now, a few verses ago, she called him a man of God. She identified him as a man of God, but she identified him as a man of God while being mad at God and telling him to get out of house. So she recognizes his position, but she says, now I know.
Okay, watch this now. If she is only knowing that now, that means she did not know it before, because she says, I know now that you are for real. But wait a minute, didn't you just have a miracle when God fed you? How come you didn't know it then, when God fed you and you ran out of food? What do you mean you know it now after God came through for you a long time ago? What do you mean you know it now after God fed you when you didn't have any food? What do you mean you know it now after God gave you a job, put food in your stomach, gave you a raise?
What do you mean you know it now? Something happens in our lives, even though God did something for us yesterday. Over time, we forget how good he is. So guess what God does? He lets something die to remind us that he's a right now God. He's not just a yesterday God. He's not just a tomorrow God. He's a right now God. So he puts you in a situation where you need him right now. He puts you in a situation to remind you that the God who came through yesterday hadn't died on you, hadn't gone to sleep on you.
He lets things die. If you're missing something in your life and are ready to ask for God's help, the place to start is by having a personal relationship with him through Jesus Christ. If you're not sure what that means, we'd love to help you cut through the confusion by explaining it in clear, simple terms. Just visit tonyevans.org and follow the link at the top of the home page that says Jesus.
You'll find everything you need to know, including some free resources to help you. Again, that's tonyevans.org. And while you're there, look into requesting our current teaching series on the prophet Elijah, available as our thank you gift when you make a contribution in support of this ministry. If you'd rather call to take advantage of this offer, our friendly resource team members are available 24-7 to help you do that at 1-800-800-3222.
That's 1-800-800-3222. Or again, visit us online at tonyevans.org. Many people who say they trust in God also put their trust in a lot of other things. Tomorrow, though, we'll learn why anything short of total commitment to Christ simply falls short. Right now, let's listen to how Dr. Evans wrapped up today's message. Loved ones brought back to life. Guess who he's talking about? He's talking about this woman.
But wait a minute, it gets sweeter than that. When Elijah raises up this boy, there had never been a resurrection in the Bible before 1 Kings 17. 1 Kings 17 is the first resurrection in the Bible.
Now, why am I telling you that? That means that Elijah couldn't look back and see where God had done it before. He couldn't look back and find a testimony of somebody God had raised from the dead and say because he did it then, he can do it now.
He didn't look back and find a reference point for resurrection. So I love that because even though your situation is unique, even though you can't point to anybody who's been where you are, God may want to use you to be the first person He does something special with. He does something new for. He does something supernatural for. He wants to use you to be the first in a line of miracles. So either be an Elijah or be a widow, but hook up so we can see the supernatural because He says in Hebrews what He did in the Old Testament, He's good for today.
