This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you back to day three of week three of our Look Through First
and Second Kings. We're in 1 Kings 17 today, and as we turn to that chapter,
we're turning to the life of Elijah. We've sort of skipped past quickly chapters
15 to 16, which is a list of kings, some who served well, some who did not serve
so well.

At the end of that list of kings, we come to a king who is named Ahab, a
terrible king, and a prophet is needed in Israel because of this terrible king.
And so Elijah comes on the scene. And the significant thing about Elijah, well,
James in the New Testament tells us the significant thing about Elijah.

James 5 17 says, "Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it
would not rain, and it didn't rain on the land for three and a half years. " The
significant thing to me about Elijah is he was just like us.

He's just like you, just like me, but God used him in incredibly significant
ways. He lived this life of awesome miracles, of powerful actions, but he's just
like us. If he is just like us, then we can be just like him.

We can have his kind of faith. But if I'm to learn to have Elijah's kind of
faith, I've got to understand that it revolves around this idea of servanthood.
Elijah was a significant servant.

He's one of the most significant servants that ever lived. How do you live the
most significant life possible? Significance, lasting significance is
characterized by Elijah.

And the truth is you serve your way into significance. That's where significance
comes from. You can get power on your own.

You can get importance on your own. But if you're going to live a significant
life, a life that lasts for generations, the influence of that life, and all the
way into eternity, it only comes through serving others. We serve our way into
significance.

How do the words "significant" and "servant" go together? Elijah shows us how.
And this week, at the end of this week and into next week, we're going to be
looking at these lessons for significant servants from Elijah.

And they all revolve really around these different places that he learned these
lessons. At the Kirath Ravine and at a place called Zarephath, Elijah learns the
lesson that God is willing and able to meet all my needs. That's a lesson
significant servants have to learn.

At Mount Carmel, he learns the lesson that personal faith always demands
personal risk. If you're going to serve God in significant ways, you've got to
learn that lesson. At Horeb, the mountain of God, he learns that outer victories
mean nothing if I don't win the inner battle.

And then at the Jordan, he learns I have to pass my ministry on to others. If
you're going to serve in significant ways, you can't hold on to it. You've got
to pass it on.

Those are the four lessons we're going to look at at the end of this week and
into next week. How do I serve God in a significant way? Lesson number one is
God is willing and able to meet all of my needs.

Significant servants make that confidence the launching plan of their lives, of
their ministries. God is able and willing. God is able.

He has the power to do it. He is willing. He has the love to do it.

Now, in chapter 17, which we're looking at together, it occurs right after
Elijah shares that it will not rain except at his word. He puts that commitment
to the test, tells Ahab this is what's going to happen. He puts his life on the
line.

And God immediately teaches a lesson about how willing he is to meet Elijah's
needs. And God takes him through this process of reminding him even as there is
a lack in the land that God is able to meet our needs. It's interesting, this
process that God takes Elijah through.

You see this process, this same process that God takes people through again and
again and again in Scripture. It's the same process as he took Gideon through in
the book of Judges. It's the same process as Jesus took his disciples through in
the feeding of the 5,000.

How does God teach us to depend on him for needs, for the basic needs of our
lives? Here's the process. Number one, first thing that God does in this process
is he reduces life to its basics.

He starts by showing you just the basics, how little you have. If you're going
to trust the greatness of God, it's an interesting thing. You have to start with
how little we really have.

So in chapter 17, verses 1 to 6, "Now Elijah the Tishbite," from Tishbi in
Gilead, said to Ahab, "As the Lord the God of Israel lives whom I serve, there
will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word. " And then
the word of the Lord came to Elijah, "Leave here, and turn eastward, and hide in
the Kereth ravine east of the Jordan. You will drink from the brook, and I have
ordered the ravens to feed you there.

" So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kereth ravine east of the
Jordan, and he stayed there. And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the
morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

Elijah had life down to the basics. The water that the brook sent, the food that
the ravens brought, all at the command of the Lord, he was depending on God. God
was reminding him, "You are depending on me alone for the meeting of your needs.

" He reduced life to the basics. The basics, I mean, it's a place of complete
and total dependence on God. And the truth is, I'm always completely and totally
dependent on God, but I don't always recognize it.

The further away I get from the brook and the ravens, I can start to trust the
paycheck that I'm earning rather than realizing, "With that paycheck, I'm just
buying food that God grew. I'm just paying for things that God made. I didn't
make any of those things.

" And God takes Elijah to this place where he has to recognize, "God's bringing
me these things. " God will often in your life bring you to places of
dependence, having to depend on him, recognizing you don't have anything without
depending on him. This the same has happened with the feeding of the 5,000,
where they had to recognize, "We just got five loaves and two fish.

We don't have enough. We have to depend completely on him. " This happens with
physical resources.

It also happens with your emotional strength. It just seems like you don't have
the emotional strength to do what you have to do. It also happens with your
spiritual strength.

When you feel like God is so far away, how are you going to get in touch with
him again? Why does God allow us to be put in such places? Why does God put us
in such places?

God reduces by life, your life to the basics to help us to refocus on God. He
allows this to happen in your life so that you can recognize again just how
dependent on God you really are. You're not dependent on your paycheck or the
grocery store or the microwave oven or the fast food restaurant or the credit
card to supply your needs.

You're depending on God. That's interesting how God uses ravens to bring food.
Sometimes God supplies our needs in ways that we would least expect.

I wouldn't expect ravens to bring bread and meat every morning, but they did.
That's how God decided to do it. God can provide for you in ways that go beyond
your narrow expectations.

So when you and I think about God providing our needs, one of the things we have
to do in our minds sometimes is reduce life to its basics and to remind
ourselves that we're dependent on God alone. Let's do that right now. I want to
pray as we walk through this life of Elijah.

I want to pray at the end of each of these days a servant's prayer. Would you
join me in this servant's prayer and just say to God, "God, everything in my
life is there because you bring it to me. I am totally dependent on you for
everything.

Every drink of water, every bite of food, every breath that I take, I'm
dependent on you. I recognize that I depend only on you. I am your servant.

In Jesus' name, amen. " Tomorrow we're going to learn some more lessons about
depending on God from the sermon of Elijah.