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Days of Elijah #1: Prophetic Provision/Deliver (by Jeff Hartensveld) PDF Print E-mail
Written by Edhi Hartanto   
Sunday, 05 November 2006

Sermon

 
Series:  
These are the Days of Elijah


Part #1 Prophetic Provision / Deliver

How to keep eating when everyone else is starving?
Live Abundantly

What will the rest of the series look like?  

  • Prophetic Power / Domination
  1. How to Experience God’s Power?
  2. Live Powerfully
  3. TEXT: 1 Kings 18:1-40
  • Prophetic Paralysis / Depression
  1. How to get up when you’re feeling down?
  2. Live Happily
  3. TEXT: 1 Kings 19:1-18
  • Prophetic Passing / Death
  1. How to not die and still go to heaven?
  2. Just simply LIVE!
  3. TEXT: 2 Kings 2: 1-18
 
Intro #1

  • We live in a more predictable world than in the day of Elijah.
  • In today’s world we generally want to hear the good stuff. 1 Kings 22:6-9
  • Through Prophetic means, God often gives messages to us.
  • EX. The FOREX prophet.  
 
1 Kings 17:1-24

17:1 Elijah Fed by Ravens  

Now Elijah, who was from Tishbe in Gilead, told King Ahab, "As surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives—the God I serve—there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!"
2 Then the Lord said to Elijah, 3 "Go to the east and hide by Kerith Brook, near where it enters the Jordan River. 4 Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring you, for I have commanded them to bring you food."
5 So Elijah did as the Lord told him and camped beside Kerith Brook, east of the Jordan. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat each morning and evening, and he drank from the brook. 7 But after a while the brook dried up, for there was no rainfall anywhere in the land. 8 Then the Lord said to Elijah, 9 "Go and live in the village of Zarephath, near the city of Sidon. I have instructed a widow there to feed you."
10 So he went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the gates of the village, he saw a widow gathering sticks, and he asked her, "Would you please bring me a little water in a cup?" 11 As she was going to get it, he called to her, "Bring me a bite of bread, too."
12 But she said, "I swear by the Lord your God that I don't have a single piece of bread in the house. And I have only a handful of flour left in the jar and a little cooking oil in the bottom of the jug. I was just gathering a few sticks to cook this last meal, and then my son and I will die."
13 But Elijah said to her, "Don't be afraid! Go ahead and do just what you've said, but make a little bread for me first. Then use what's left to prepare a meal for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: There will always be flour and olive oil left in your containers until the time when the Lord sends rain and the crops grow again!"
15 So she did as Elijah said, and she and Elijah and her son continued to eat for many days. 16 There was always enough flour and olive oil left in the containers, just as the Lord had promised through Elijah.
17 Some time later the woman's son became sick. He grew worse and worse, and finally he died. 18 Then she said to Elijah, "O man of God, what have you done to me? Have you come here to point out my sins and kill my son?"
19 But Elijah replied, "Give me your son." And he took the child's body from her arms, carried him up the stairs to the room where he was staying, and laid the body on his bed. 20 Then Elijah cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, why have you brought tragedy to this widow who has opened her home to me, causing her son to die?"
21 And he stretched himself out over the child three times and cried out to the Lord, "O Lord my God, please let this child's life return to him." 22 The Lord heard Elijah's prayer, and the life of the child returned, and he revived! 23 Then Elijah brought him down from the upper room and gave him to his mother. "Look!" he said. "Your son is alive!"
24 Then the woman told Elijah, "Now I know for sure that you are a man of God, and that the Lord truly speaks through you."
 

Intro#2:

Who was Elijah?
  • He walks on the scene out of no where .
  • He predicts a catastrophe and then disappears.
  • He and others in this story are part of the economic poor.  

1. If you want to live in abundance you have to be listening for the voice of the Lord. 

  • It just says that God told him.
  • Make sure it is God’s voice and not your own.  
  • Many times the instructions aren’t complete.  
  • Whether you are in a time of economic abundance or lack remember that the voice of the Lord can help you.

 

2. If you want to live in abundance you have to be obedient 

  • Obedience to God was uncompromising for Elijah.
  1. He went in to the king and told the king something that wasn’t good.
  2. He went to the brook
  3. He went to Zerafath
  4. iv. If we want provision and abundance in times of drought we need to be obedient to what God tells us.
  • Obedience to God was above his own comfort.
  • Obedience to God was above his boredom.  


3. If you want to live in abundance realize that the source may come from unexpected places.

  • A Raven
  • A Widow
  • God loves to boggle our mind with where help comes from.
  • If you are in a place where you need God’s provision sit back first and say God direct me to your source.  

 

4. If you want to live in abundance think about others first. 

  • It was about the widow not about Elijah
  • Notice Elijah said make it for me first then there will be enough.  
  • We’d open up an oil distribution center…
  • If you are in need of something this morning I want you to think of the needs of someone else right now.

 

GO Questions

 ICE BREAKER:
1. Share your d-base about names of tukang ramal/orang pintar, etc, that you/your fam/friend ever consulted/ talked to.
2. Tell what she/he have said to u/ your fam/ your friend.
3. How then has happened in your/ your fam/ your friend's real life?

OPENING PRAYER:
Ask God's guidance for CLEAR MIND TO TRUST JESUS ONLY, AND ONLY 1.

DISCUSSION:
1. Create definition/s of ''VOICE OF THE LORD''
 

2. From those definitions, each member elaborates 1 definition to personal experience.

3. In general, which 1 is faster during your decision making process, choose a or b:
a. Your brain and emotion
b. God ?

4. Have you ever had experience when particularly you wait and wait..., trust and trust..., to let Jesus work during your decision making process?
4.a. If YES, when was it? And how it happened?
4.b. If NO, why? And what is your plan this evening? During closing prayer, dont forget to put it as your prayer request.

5. Throw thoughts about the meaning of ''LIVE IN ABUNDANCE'' that you like to have. Everyone please write down those thoughts on your papers.
5.a. Now, take a quiet time
5.b. Each of you just go through the list of the thoughts u have written.
5.c. Then now, think at your best, of a name that you know that you can pray for, that matching to 1 of the list on your paper.

Have a great evening. May God's blessing be upon you for your trust in Him, patience, and caring for others.

Tx
Ayda / GO Central
Last Updated ( Sunday, 05 November 2006 )
 
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