From His Heart

Larry Nobles: What do you do when you feel that you're in the middle of God's will but His power seems to have disappeared? The bottom drops out. How are you supposed to handle it when your brook runs dry?

This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. Thank you for joining us today. This month, we're in his series, Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah the Prophet. It's about us all being bold witnesses for Jesus even in the dry times of life. We can be that witness when we learn to trust and obey like the Old Testament prophet Elijah did so faithfully. He saw God work miracles through his dry brook, and you can too. Let's get started as we continue this important and timely lesson from From His Heart today. Open your Bible to 1 Kings chapter 17.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: What do you do when your brook runs dry? That's what happened to Elijah in 1 Kings chapter 17. If you remember, Elijah is somewhat of a mountain man from a little place called Tishbe on the other side of the Jordan River. He has a heart for God, and God calls him to confront wicked King Ahab and his wicked wife Jezebel. They are turning Israel into a place of Baal worship.

Elijah, whose name means "the Lord is my God," comes and confronts Ahab and says, "There's not going to be any rain. I stand before the Lord who is God. There's not going to be any rain on the land except by my word." And it didn't rain for three and a half years. God took Elijah after he confronted Ahab. Ahab is worshipping Baal. Baal is the god of fertility, the god of rain. God goes right after their false god and says, "I'm going to show you who God is."

After Elijah confronted Ahab, the Lord tells him, "Go to the brook Cherith, which is on the other side of the Jordan River, which is not that far from Tishbe where he was from. Go there, hide yourself there, and I will command the ravens to provide for you." Verse 6 says the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook. It happened after a while that the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land.

Larry Nobles: Part of that is like, well, that's going to happen because there's no rain. Elijah, that was what you told him, and so that's your prayer. But now that's hitting you, and your brook dried up. What do you do when your brook dries up, when you're where God wants you to be, but there's no water?

Dr. Jeff Schreve: I want to give you a threefold action plan because all of us, if we live long enough and walk with God long enough, we're going to find ourselves in a situation where the brook dries up. Then we ask ourselves, "What do I do now?"

Threefold action plan for when your brook dries up: Part one, you remind yourself that God has not forgotten you. When the brook dries up, that's when the devil moves in. The devil will whisper in your ear and say, "You're following God, you're serving God, you're going where God wants you to go. Well, look at this. There is no water for you. The brook has dried up. Maybe you misunderstood God. Maybe you didn't really understand what He told you to do. Maybe you're in the wrong place because how are you going to survive if there is no water?"

The devil moves in when the brook dries up. Very first point of the threefold action plan: You remind yourself that God has not forgotten you. Secondly, you wait for God to show you the next step. So here's Elijah: "Lord, I'm here. I'm at the brook Cherith. You told me to be here. Lord, it's been awesome because the ravens—those dirty birds, those scavenger birds—they've been coming and they've been dropping food morning and evening, and I've been drinking by the brook. But God, now the brook has dried up. Lord, unless the ravens start bringing water jugs, I'm in trouble here. I can't make it here. So what do You want me to do? What am I supposed to do now?"

Let me tell you, when you are in that situation and your brook dries up, let me tell you the first thing you don't do. You don't take matters into your own hands and say, "Well, okay, I know how to solve this problem." You wait for God to direct your path. You don't take matters into your own hands. Do what Elijah did: Stay put and stay attentive until God brings new orders. There's nothing going on here, Lord. The brook has dried up. And he waited until verse 8 when the word of the Lord came to him, saying, "Arise and go to Zarephath." He waited there.

He stayed put and he stayed attentive. His eyes were on the Lord, and he waited for God to give him instructions. When God chooses to move in His time, when He has everything ready, He moves quickly. When we say, "Well, it's been so long since the Lord said He was going to come again, and it's been 2,000 years since Jesus died and rose again, and where's the promise of His coming?"

When the Lord comes back, the scripture says, "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump." That fast. It's quicker than a blink of the eye. That's when the Lord comes. From our perspective, He moves slowly, but when God moves, it is rapid. And so we have to wait for the Lord. We stay put and we stay attentive until God brings new orders.

The last thing that God told Elijah was "Go to the brook Cherith and I'll provide for you. I've commanded ravens to provide for you and you can drink of the brook." So he had to stay there until there were new orders. How did he stay there? I think he did what Jehoshaphat did when Jehoshaphat had the armies coming against him. Three armies banded together and they were coming against him, and they were very close to Jerusalem. They were just outside in Engedi about 20 miles or so away.

They said, "What are you going to do, King Jehoshaphat?" He didn't know what to do. So he fasted and he prayed. In his prayer, he said this: "O God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us, nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You. Our eyes are on You. We're waiting on You to do something, God, and we're looking to You. We're attentive to You, and we're saying, 'God, we look to You until You shall be gracious.'"

Larry Nobles: What do you do when your brook runs dry? Well, you remind yourself that God hasn't forgotten you. You wait for God to show up to show you the next step. And then thirdly, you obey the Lord even if it's hard and makes no sense.

Even if it's hard and it makes no sense. Verse 8: "Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 'Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and stay there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.'" So he arose and went to Zarephath. Zarephath. Where is that? Zarephath is way up north. I'll give you a picture of Elijah's journey.

He's at the brook Cherith, which is near Tishbe. So he's a little bit north of Tishbe when he was at the brook Cherith on the other side of the Jordan River. He goes way up past the Sea of Galilee into Phoenician land into the land of the Sidonians called Zarephath. It's right on the coast of the Mediterranean. They worship Baal at Zarephath. Do you know who the king of that region is? A man named Ethbaal. He's Jezebel's daddy. He's the king of the Sidonians. God says, "Go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon," so Ethbaal is in charge in there. "Go there. I've commanded a widow there to provide for you."

Zarephath—it's like, "God, why do You want me to go there? I don't want to go there. God, that's a long way, the Lord." It's about an 85-mile journey to Zarephath. "Lord, there are no believers there in Zarephath. I need to be making a difference with the Jews who are going south, to talk to them about Jehovah God. The Lord is my God. I need to talk to them because they're like me. If I go way up north, there are a lot of people not like me there. I'm a Jew and they're Gentiles, and I don't think that's going to work very well." God says "Go" and he went.

I want you to think about Zarephath because there's a Zarephath for you and a Zarephath for me. Zarephath is a necessary part of your spiritual growth. You know what the word "Zarephath" means? It means refinery. It comes from a root which means to purge away, to melt, to refine. There was probably some kind of smelting furnace there in Zarephath, and that's why they named it that. But God is taking him there to purge him, to prepare him for his ministry that's going to have huge implications in just the next chapter in 1 Kings chapter 18.

But he can't stand on Mount Carmel against all the prophets of Baal until he spends some time in Zarephath for God to refine him, for God to put him through the fire, so to speak. The scripture says in Malachi chapter 3: "And He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness." God is purifying Elijah at Zarephath.

Pastor Jeff will elaborate a bit more on this in just a moment. But first, are you a bold witness for Christ in the good times and in the bad times? So many people today live the same way as the people did in Elijah's day. They're riding the fence of indecision and compromise. But listen, it is time to get off the fence. It's time to stand up and step up to the responsibility to have holy boldness in your life.

Today's message from Pastor Jeff Schreve is called "When the Brook Runs Dry." It's one of eight in the series, Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah the Prophet of Fire. This powerful series is our special thank you gift for your support to From His Heart this month of any amount. It's only through the monthly support of our faithful listeners like you that we're able to be here each and every day. Pastor Jeff is our chief volunteer.

To join us in supporting this outreach and get the Holy Boldness series along with the booklet, Unveiling the Mystery of Prayer, simply call 866-40-BIBLE, 866-40-BIBLE, or go to FromHisHeart.org. We'll send you the series in the format of your choice: CDs, DVDs, MP3 download, or on a USB flash drive. And we'll also send you his booklet, Unveiling the Mystery of Prayer. God bless you for having the vision to join us in this impactful outreach in your hometown and around the world. Now, here again is Pastor Jeff.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: You know, when I went to seminary in North Carolina and left everything familiar to go there, that was Zarephath for Debbie and me. That was a place for us to be purified and refined, for God to skim off all the scum and the dross and the slag and junk in my life, the impurities. He would heat me up and start scraping those off. You know, when I told my pastor that all I could think of was Job 2:9, "Curse God and die," he laughed, and I was obviously joking. But there was a part of me that said, "God, I don't understand this and I don't like this."

The Lord spoke to me during that time in those first six months, and He said, "Jeff, if I want you here in North Carolina not preaching, not teaching, not getting to do anything, just being a learner, don't you think that should be okay with you? I am in charge of this whole shebang." He said, "Will you just be soft clay in My hands and let Me do what I want to do?" And I said, "Yes, Lord."

As I've told you before, I learned in seminary a lesson that I have to go back to over and over and over and over again, and the lesson is this: My only real job in life is to please God. That's my only job. Whether He wants me to be on the shelf for a while, just learning, or whether He wants me out front preaching, or whatever He wants me to do, my job is just to be soft clay in the hands of the Master and to please Him.

The Lord taught me lessons in Zarephath, in North Carolina, which was my Zarephath, that I never would have learned anywhere else. God will take you there to teach you and to burn away the dross from your life. In Elijah's life, he had to burn away the fear. He's going to Zarephath. Zarephath is where Ethbaal is in charge. That's Jezebel's daddy. I don't want to be anywhere around somebody that knows Jezebel, that could tell Jezebel and Ahab where I am because Jezebel and Ahab want to kill me.

So he goes to Zarephath. God's going to burn away the fear. He goes to Zarephath and he is going to have a difficult journey in Zarephath. He's got to spend a long time in Zarephath. You've got to remember something about Elijah. It's three and a half years before it rained. So God has hidden him at the brook Cherith for an unspecified amount of time, and then he's at Zarephath for an unspecified amount of time. But both of those times together equal three and a half years.

So maybe he was at the brook Cherith for a year, and then he's two and a half years in Zarephath. It's a long time. And the Lord is burning that stuff out of his life. He's burning off the ease and the comfort because he spends a long time in a Gentile land, and that's hard for a Jew to do that. It's hard to get there because it's an 85-mile journey. For many of us, God needs to burn away this strong desire we have for ease and comfort. Everything just easy, easy, easy. Christian life is not designed to be easy, and God has to burn that away, all that selfishness.

Then burn away the pride. He's getting a widow. God says, "I have a widow appointed and I've commanded her to provide for you." Now, I can just imagine Elijah as he's making his way to Zarephath. He's thinking, "You know, God's a good God, God's a big God, He does exceeding abundantly beyond all we ask or think. And He says, 'I wonder that widow's probably wealthy.' I mean, she's probably somebody that can really provide for me and it's going to be wonderful there in Zarephath because God is going to provide for me in a big way."

Verse 10: "So he arose and went to Zarephath, and when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, 'Please get me a little water in a jar that I may drink.' And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, 'Please bring me a piece of bread in your hand.'" And she said, "As the Lord your God lives, I have no bread, only a handful of flour in the bowl and a little oil in the jar. And behold, I am gathering a few sticks that I may go in and prepare for me and my son, that we may eat it and die."

Well, I guess that's not the rich widow I was hoping for. I mean, she's got nothing. She's got next to nothing. I mean, just there's nothing there. She's got a handful of flour and a little bit of oil, and she's getting ready to prepare the last supper, which is going to be meager, and then she's going to die. This is the person that God has put to be the one who's going to provide for me. God is going to burn out his pride so that he trusts in the Lord and so he's a humble man of God.

It's interesting, it's in Zarephath where Elijah is called a man of God. He's called Elijah the Tishbite in 1 Kings 17:1, but in 1 Kings 17:24, when he raises this widow's son from the dead, 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 true." God made a man of God in Zarephath, and God wants to do that through your Zarephath, too. It's a necessary part of your spiritual growth. And Zarephath teaches you that miracles happen when you obey.

"Hey, here's the lady that's to provide for me. She can't provide for herself. She's getting ready to eat and die of starvation." And so what does Elijah do? He said to her in verse 13, "Do not fear. Go do as you have said. But make me a little bread cake from it first and bring it out to me, and afterward you may make one for yourself and for your son. For thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'The bowl of flour shall not be exhausted, nor shall the jar of oil be emptied, until the day that the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth.'"

So she went and did according to the word of Elijah. And she and he and her household ate for many days. The bowl of flour was not exhausted, nor did the jar of oil become empty, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke through Elijah. You know who this woman is, this widow? She's a picture of the New Testament widow who gave her two small copper coins and put those in the offering plate. It's all she had to live on. This woman, she takes all she had to live on and she said, "Okay, the man of God told me to bake him a cake first."

Well, that doesn't make sense to me because we're starving to death. There's not much for me and my son, much less add another guy to the mix. But she gave him his cake first, and then just with the little that was left, she made something for her and her son. And the word of the Lord came true that says, "Your little handful of flour, that's going to last for two and a half years. Your little bit of oil is going to last for two and a half years."

Do you remember when Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish, the little kid's lunch, and He fed the multitudes? That's a similar kind of miracle. She could have fed the whole town because that little handful of flour and that little bit of oil was never going to run out until God brought rain on the earth, and that was going to be in two and a half years or so. Zarephath teaches you that miracles happen when you obey. If she had said, "No, I'm not going to do that because that doesn't make sense," then she would have missed out. God would have provided for Elijah another way, but she would have missed out.

Listen, when you and I have the word of God and God makes it clear we are to do this, and we say, "Well, Lord, I don't think that's right. I don't think that's going to work that way. I don't want to do it that way." God says, "I am God. If you want to see Me work in your life, you have to obey Me." In the Gospel of Luke chapter 17, there's the story told of the ten lepers. Jesus sees these ten lepers and they're standing at a distance because they're lepers and they can't come near Him. They can't come near anybody. Why? Because they're unclean, unclean.

And they cry out from a distance and they say, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." And Jesus says to them, "Go show yourselves to the priests." Well, you showed yourself to the priest when you were cleansed of leprosy. You say, "I'm cleansed of leprosy. I'm going to go show myself to the priest." That's what they were supposed to do. But Jesus said to them, "Go show yourselves to the priest." They say, "Well, we're lepers. Why don't You heal us, cleanse us from the leprosy, and then we'll go show ourselves to the priest?" He said, "No, go show yourselves to the priest." "Well, we can't go now, Lord, because we have leprosy." "Go show yourselves to the priest." And the Bible says as they were going, they were cleansed. God doesn't work until you first take a step of faith.

Do you remember the old commercial, the forestry commercial? I can still remember it, watching TV when I was a little kid, eight or nine years old, watching it. All of a sudden, Yogi Bear comes on. He looks into the screen, points his finger, and says, "Only you can prevent forest fires." It's a lot of pressure to put on an eight-year-old. I'm in charge of all the forest fires. Only I can prevent forest fires.

Listen, the Lord looks at you and He says, "Miracles start with you. They start with you obeying Me." As Jesus said to Martha at the tomb of Lazarus, "Roll away the stone." "Lord, we don't want to roll away the stone. He stinks. It's been four days." "Did I not say to you, if you believe you will see the glory of God? Roll away the stone." Jesus wasn't going to roll away the stone. God will not do what you can do, and you cannot do what He can do. And He's waiting on you to obey Him. And when that woman obeyed Him, bam! There was a miracle. And that miracle fed her for months and months and months and months and provided for Elijah.

What do you do when your brook runs dry? You remind yourself that God hasn't forgotten you. You wait for God to show you the next step, and you obey the Lord even if it's hard and even if it doesn't make sense. The song says this: "Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."

Larry Nobles: Today's message from Pastor Jeff is called "When the Brook Runs Dry." We heard part two today, and it's from the eight-lesson series, Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah the Prophet of Fire. This powerful series is our special gift of thanks to you for your support to From His Heart this month of any amount. And it's only through the monthly support of our faithful listeners like you that we're able to be here each and every day.

To provide support for this outreach and get the Holy Boldness series along with the booklet, Unveiling the Mystery of Prayer, simply call 866-40-BIBLE and make that gift of any amount, or go to FromHisHeart.org and we'll send you the series and the booklet. God bless you for having the vision to join with us in this impactful outreach to your hometown and around the world.

Thank you too for joining us today on From His Heart. I'm Larry Nobles, and we trust that you'll be here next time for the next message in Pastor Jeff's Holy Boldness series. Join us then for the lesson "The Super Bowl at Mount Carmel." That's when Pastor Jeff will share real truth, real love, and real hope from God's heart, here on From His Heart.